Through the information I’ve gathered from readers and a trusted source who wishes to remain anonymous, I’ve learned how to decode the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick’s serial number to reveal useful information about the device’s origin and rootability. In light of this new information, I have updated my guide on how to determine the Fire TV’s rootability via its serial number. Read on for a full explanation of the various parts of the Fire TV’s serial number.

Serial number meaning from left to right…

1st Character: Manufacturer

This character signifies the device manufacturer, where 7 is the value for Foxconn. Since Foxconn currently manufactures all Fire TVs and Fire TV Sticks, the serial number of all Fire TV devices starts with a 7.

2nd Character: Condition

A 0 signifies the device was sold new, while a 1 signifies the device was refurbished and resold. Not all refurbished units have the 1 indicator. It is likely only units refurbished by the factory receive a new serial number, whereas units refurbished at Amazon’s warehouses do not receive a new serial number.

3rd & 4th Character: Device

These two characters signify the device model. 90 means its the serial number of a Fire TV, while a 94 means it’s the serial number of a Fire TV Stick.

5th & 6th Character: Hardware Revision

These two characters signify the hardware version. A 01 was used on Fire TV test units prior to launch. The initial run of retail Fire TVs carried a 02 hardware revision value. The Fire TV’s hardware revision value was changed to 03 shortly after the device was released. I don’t know the hardware differences between the various revisions, but my source tells me “there is no significant change.” Fire TV Stick launch units carried a 16 hardware revision value.

7th & 8th Character: Unit Revision

It is unclear precisely what this value signifies. It appears to signify a non-hardware related production change. My source tells me this is not a definitive indicator of the software version on the device. For that, the manufactured date (covered next) is best. It appears that all Fire TVs with a Hardware Revision (HR) value of 02 have a Unit Revision (UR) value of 01. When the HR value changed to 03, the UR value was changed to 02. Readers have also reported serial numbers with HR 03 and UR values of 03, 05, 06, 07, 09, 10, and 11. It appears most UR 06 and 07 Fire TVs were shipped to Germany, while most UR 09 and 11 Fire TVs were shipped to the UK.

9th Character: Year Manufactured

This character signifies the year the device was manufactured. A 4 represents 2014, a 5 will represent 2015, etc..

10th & 11th Character: Week Manufactured

These characters range from 01 to 52 and signify the week in the year that the device was manufactured. A week calendar can be used to determine which days fall in a particular week. The 10 in the example Fire TV serial number above means the device was manufactured during the week of March 3rd thru March 9th, 2014.

12th Character: Day Manufactured

This character ranges from 1 to 7 and signifies the day of the week the device was manufactured. Combined with the previous three characters, it’s possible to determine the exact day a particular Fire TV or Fire TV Stick was manufactured. The Year/Week/Day values of 4106 in the example Fire TV serial number above tell us that that particular Fire TV was manufactured on March 8th, 2014.

13th thru 16th Characters: Serial Number

These values signify the devices position in the daily production run. it is assumed that the first device manufactured on any given day receives a value of 0000, and the characters are incremented sequentially with each new device, up to ZZZZ. This value is reset back to 0000 at the start of each day.

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