How do you decipher an Apple device model, from a serial number manually?

[nineniner]

usually, people just say “go to the Apple website and enter a serial there, it will then tell you the device model”, but obviously there is data in the serial itself that gives a model. Two ways I know this are 1) websites like “everymac” can tell you the model of a device by its serial, and 2) clover can generate a serial that corresponds to a specific model (ie if you choose a specific model, say a 13 inch mod 2014 MacBook Pro as your model, it will make a serial that would match such a model). I can’t find a website that breaks down how to read a serial, other than “the first 2 characters tell you where it was manufactured, and the 4th and 5th characters tell you the date it was manufactured”. How do I tell if it’s an imac, vs a 15” MacBook Pro, etc?

 

[UtterDisbelief]

usually, people just say “go to the Apple website and enter a serial there, it will then tell you the device model”, but obviously there is data in the serial itself that gives a model. Two ways I know this are 1) websites like “everymac” can tell you the model of a device by its serial, and 2) clover can generate a serial that corresponds to a specific model (ie if you choose a specific model, say a 13 inch mod 2014 MacBook Pro as your model, it will make a serial that would match such a model). I can’t find a website that breaks down how to read a serial, other than “the first 2 characters tell you where it was manufactured, and the 4th and 5th characters tell you the date it was manufactured”. How do I tell if it’s an imac, vs a 15” MacBook Pro, etc?

Good question really. Many sites offer the date and manufacturing place, but not the complete works.

Perhaps you can experiment with Clover Configurator. Generate an SMBIOS for each type and 'spot the difference'. It's probably not that straightforward, but the software author knows their stuff

 

[P1LGRIM]

I can’t find a website that breaks down how to read a serial, other than “the first 2 characters tell you where it was manufactured, and the 4th and 5th characters tell you the date it was manufactured”.

An insight can be gained from looking at the Chameleon Wizard tool that was used to edit the org.chameleon.boot.plist and SMBIOS.plist for the Chimera bootloader. Part of the tool allows you to generate SMBIOS information.
For example Download and run the tool.
Click the SMBIOS icon - Then click Edit.
You will see how the Serial Number is derived from the different selection boxes when you change any of their values.

It won't answer all of your questions but should help.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

An insight can be gained from looking at the Chameleon Wizard tool that was used to edit the org.chameleon.boot.plist and SMBIOS.plist for the Chimera bootloader. Part of the tool allows you to generate SMBIOS information.
For example Download and run the tool.
Click the SMBIOS icon - Then click Edit.
You will see how the Serial Number is derived from the different selection boxes when you change any of their values.

View attachment 345017
It won't answer all of your questions but should help.

Good idea. I'd forgotten about Chameleon Wizard since we moved over to Clover.

(By the way the download link gives Page not found for me).

 

[P1LGRIM]

(By the way the download link gives Page not found for me).

That's odd, I just tried them both and they work fine for me. I downloaded it to make the example image.
Were you logged in to your account when you tried ?

Edit : You need to click the link that says Download Now in bold type - The link to the source code is indeed broken.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

That's odd, I just tried them both and they work fine for me. I downloaded it to make the example image.
Were you logged in to your account when you tried ?

Edit : You need to click the link that says Download Now in bold type - The link to the source code is indeed broken.

Thanks. Yes, I have an archived copy so didn't explore further. My bad

 

[Bob_the_Tomato]

Doesn’t Clover Configurator do this also? I’m not at my Mac to test this right now... (I’m actually in my jacuzzi using an iPad watching the sunrise...)

 

[P1LGRIM]

Doesn’t Clover Configurator do this also? I’m not at my Mac to test this right now... (I’m actually in my jacuzzi using an iPad watching the sunrise...)

Clover Configurator generates random serial numbers but gives no clues as to how they are constructed.
With Chameleon Wizard you can see the effect that changing the week of manufacture etc has on the serial number.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Hi @Bob_the_Tomato and @P1LGRIM and @nineniner

Being intrigued by the subject (I remember seeing a great explanation/breakdown of Apple serial numbers years ago, but can't find it now) I went looking and found www.appleserialnumberinfo.com . I was wary so I generated a new serial using Clover Configurator for iMac14.2.

This is the one I entered as a test - D25QH2AGF8JC - It isn't in use.

The output from the site was actually quite good in comparison with other efforts. Whether I would use it with my genuine serial I don't know, but it makes for interesting reading.

Using Chameleon Wizard is safer.