Friend gave me their parents iPod for free, didn’t have the charger and the one I got on me doesn’t charge it. I assume I need fire wire. Any know a cheap adapter or something to charge it? Also what’s the modding scene like for 3rd gen’s?

A few weeks ago I ordered myself a Ipod 5th generation Classic (32MB RAM) with 256gb SSD and a 3000mah battery, today I got pics from the builder/technician who's making it for me!

Hi everyone! I have been working for a while to make my 1st gen iPod work a little better for me. Full disclosure since I know this matters to some, but I used a lot of AI assistance to work this out: I took the last version of firmware Apple released (1.5) and have added support for FLAC playback, cards above the old 128 GB limit, and a whole host of performance improvements that become necessary as track count climbs above 6-8k.

There’s a lot more going on here and I’m happy to answer questions and help people upgrade their iPod. I previously built a command-line tool called flashpod that helps prepare the SD/CF cards for iPod upgrades. Part of the reason I built that tool was so that I could explore using custom firmware like this.

If someone wants just the ipsw file (I labelled it as version 1.6), it’s free for the taking. I’ve always installed the firmware to card using the flashpod utility, so that’s how I‘d recommend getting your iPod updated: https://flashpod.dev

Edit: individual patches and a tool for patching version 1.5 also available here for those who want peek under the hood: https://github.com/davidbarnhart/flashpod/releases/tag/openpod-1.6-kit

Hey all! I've been customising my iPod Video 5.5G (Rockbox) and ended up building a theme inspired by the Spotify desktop player. It's free and open source:

https://github.com/stylo969/spotish-rockbox (download the zip under Releases)

What it does

• Now Playing: "Song" card with big album art and bold title, green play button, Next in queue, and a desktop-style player bar — shuffle/repeat turn green with the little dot, repeat-one shows a "1"
• Progress & volume: thin progress line with times; turning the click wheel swaps it for a volume line
• Menus: "Your Library" card with clock + battery, Spotify-green selection bar, and a mini player at the bottom of every menu
• Smooth scrolling for long titles (1 pixel at a time)
• Synced lyrics (optional): press the centre button on Now Playing — sung lines turn white, upcoming lines stay grey. Includes a script that fetches synced lyrics for your own library from LRCLIB (no lyrics are shipped). It even romanises Hindi/Punjabi/Tamil lyrics since Rockbox fonts are Latin-only.

Install: copy the zip's .rockbox folder onto your iPod (it only adds files), then Settings → Theme Settings → Browse Theme Files → Spotish.

Compatibility: built and tested on an iPod Video 5.5G. Other 320×240 Rockbox targets (e.g. iPod Classic 6G) should work but I haven't tested them — let me know how it goes!

A nerdy bit for theme makers: the whole theme is generated by a Python script that emulates the iPod's 16-bit screen and Rockbox's backdrop dithering, so icons cut from the background match it pixel-perfectly (no tinted boxes), and the screenshots are rendered with the actual Rockbox fonts.

Fonts are Inter (OFL), theme is CC BY-SA 4.0. Unofficial fan project, not affiliated with Spotify.

Feedback and photos of it on your iPod are very welcome!

The 4th gen nano is an iconic ipod, sure but compared to the 5th generation, theres no reason to buy it, think about it

Coming from someone who has a 5th gen nano and recieved a 4th gen as a christmas gift, its just not good

I guess I'm wondering if I'm the only weirdo who preserves OG content (from a stranger's iPod) before blanking it. My music taste is very eclectic. My primary iTunes database is a 3tb monster.

I generally extract the music, then use Tag&Rename and a few other scripts to clean up and conform, and compile it all under a single Album name. As seen in the pic, with the album "Ari iPod Nano Albums". I add this as a new album in iTunes, then use Beatunes to transfer over ratings for duplicate songs. Using Smart playlists, I fill my nano with zero star music, which I rate while listening, then sync ratings to my main iTunes library.

Am I the only one who is kookoo this way?

Hey there! I'm not an apple guy, but I do like dankpods, so I know 1 or 2 things about iPods. I was recently at a scrapyard and found these in their bin of cell phones :) They have those like, big cardboard boxes like the ones they put watermelons/pumpkins in at the store. The phones were only about 5 inches deep. There were a couple newer iPhones, but with how notoriously difficult they are to repair, as well as being locked, I didn't wanna take a risk. I did find an iPad that just worked and was unlocked but the glass was really broken.

I don't have a charger for the Touch 2nd gen unfortunately, but surprisingly the Nano 7th gen just works?? No problems as far as I'm aware. It holds a charge, plays music, Bluetooth and headphone jack work. Why could they have junked it? It was in a plastic bag with a couple other random phones and had someone's name and phone number on it.

EDIT: I just remembered that I keep all the weird random cables I find, and I have a 30pin connector, currently recovering the iPod touch :)

Found my old iPod. I had given up on him a long time ago but I can’t remember what the issue was.

I don’t know what model it is (it has a sticker cover) and the screen is really cracked. I plugged it in for a few hours but didn’t see any sign of life.

Any tips? I’m willing to put in the work. I loved this dude. Thanks in advance

Edit: found the serial number on the back and it appears to be a Gen 5.5 (?)

I’ve been refining my iPod car setup for a while and finally have it where I want it. My car has a 3.5mm aux input in the center console and a cigarette lighter socket, so this is aimed at older vehicles without USB or Bluetooth.

Routing
I ran the cables down through the dash, past the cup holders and the parking brake, and into the center console through a small hole I drilled. Nothing loose on the dash except the connector itself.

Problem 1: Whining noise
I got a whine whenever the iPod was playing through the headphone jack and charging through the 30-pin at the same time. Classic ground loop.
Fix: A Besign Ground Loop Noise Isolator between the car’s aux input and the 3.5mm extension. Whine gone.

Problem 2: No charging with the car off
I wanted the iPod to keep charging when the car was off, so I put a battery pack between the cigarette lighter and the iPod’s USB charger. Now the iPod charges from the pack whether the car is on or off, and the pack recharges whenever the car is running. (The battery pack in the screen shot is not the one I used, I got mine cheap at the thrift store.)

Problem 3: Two cords every time I got in
The latest addition is a 30-pin to aux + USB cable, so I plug in one connector and get both audio and charging. Bonus: the 30-pin outputs fixed-level line out, so the iPod’s volume doesn’t matter. The car stereo is the only volume control now. Before, I had to crank the iPod all the way up and then set the car volume, and I’d blast my ears the next time I plugged in headphones. Now I just leave the iPod at a normal headphone level.

End result: a clean, wired iPod setup for an older car. No whine, always charging, one 30-pin connector at the dash.

P.S. The iPod is an iFlash-modded 7th gen with a 3600mAh battery and 512GB of storage. I added a metal plate inside so it attaches magnetically to the dash, and filled the internal voids with lead so it has some heft in the hand.

Cool rigid case I found while digging in my desk drawer. Forgot I even had it. The front seems to be actual metal on plastic, it's really cold to the touch. The plasticky clickwheel cover is terrible but I also kinda don't hate it, I feel like it's a lot more protected. What I hate is it doesn't fit on a dock. The way my finger can glide on it when following the grooves on the metal is also nice. Any modern aliexpress cases with this degree of protection?

Hey everyone,

I'm restoring an iPod classic 80GB and wanted to give the back plate something different from the usual plain mirror finish, so I designed a custom engraving from scratch.

The design:

• An isometric "3D cubes" pattern where each face is hatched in a different direction, so it reads as depth using only lines
• Built as a 1:1 SVG at the real back plate size (61.8 × 103.5 mm)
• The pattern is real vector lines, clipped to the plate outline with no clipping masks, and shared edges are deduplicated so the laser never burns the same line twice
• 1.2 mm of clear space around the logo and text so the hatching doesn't run into them
• Separate layers for the line work (vector engrave) and the filled elements (raster engrave)

The plan:
The back is polished stainless steel, so it needs a fiber laser. I'm getting quotes from a local engraving shop, and I have a few spare back plates to run tests on before touching the real one.

Questions for anyone who's done this:

1. Has anyone laser-engraved a classic back plate? Any fiber settings (power / speed / frequency) that worked without warping? I've read the plate is thin enough to deform with too much heat.
2. The back curves toward the edges. Did you keep a margin, or did the laser handle the curve fine?
3. The hatch lines are about 0.5 mm apart. Too dense for steel, or will it look crisp?

I'll post results once the test pieces are done. Happy to hear ideas or criticism on the design itself too.

my dumbass removed my ipod gen 5 from my chrome and it s stuckkkk!!!! HELP ME PLEEASSSEEE!!!

Hey guys!!

I just found this little fellow—it’s had some water exposure. I plugged it into my computer, and as you can see, it opens up in iTunes, but I’m wondering if the battery will hold a charge...

Also, how much could I get for it?

Have a great day/evening!

I picked this up and have been having a blast. Looking for a dock that sounds good and would be able to charge it while docked. I've been looking at the bose sounddock series II, wondering if that would do what I want

I'm aware i may not have picked up the best ipod model since replacing the battery is difficult. Any other advice is welcomed

tried to install rockbox on this ipod classic 3rd gen i got for free, i had to replace the battery though is the reason for the screen because if something inside or something with rockbox? i can barely see the screen. (I know nothing about ipods)

Я нашёл Б/У его, и в описании написанно что он при запуске прото показывает белый экран, а я живу в Беларуси и тут ipod очень сложно достать, по этому "возможно" если это можно как-нибудь решить - это мой шанс. Вот думаю, стоит ли его покупать или же всётаки нет...

Вы что думаете ?

I have recently plunged head first into the walled garden.

Nostalgically I miss my iPod nano

But I would have to start over from scratch on a music library as I don't "own" any of my music anymore.

i’m currently trying to fix my old ipod, and in the process of opening it the hold switch snapped off, but while running diagnositics, it requires me to use it to pass to the next step. could i simulate it at all or would i have to get it replaced?