Alexander Lake

Q: Can one find the IMEI of a stolen iPhone from iTunes?

Had an old iPhone 3GS stolen recently. I need to discover the IMEI.

It is possible that I can fire up my MacBookPro with an old boot disk from the time that the 3GS was my primary phone, back in 2010 or so. If I do that, will there be any information I can glean from my iTunes installation that will tell me the details?

Obviously I can't plug the phone into the Mac...

Posted on Mar 9, 2015 9:07 AM

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Q: Can one find the IMEI of a stolen iPhone from iTunes?

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  • by FoxFifth,Solvedanswer

    FoxFifth FoxFifth Mar 9, 2015 9:21 AM in response to Alexander Lake
    Level 7 (27,276 points)
    iPhone
    Mar 9, 2015 9:21 AM in response to Alexander Lake

    If you ever backed up the iPhone using iTunes and if your computer still has the information, you can get the IMEI following the instructions quoted below from the "Other Information" section near the bottom of Find the serial number and other information for your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

    If you can use iTunes on your computer but don't have your device:

    1. Go to iTunes > Preferences (Mac) or Edit > Preferences (PC).
    2. Click the Devices tab.
    3. Hold your mouse over a backup to display the serial number for that device. You'll also see the IMEI/MEID and CDN for your iPhone or iPad (cellular model).
  • by Alexander Lake,

    Alexander Lake Alexander Lake Mar 9, 2015 1:24 PM in response to FoxFifth
    Level 1 (87 points)
    iPhone
    Mar 9, 2015 1:24 PM in response to FoxFifth

    Thanks, but I can't boot from the old drives - I get a complaint that the CPU is incompatible (this is going from a 2008 MBP to 2012 MBP, both Intel, but perhaps still too much difference). Then if I try opening up the old iTunes library from the USB-attached drive, it seems to think that there are no device backups there (which there were!). Must be quite an involved process to get iTunes (v7?) working properly on an external filestore.

  • by Alexander Lake,

    Alexander Lake Alexander Lake Mar 9, 2015 3:42 PM in response to Alexander Lake
    Level 1 (87 points)
    iPhone
    Mar 9, 2015 3:42 PM in response to Alexander Lake

    Update: Success!

    I mounted the old drive on an external SATA connection.

    Looked in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup and found some folders (that looked empty, but weren't).

    I copied one of those into the equivalent location on my boot drive.

    Then iTunes was able to see it and a quick hover on the list and Bob was my uncle!

    Thanks for the top tip...

  • by FoxFifth,

    FoxFifth FoxFifth Mar 9, 2015 4:13 PM in response to Alexander Lake
    Level 7 (27,276 points)
    iPhone
    Mar 9, 2015 4:13 PM in response to Alexander Lake

    Great -- glad you got it!