Your ChromeOS PC wasn’t designed to last forever. Its functional capabilities will eventually become outdated, requiring you to consider other Chromebooks if you can’t rely on official support from the developer’s side.
This is why planning your next purchase by keeping up with your Chromebook’s end of life is highly recommended.
You must therefore determine the age of your Chromebook and whether or not its auto-update expiration date is approaching.
Read on to learn everything there is to know about checking your PC AUE date, including a bonus section where we explain why a Chromebook after AUE still isn’t the end of the world. Without further ado, let’s begin.
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In This Article
What is Auto Update Expiration (AUE)?
The Auto Update Expiration (AUE) date has been maintained in line with the necessary sustainability of ChromeOS to guarantee that users of Chromebooks continue to enjoy the highly optimized experience they have been enjoying for several years.
The main point is that every Chromebook has a particular date. This day serves as the deadline for automatic updates.
For instance, the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook’s AUE date is June 2028, which is far in the future from now. Every official Chromebook has a specific date that signifies the end of official updates, just like Samsung’s Galaxy iteration.
Now, exactly what does this mean? When your Chromebook’s AUE date has passed, will you no longer be able to use it? No.
You should have no trouble starting it up and using it. However, because Google will no longer be providing updates for the device, it will now be open to security risks, bugs, and other problems.
You can check your Chromebook’s AUE date to see when your Chromebook’s updates will stop by following the next steps.
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Checking the AUE date on your Chromebook
It’s simple to verify the AUE date on your Chromebook. There are two approaches you might use to achieve the goal at hand.
One of these is much simpler, but the other requires visiting a Google support website and looking for your Chromebook’s end-of-life date manually.
To help you better understand the ideas presented here, we’ll divide both of them down into individual subsections. Without further ado, let’s begin.
Using the “Settings” app to get the AUE date
The native “Settings” system application on a Chromebook is the first way to determine where an AUE date is shown on that device.
To find the device’s AUE date, all you need to do is go to the “Advanced” section of the panel, select “About ChromeOS,” and then take the next step to access a specific area of the device.
To make the procedure’s subsequent phases simpler for you to carry out on your end, let’s go through it now.
1. Launch the “Settings” app on your Chromebook.
2. After the “Settings” app has launched, choose “Advanced” from the drop-down menu in the side panel. You will then have access to additional screen choices, allowing you to choose “About Chrome OS.”
3. The following information will show up on the screen once you select “About Chrome OS.” This is a crucial component of the “Settings” program where you can check several factors. To proceed, click the “Additional details” option in the next step.
4. Clicking the “Additional information” option will direct you to a different screen page. Here, you can see the “Update schedule” and modify your release channel. The latter has the crucial data you want to comprehend the age of your Chromebook.
As you can see from the screenshot, our Chromebook will officially stop being supported on June 20, 2028, giving us another six years to use it.
Well done so far! You just learned how old your Chromebook is. It’s time to go further and discuss a different way to know the AUE date of your device.
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Using Google’s support website to get the AUE date
Visit the official Google support page called Auto Update policy to learn more about when your Chromebook will reach its end-of-life date precisely. The list of authorized Chromebooks has been released by the developers, along with the AUE date for each entry.
Therefore, all you have to do is go to the website above, click on the company that made your Chromebook, and then scroll down until you find the model number or name of your particular device.
For instance, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet—a great all-around device for an incredibly reasonable price—has the AUE date highlighted in the image below.
As long as you are aware of the model and manufacturer of your Chromebook, you can repeat the procedure above.
Speaking of which, if you’re unsure of how to do that, here is a thorough article on discovering your Chromebook model that covers several ways to do the latter.
The general idea is that you can physically inspect your Chromebook by flipping it over and looking at the little information sticker on its back.
Another option is to get the Cog app from the Chrome Web Store. This useful tool provides users with information on a variety of various procedures, including the Chromebook model.
That being said, we hope you will leave this article well-informed and aware of how to determine the age of your Chromebook. In case you can recognize your alternatives, let’s go through some of the finest methods to use a Chromebook that has reached the end of its useful life before we put a lid on it.
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Another way to figure out how old your Chromebook is
A different option here is to dial in the numbers and provide you with even more exact data, in addition to looking up the AUE date, which should give you a relatively good indication of how old your Chromebook is. However, it’s important to mention the brand and model of your Chromebook.
Don’t worry if you can’t find the model number for your Chromebook. The Chromebook Recovery Utility utility is a unique piece of software that can be obtained on ChromeOS and makes ChromeOS recovery a peaceful option.
Finding the model number of your Chromebook is as simple as downloading and running the Recovery Utility.
The following step is now really easy. Now all you have to do is enter the model number and the phrase “Release date” into Google to find the information.
So, for example, if we use Google to look up “Lenovo N22 Chromebook release date,” this is what comes up in a snippet form, providing us with the information we want.
Here’s what you need to do next if you find that your specific device is rather outdated.
Is the AUE date on your Chromebook close? Here’s what you should do
You won’t feel as secure using a Chromebook that is much beyond its Auto Update Expiration date, but it does not imply the computer is worthless.
With internal software as useful as the Crostini Linux terminal, there are still a ton of different things you can do with your Chromebook.
Aside from that, your Chromebook can run a variety of operating systems beyond its end-of-life date, including Windows 10 and even Cloud Ready, which is now ChromeOS Flex.
Additionally, you can continue to use the item as normal and put up with it until it is no longer useful to you.
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The bottom line
Only over some time can a Chromebook demonstrate its great ideals of speed, security, and simplicity. After then, you can use your device with somewhat less security than you did before until the Auto Update Expiration date arrives.
Having said that, it’s not as if your Chromebook will catch fire when that occurs. If you are aware of the possible hazards, you are free to choose to use your Chromebook in the same manner. Otherwise, you can always upgrade to a better one.
But all of that won’t be feasible unless you know how to find out how old your Chromebook is, which is exactly what we’ve covered in this post.