

Being able to tell when one of their devices was manufactured was a good clue about what part you needed without having to open the device. I assume this is because Apple sees that right to repair laws have a chance of passing.

Yes, that does sound pretty likely, doesn't it?Īnd here was me, seriously considering a MacBook Air. But we can give you a discount on a new shiny one!". "Sorry madam, the repair for this will be 5,000 dollars. Perhaps the thrust is to make it prohibitively expensive to repair apple gear. Apple products are staggeringly profitable, why oppress the follow on market? How much money do you make repairing things anyway? I don't understand why they need to be so greedy. Other companies did the same - remember when every charger was custom? Anybody want to take bets on that being done?Īpple have played similar tricks with cables for decades, but have finally come into sanity with USB-C, though doubtless they'll think of something. If you can't figure out what version something is, how will you get the right part? Of course they could obviate this by making a serial number lookup publicly available. They are trying to entirely shutdown the independent repair shops - you know, the ones that can replace a screen during your lunch hour, as opposed to Apples however long (at however much). Like many things Apple does, this appears to be motivated solely by greed. That's the way it worked for the (non-Apple) products I serviced during my time as an electronic bench tech (we repaired mostly stereo and musical equipment but warranty repair policies are fairly similar overall).īy the way, Apple has never been one of those "Sorry! One day out of warranty sucks I ASSUME they probably just looked at the s/n before, and if the date info suggested the unit was close to being out of warranty, they likely checked with Apple to see if the unit was actually still in Warranty. If they are parsing the current serial number for that information then their lookup site will no longer work once the new serial number structure is implemented. If they are going directly to Apple to get this information then things probably won't change.

It saves them as metric buttload of support calls.īut do the third party sites currently get this information directly from Apple or do they parse the current serial number structure to determine date of manufacture and then use that date to determine if the warranty has expired?

There is absolutely no reason why Apple would change that.
Apple mac serial number lookup free#
The only thing the current Check Serial Number page does is tell you whether free phone support has expired and whether the warranty has expired. Apple hasn't explained the reasons for the change, but the new format will effectively make it impossible to view details about when and where a device is manufactured. Apple initially planned to transition to the new serial number format in late 2020, but delayed. The last four characters currently serve as a "configuration code," revealing a device's model, color, and storage capacity. Apple's current serial number format has long allowed both customers and service providers to determine the date and location that a product was manufactured, with the first three characters representing the manufacturing location and the following two indicating the year and week of manufacture.
Apple mac serial number lookup serial numbers#
The new serial numbers will initially be 10 characters, the company indicated. Apple said the serial number format transition is scheduled for "early 2021," and confirmed that IMEI numbers will not be affected by this change.Īny currently shipping Apple products will continue to use the current serial number format, while future products will use the new format, according to Apple. In an internal AppleCare email this week, obtained by MacRumors, Apple said the new serial number format will consist of a randomized alphanumeric string of 8-14 characters that will no longer include manufacturing information or a configuration code. An anonymous reader quotes a report from MacRumors: Apple will soon be making a significant change to its serial number format for future products that will see some key information stripped out.
