Recovering iPod serial number from iTunes

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Recovering iPod serial number from iTunes

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Q: My daughter’s iPod touch was stolen and we don’t have the serial number written down. Is there a way that we can check that on our iTunes account in the settings so we can pass the information on to the police?

- Laurel

A: Provided that the stolen iPod was the last iPod that was connected to your computer, you can easily get this information right from the iTunes application itself. In iTunes, hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard while clicking on the About iTunes menu option. This menu option is found on the “iTunes” menu on the Mac or the “Help” menu on Windows. This will present the normal scrolling “About iTunes” panel but will also include information on the serial number of the last connected iPod and iPhone devices.

You can pause the scrolling by hitting the spacebar or reverse it by holding down the OPT key (Mac) or SHIFT key (Windows). You can also copy all of this information to the system clipboard by using the standard copy keyboard shortcuts: CTRL+C (Windows) or CMD+C (Mac).

If you have connected one or more other iPods since your daughter’s iPod was last synchronized, you’ll have to dig into your preference files instead. iTunes stores the serial numbers and other information of every iPod you’ve ever connected to your computer in an iPod devices file. On Windows, this file is named iPodDevices.xml and is stored in C:Documents and Settings(your user name)Local SettingsApplication DataApple ComputeriTunes. On Mac OS X, the file is named com.apple.iPod.plist and is stored in your Library/Preferences folder under your main home folder. Simply locate this file and open it in a text editor and you should be able to see all of your iPod information listed in an XML format.

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