Little details like how long you’ve had your iPhone can easily fade away from your memory. Especially for the fact that the iPhone is durable and has a relatively longer lifespan than most other phones, you could go years with your iPhone without the need to change it under proper usage.
If for any reason you want to know how long you’ve had your iPhone, you’ll certainly need help to remember. In this article, you’ll learn just where to look for the date details you seek.
How To Tell How Long You’ve Had Your iPhone
Hardly would you find anyone keeping a separate record of when they just purchased their iPhone. It goes usually that you want to get exploring your new iPhone than trying to jot down a day, date, and year record you could reference back.
However, it’s not very easy to find out how long you’ve had your iPhone, this is especially for users who stick with one iPhone for as long as forever without the pressure to transit to newer models. Although trying to recall the range of first use could be a difficult feat to achieve but it’s a possibility.
Follow the guide below to find out how long you’ve had your iPhone;
Check Issued Receipt For iPhone
There’s no better place to start from in this quest except from your iPhone purchase receipt. Like every other receipt, the receipt that was issued to you on the day of purchase will include the date the iPhone exchanged hands among other information like your name and other important details.
The best part is that the receipt doesn’t only tell you the month and year of purchase. You also get to know the smallest detail like the day and can go as much as the time of purchase.
However, If you like many others do not care so much about storing away receipts in a safe place or misplaced it or even can’t simply remember where to dig it up from, then you’ll have to continue with the other steps on the list.
Search Gallery For The Earliest Photo Taken
Clues about how long you’ve had your iPhone could be found right in your photo gallery. It’s not unusual to mark the unboxing of your new iPhone by taking new photos of yourself or family and friends.
These first photos could be all you need to discover when you first had your iPhone, but of course if you deleted them or never had any photos taken at that time then I’m afraid you’ll have to further with the other steps in this article.
To check for the earliest or first photo you took using the iPhone follow the below guide, however make sure to update your iPhone to the latest IOS.
- Open the Photos app
- Tap on Years just above the bottom options. This will sort your photos according to the year they were taken.
- Scroll down to the last year on the category and tap on it. Now you have an idea of the year you had your iPhone.
- Scroll down yet again to the last photo in the year you’ve selected and tap on the image.
- Swipe up on the photo to show the details of the photo
- You’ll find the day, date, month and even the time the image was captured.
That’s about all there is to do. And even If you only started taking shots with the iPhone a few days or even a few weeks after its purchase, it still doesn’t matter much.
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In all, you’ll find either the exact or approximate date you first had your iPhone and with a little bit of calculation to this present day, you’d have known how long you’ve had your iPhone.
The only downtime to this technique is if you had installed a backup of your old iPhone on the new. This way, it’ll be hard to tell how long you’ve used the phone as content from the former iPhone will be replicated.
Search iMessage For Earliest Message Sent
Records of sent messages never get lost in the iPhone default messaging app which makes it a good place to look for the dates you seek. Messages sent on with the iMessage app will surely include the date, month and year from which you can deduce how long you’ve had your iPhone from.
It may seem like a daunting job scrolling all the way down to the very first message you sent, but it’s really a simple task. However, you’ll have to do a little bit of recalling to remember the first person you had likely messaged first on the iMessage app. Follow the below guide to reach your earliest messages in the iMessage app;
- Open the iMessage app
- Tap on the message thread of the person you remember messaging first.
- Tap on the timestamp just at the top of the screen
- This will take you to the first message you received or sent to the contact. Just above the message, you’ll find the day, month and year. And if you swipe across on the message, it’ll show the exact time it was sent.
Again, this method can only show a rough estimate of how long you’ve used your iPhone, but can be accurate in the context of the number of years you’ve had it and not necessarily the month or date.
Search Your Mail For Login Confirmation Email
If you can recall, you were sent a confirmation email from Apple the very first time you logged in on your iPhone. The confirmation message could be one of the most accurate ways to know exactly how long exactly you’ve your iPhone. To do this, what you want to do is open your Mail app and use the search feature to find strings of text associated with the confirmation email.
Use the below guide to find the confirmation email sent to you upon logging in your Apple ID and the associated date when it was received.
- Open the mail app on your iPhone
- Using the search box, type in ‘Confirmation’ or ‘Apple ID’. Try the two to see if either that works.
- From the result it pulls up, find the latest confirmation mail you’ve received that’s associated with your current iPhone as it’s not unlikely to find other past confirmation emails.
- Open the email and look at the date at the top. Count forward to the present date and that should be the summation of how long you’ve had your iPhone.
This is surely a way that never fails when trying to recall how long you’ve had your iPhone. Everyone logs in with their Apple ID as soon a new phone arrives, and I bet you do too.
Can Your iPhone Tell You How Long You’ve Had The iPhone?
Yes, it’s possible to find how long you’ve had your iPhone, although Apple does not make this any easier. However workarounds have been used to estimate to a reputable degree of precision how long you’ve had your iPhone. One way is to check for the very first files saved on the device. Usually they can include photos and videos as they’re usually the first to set their foot on any device. Other ways you can use include;
Checking Your Service and Support Coverage
It’s possible to use this service on the Apple website to check how long you’ve had your iPhone. This shows among other details about your iPhone the date when it was first purchased. This of course will require your iPhone serial number which is not far fetched. Follow the below steps to retrieve your serial number;
- Open iPhone Settings
- Tap on General
- Tap on About.
- Scroll to the bottom and copy out the Serial number.
With your iPhone serial number retrieved, follow the below guide to find your iPhone purchase date.
- Open the link – checkcoverage.apple.com on your browser.
- Enter your Serial number in the box provided and solve the CAPTCHA challenge
- Tap on Continue
- From the details revealed, find the purchase date of your iPhone. Sum it up to the present date and that will be how old you’ve had your iPhone.
However, this may not work if you had the iPhone resold to you or was gifted to you by someone. You may have to use the other methods provided in this article to find out how long you’ve had your iPhone.
Conclusion
It is for several reasons that you may need to recall how long you’ve had your iPhone. It could be to flaunt your meticulous usage skills to your friends or just for a confirmation you want to make. Whatever be the reason, instead of brainstorming to no result, use all of the guide provided above to tell how long you’ve had your iPhone.
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