Apple Serial Number Look-up

From 2010 and onwards, Apple switched over/upgraded to a 12 character serial number.

• New sequence: PPPYWSSSCCCC
  • Where:
    • PPP is the manufacturing plant
    • Y is the year along with the first or second half
    • W is the week number of the year
    • SSS is a unique identifier to distinguish machines manufactured on the same week
    • CCCC specifies the exact prodiction model

Year

The year is split into two parts to denote the first or second half of the manufacturing year, e.g Jan to Jun or Jul to Dec. There are 20 characters total, allowing a 10 year range, looping/resting every 10 years.

Table:
Y - Year - First/second half
C 0 First Half, e.g. 2010/2020/2030 Jan to Jun
D 0 Second Half, e.g. 2010/2020/2030 Jul to Dec
F 1 First Half
G 1 Second Half
H 2 First Half
J 2 Second Half
K 3 First Half
L 3 Second Half
M 4 First Half
N 4 Second Half
P 5 First Half
Q 5 Second Half
R 6 First Half
S 6 Second Half
T 7 First Half
V 7 Second Half
W 8 First Half
X 8 Second Half
Y 9 First Half
Z 9 Second Half

Week

The weeks is coded in much the same way as the year, but with a few more alphanumeric characters, 27 total. Paired with the Y code (year half), it is possible to decode which half of the year it was produced and then also the exact week number, e.g. if Y is C and W is F, means it was produced the first half of the year (2010) and thus week 12.

Table:
W - Week first half - Week second half
1 1 28
2 2 29
3 3 30
4 4 31
5 5  32
6 6 33
7 7 34
8 8 35
9 9 36
C 10 37
D 11 38
F 12 39
G 13 40
H 14 41
J 15 42
K 16 43
L 17 44
M 18 45
N 19 46
P 20 47
Q 21 48
R 22 49
T 23 50
V 24 51
W 25 52
X 26
Y 27

References

• Apple tweaks serial number format