Where can I find my MacBook Pro's part number?

Question

I'm a Linux user and have previously never used any Apple products.

Because I have to compile an iOS app, I bought a second hand MacBook Pro. I want to determine which MacBook Pro it is. I found this page, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201300. but it requires that I know the Part Number.

I cannot find this information in About This Mac. I spent an hour on Google and failed to figure out how to do it.

Can anyone please help me?

Solution 1

From the very first paragraph of your link...

Your Mac provides several tools to help you identify it. The simplest is About This Mac, available by choosing About This Mac from the Apple () menu in the upper-left corner of your screen. The other is the System Information app. Learn how to use these tools to identify your Mac.

The Part Number is rarely useful, because many models can share the same number.

Identification from the serial number is far more accurate, if you are in doubt.
However Macs are really identified from their model description.

For instance, from that link...

... that is a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

That is all the information required.

Solution 2

I would go to EveryMac.com. It has all the model numbers listed, by general spec and date available. It often does not have the specific part number for your computer, but it will give you enough information for any ordering or part-replacement issues.

For example, if you know from the "About This Mac" screen that you have a MacBook Pro (15-inch 2018) model that has a 2.9 GHz Core i9 chip, then this website will tell you that this computer is a MacBookPro15,1 with model number A1990 (EMC 3215).

You can also go to Apple's model number support page, scroll until you find this information, and see that the part number will be one from this list: MR932xx/A, MR942xx/A, MR952xx/A, MR962xx/A, MR972xx/A, MUQH2xx/A.

Comments

[sgon00]

This is my macbookpro overview: pasteboard.co/Hx7QSnB.jpg How can I tell which year it is? It can be either 2013 or 2014. Thanks.

[Tetsujin]

Ahhh. it's a frankenstein... a rebuild possibly. Check the serial number against either Apple's list or on Everymac's Ultimate Mac Lookup

[sgon00]

Sorry. What is "frankenstein"? Is that a fake macos build? Can I do system upgrade to the latest macos version? Is that safe to use this OS? I just bought a second hand and new to apple products. kinda totally lost. Not sure what to do. Just installing brew now.

[Tetsujin]

it's lost its model designation - that would imply it's been stripped & rebuilt at some time... It's already on the latest release build, & it's safe so long as you did a complete nuke & pave when your got it [or it had been done beforehand] so all you had to do was set it up as yours, from scratch.

[sgon00]

when later there is a new release, can I get the model designation back after a system upgrade? OR is there any other way to get the model designation back? To do system upgrade, can I simply use softwareupdate -i -a command? thanks a lot.

[Tetsujin]

The model designation is in the firmware. I've no idea how you'd restore it. Take it to an Apple Store for them to look at. & there's a perfectly good GUI for updates, you don't need to do everything from terminal, it's not nix :P

[sgon00]

FYI. the detail model info (the year of manufacture) is shown after connecting internet. I never knew I had to connect to internet in order to see a detail model info. Because this is a second hand, I didn't connect to internet for safety reasons at the beginning. just FYI. thanks.

[Tetsujin]

I never knew that, tbh - though I can't remember the last time I had a machine that wasn't constantly online. Interesting.