0

My task is to create a simple database containing information about the MacBooks my company owns. In order not to do it manually, I decided to ask everyone using a Mac to send me a system report file in the .spx format, then I've built a simple parser to extract basic info from these files. I've been able to extract CPU model and freqency, RAM size, etc.

One thing I've been unable to find the assembly date of the particular unit.I've tried 'assembly','manufacturer', 'date' and several others, but to no avail. Is this contained in the system report file?

Improve this question
3
  • I opened the spx file with TextWrangler and most dates seem to be labelled "_timeStamp"but I don't have time to go through 119090 lines for more info...
    – Solar Mike
    Jul 24, 2017 at 14:48
  • @SolarMike I've tried that approach already but without success. However, I've just stumbled upon a project on GitHub which is dedicated to checking warranty status but also seems to hit my specific needs: github.com/pudquick/pyMacWarranty
    – Erathiel
    Jul 24, 2017 at 14:59
  • Anyway, this information must be encoded somewhere in the system and I'd expect that the SPX report file should contain it so I'm still curious as to where that date is hiding.
    – Erathiel
    Jul 24, 2017 at 15:02

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Sign up to be a Self Servicing Account with Apple and you can look up machine PO date by serial number using their global service exchange API.

That is far more reliable than trying to reverse engineer batches of serial numbers or internal components. You can also look into build details and get technical manuals / diagnostics - so this effort to get registered will pay dividends far more than a quick script.

If you really only need a quick script or don't meet the requirements for a GSX account, I would start here:

The date isn't in the files you collected, but the serial number is which is likely the closest proxy to a build date you have at hand.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .