Where to Find the Purchase Date of an Apple Device
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Here is a short tidbit that you may find to be helpful. I just spent way too much time looking for the date on which I bought one of my Apple Devices – my old iPad to be specific.
I have been debating whether to trade it in and upgrade to the latest version.
The iPad works really well, but the battery life has decreased to the point that it is a bit annoying.
Before I decide to go through an upgrade – I kind of want to know exactly how long I had this device. But I couldn’t find this information anywhere!
It was very frustrating.
The Easiest Way to Find the Purchase Date of Your Apple Device
UPDATE: This method no longer works – it seems that Apple changed the info available on this page. You can try one of the alternate methods described below. But as of now, I cannot find an easy way to find this information.
To save you the same frustration – I am sharing the place that I found my answer – it was at:
When you go to this address and log into with your Apple ID, you will find a list of all of your Apple devices.
I happen to own a lot of Apple devices – so for me, only three were showing. I had to click on a link under the first three that says “Show all my devices” to find my iPad.
To find the purchase date of your Apple device, click on the product in question and it will take you to a screen with all the relevant details.
Alternate Methods of Finding the Purchase Date
If, for some reason, this method doesn’t work for you – you could try a little detective work.
Apple Store Online
You could log into the Apple Store online and look up your recent purchases.
For some reason the order history only covers a very short time frame – so if you made your purchase several years ago, you are out of luck.
It’s at time like this that I appreciate the extensive order history kept on sites like Amazon.com – there are times that I need to go back years to find old purchase details.
Your Email Archives
Typically, when you buy an Apple device – either in store or online – they will send you an email receipt.
With any luck, you would have archived that email, saved it to some kind of “receipts” folder that you may have set up when organizing your email inbox, or possibly sent the email to your Evernote account for safekeeping.
This receipt, of course, will have the purchase date on it.
Do a Google Search
This method won’t give you the exact date but it will put you in the ballpark.
In the “Settings” on your device – go to “General” and then “About”.
Here you will find details on the Model Name and Model Number.
Do a Google search for these terms and you should get several hits in the results that mention the release date of the device that you have.
If you purchased it new, then you will get an idea of the timeframe in which you bought it.
Finding the Apple Purchase Date Should Be More Straightforward
If you are looking for the date that you purchased a device from Apple then you could do any of the following:
- Go to mysupport.apple.com
- Look up your past purchases on Apple.com
- Comb through your email receipts from Apple
- Do a Google search for the model name and number for your device
Personally, I would just like to see an order history in my Apple account. I think that would make things a lot easier.
I hope this information helps you to save time and find your answers.
