Where on the box is the serial number?

Several years ago, I had bought Final Cut Pro 5 studio bundle (Livetype, Motion, Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro 4)

Final Cut Pro works fine on the old computer. It has worked from day one.

Recently, I've transferred (via firewire) all the files from the old G4 to a new Mac Pro that I've bought.

Now it wants a serial number. The issue is, I can't find any information about where you can find the serial number. I still have the black case with the handles (it has the bar code, a series of numbers and letters above the bar code, some small numbers) but it doesn't have anything that says "Serial number" on it. I've looked at my installation disks, and tried the numbers written on the CD, I've looked in the "getting started" guide and all of the final Cut Pro user guides, but can't find anything that says "Serial number" on it.

As an option, would the serial number be the number that shows up during the final cut pro "welcome" window (the one with the credits?)

Where (and which number) can I find that info in the available packaging?

Is there a way to find the serial number in the working version on my old computer, so that I might transfer the number over to the new computer? Obviously, I can't start up the program on the new computer until I find the serial number.

Come to think of it, I believe I remember that the serial number was hard to find when I first installed the program on the old computer as well.

Powermac 3,5, Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on Aug 14, 2007 11:43 AM

Reply
8 replies

Aug 14, 2007 11:57 AM in response to David J. McCall

Mine was on a peel off sticker that came tucked inside the package along with the disks and stuff. Two stickers with the FCP serial and two for Quicktime.

Yes, the serial number is on the opening screen when FCP starts up... write real quick... or once the program is open click on About Final Cut Pro..and the opening screen comes up again. The serial number is immediately under "Licensed To"

Aug 14, 2007 1:27 PM in response to Brian Conner

Please note that I am not disagreeing with Brian, however, a couple of months ago I bought a couple of new 500 gig drives at a great price to replace the 120 and 160 drives that came installed in my G5. I used the migration tool to bring everything over from my boot drive to one of the new ones, then swapped positions.

The change was seamless. Only the space remaining changed. Then a day later I updated OSX 10 and Quicktime then installed FCS2 over Final Cut 5.1. Once again, seamless.

This is the 4th time I have upgraded Final Cut Pro as well as the operating system without going through the hassle of wiping the drive clean and starting from scratch.

Your mileage may vary..

Aug 14, 2007 2:23 PM in response to John Criswell

You're absolutely right John, until it stops working. I never did a clean install until about a year ago. And I had done migrations and upgrades since my first 450mhz G4 and FCP1 (thru a dualgigG4 and my current sual2.5gigG5) . But things did finally get really weird and I bit the bullet and did the full clean install of OS and apps.

It's sometimes really hard to troubleshoot problems, and a clean wipe and install (and then cloning your stable OS/application combo) sometimes limits the areas you have to explore.

That said, Create a file with all your serial numbers (and do screen grabs of all your splash screens). Suddenly you're looking for the one serial number you can't find. NOT FUN. When I did my complete clean install, I couldn't find my fcp4.5 serial number which I needed to install an upgrade. Luckily I still had it installed on one partition and was able to grab it off the splash screen).

Oh, to give credit where credit is due. Jerry Hoffman's been singing this song for years. Do a clean install. I fought it for years, but I finally bought into the program.

Message was edited by: Michael Grenadier

Aug 14, 2007 9:08 PM in response to Michael Grenadier

Michael offered a very good solution to avoid future serial number problems: keep a list of all software serial numbers.

I use a simple Appleworks database to maintain serial and registration numbers for all of my Mac and Windows software - and backup that file routinely to another volume and to an online backup site. Let's face it; software is expensive when you add up the cost of all your programs. If you have a hard drive crash, fire, theft or other calamity, having those numbers readily available can be a life saver!

-DH

Aug 15, 2007 9:06 AM in response to Michael Grenadier

I'm 100 percent with Michael on this one.

I never migrate.

I'm lucky in having a MacPro. I have seven SATA drives with drive sleds. I install a clean OS with updates, then FCS2 and any other production software I use.

Then I clone that drive to two other drives using CCC. Keep those safe and when something goes wrong, I substitute the cloned drive for the boot drive.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Where on the box is the serial number?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.