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How do I find my iPod's serial number if it's been stolen?

My iPod video was stolen two weeks ago, and the police told me that, if they somehow recover my iPod, it'll make it much easier for them to return it to me if they have the serial number. Unfortunately, I've had the iPod for several years so I don't have the original packaging or the receipt anymore, nor is the iPod registered in my Support Profile. I know that, if I had it, I could hook it up to my computer and the serial number would show up in iTunes, but I obviously can't do that. However, I have obviously hooked the iPod up to my iTunes before, so I was wondering if there was any way to go back into my iTunes history and retrieve the serial number that way somehow. Any ideas?

Posted on Mar 27, 2013 12:17 PM

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Posted on Jul 9, 2013 11:34 AM

I'm doing this in iTunes 11 on Windows.

  • So, in iTunes, if you don't have the menu bar showing, hit ctrl+b.
  • Now, make sure you have something to write with handy, as you're going to need to be fast.
  • When the menu bar pops up, hold down ctrl and click Help and then About iTunes (hold down the ctrl button the entire time).
  • A small screen will pop up with some scrolling information, a couple seconds in you'll see 'iPod S/N:'
  • Write down the list of letters and numbers that comes after that, as that is the serial number of the last iPod that was plugged and synced with iTunes.
  • You can repeat this process several times to be sure you get all the characters.


You do NOT need to have your iPod plugged into iTunes to acces this information, the only necessary thing is that your iPod has been plugged into and synced with iTunes at least once (which you have, so good). For posterity: if it's never been plugged in, and you don't have the box, you might be out of luck.

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How do I find my iPod's serial number if it's been stolen?

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