i have an original 1st gen ipod (amazing it still works, huh!!) and the serial number showed up for me. I'm using itunes 6.02 as well.

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i have a ipod mini and there was no serial# listed.. itunes 6.0.2

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My Mini does.

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My mini shows up correctly.

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wow! unbelievable. Good find! These are the hints that I live to wake up to each and every morning. Keep em coming...

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"The best way to accelerate a PC is 9.8 m/s2"

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With iTunes 6.0.2, and the iPod plugged in, if you click on the grey decimal number on the right of the preference panel (to the right of the iPod's name), it will switch to show you your serial number. With my 2nd gen 10G iPod, it reads "1.5" and then the serial number. I assume the 1.5 is the s/w version?

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It is documented on Apple's site:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60978

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Under Panther at least, there is a file

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iPod.plist

that should have the serial numbers of iPods that you have used, along with a bit of other information. I'm not sure if it is still used with Tiger though.

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The preference file is still there in the same location in my fresh install of Tiger.

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Interesting that this file exists and shows my iPod information, but clicking on "No iPod Connected" does not reveal my iPod info. Perhaps the original tip is actually a 10.4 only hint.

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"I have seen the evils of procrastination, and I vow to change my ways tomorrow."

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to quickly display this information in the console, you can use the following command:

defaults read com.apple.iPod

The plist includes information not only about the last iPod connected but all the iPods and their most recent connection dates.

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Interesting. Also displays, "Use Count", which would seem to imply the number of times you've plugged the iPod in.

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My iPod mini's serial number does not show up on my iBook's iTunes, but it shows up on my desktop Windows PC's iTunes. This could be due to a combination of reasons:

(a) Since my desktop has a much larger hard drive, I use that computer as my primary music/podcast management computer, so of course, I use my iPod primarily what that computer. Consequently, it's been some time since I've used my iPod with my iBook (plus, I seem to have misplaced my iPod's FireWire cable...it's a slightly older generation iBook still w/ USB 1.1)

(b) Seeing as how both computers are running the latest versions of iTunes, I have upgraded iTunes on my iBook several times since the last time I connected my iPod to it. I'm guessing that with at least one of the upgrades, it erased past records of my iPod.

(c) I'm wondering if this tip only works w/ Tiger, as I'm still running Panther.


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"I have seen the evils of procrastination, and I vow to change my ways tomorrow."

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I was able to get my hands on someone's spare FireWire cable, and it finally worked. I'm guessing the main reason it didn't work before is that the numerous iTunes upgrades had somehow erased the immediate record of iPod use.

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"I have seen the evils of procrastination, and I vow to change my ways tomorrow."

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Reminds me of getting the computer's serial:
Apple menu -> About this Mac -> click on the OS version string multiple times

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You also can see the serial number of the current connected iPod with iTunes 6.0.2. When looking into iTunes' iPod preferences, click on the version number right above the "Calendar" tab (5th Gen iPod). This will show you the iPod serial number.

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You could also use this script to dump the info in a file. I have two iPods so this will get the SNumber and dates of both

set biglist to {}
set theSN to do shell script " defaults read com.apple.iPod | grep -i " & quote & "Serial Number" & ¬
	quote & "| awk -F= '{print $2}'" as string
set theCnd to do shell script " defaults read com.apple.iPod | grep -i " & quote & " Connected " & quote ¬
	& "| awk -F\\; '{print $1}' | awk -FConnected\\ \\= '{print $2}'" as string
set the_count to 0
set theconter to count paragraph of theSN
repeat theconter times
	set the_count to the_count + 1
	copy paragraph the_count of theSN & paragraph the_count of theCnd to the end of biglist
	do shell script "echo iPod Serial\\ Number\\: " & quoted form of item the_count of biglist & " >> ~/documents/iPod_Serial_Numbers.txt"
	do shell script "echo ---------------  >> ~/documents/iPod_Serial_Numbers.txt"
end repeat

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mh

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Or you could just accomplish the same thing with a single awk command and no applescript:

defaults read com.apple.iPod | awk -F= '/Connected/ { DATE=$2 }; /Serial Number/ { print $2, DATE }'

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My god thats much less messy, I really have to read up on awk more

Thanks.

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mh

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hey i got mine stolen out of my back pocket but ur not helping with the new itune 7.0 version and il tell u how to get it:when u open itunes click help then click run diagnostics next click ipod diagnostics a lot of writing will pop up on the right side keep scrolling down on the writing till u see The last connected iPod serial number:..... and it will show ur number.

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Hey guys, I know I'm bringing up a thread from the dead but I need a hand. Does anyone know if you can bring up the list of serial numbers used on a PC? My shuffle got stolen but it isn't the last used ipod on my computer.

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