this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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I love fixing up classic iPods, and as much as I enjoy it, any mention of it comes with "but why?", then the person asking refuses to understand why I still like using iPods even in this time of streaming music.
I hate depending on an Internet connection and listening to ads (even as a paid customer), so local media is the only solution for me. And it's getting so hard to find phones with SD cards that I might have to start carrying around an MP3 player too.
I have a couple iPod classics, one has a dead battery but the other runs just fine. What all are the options for keeping these alive?
The repair depends on the iPod you have, but as long as it’s a Classic then it’s all much the same, and all pretty straightforward once you’ve got your head around it. The Minis are decent candidates for upgrading too, but you have to really careful not to damage the clickwheel cable. I did that on my first Mini, and almost threw it through the wall…
Watch some of the early Dankpods videos to get some idea of what you can do.
My next project is a 7th gen Classic that needs to be flashmodded. I’m planning on putting 512gb in that one.
I'd recommend installing a Plex server at home and using it to manage all your music. You can use the Plexamp app (available on Android, iOS, Windows, Mac and Linux) to stream music from your server, and the mobile apps have the ability to download playlists for offline listening. The basic features in Plexamp are free.
IMO streaming your own media is the best of both worlds. Plexamp has a bunch of awesome features too.
Plex still relies on an internet connection and limited phone storage though. iPods are just there, waiting for music to be put on them, music that you can still listen to even if your internet shits out.
Can't you use Plex entirely locally, other than the authentication?
Do you mean that Plexamp limits how much you can download?
No, I mean the phone’s storage limits how much you can download. If you’ve only got 64gb, then that’s your lot. With the more recent iPods (5G Classic onwards) you can easily drop a 512gb SD card in. I’ve seen 1tb done, but don’t know how stable that is.
Oh yeah, that's true. I forgot that modern phones don't have MicroSD card slots... why did they remove those??
Because money.
I use Jellyfin which covers all my personal streaming needs. But yeah, still not the same
I use iBroadcast and love it; the devs are super-responsive to feedback.
I'd try Jellyfin but I don't know if it has a good equivalent to Plexamp. I saw something called "Jellyamp" but it looked like a desktop-only app, and seems abandoned now.
I'd be looking for some of the fancier features that Plex and Plexamp have, like their sonic analysis (machine learning analysis of your music) that can suggest similar songs, fades between tracks, gapless playback for albums, etc.
I would definitely still use an iPod if they hadn't fucked up iTunes so badly.
Music is a fine replacement for iTunes. I still sync my iPods via with my new M2 MacBook Air. Works a treat.
But does it have Party Shuffle? That is what set iTunes apart.
Oh, I never used Party Shuffle. How did that work?
You could select a playlist or smart playlist to draw from, and it would show you both the tracks it had recently played and the tracks it was about to play, and you could customize how much of each; you could also do what are now standard queue operations like delete, reordering, and refreshing the queue. What made Party Shuffle the absolute GOAT, though, was that you could change the input playlist without disturbing the queue or history; only when it was adding tracks would it pull from the input source. So you could be adjusting the playlist on the fly without affecting planned playback.
This combined with a tree of "smart" playlists that drew from other "smart" playlists allowed for a great degree of automation. By itself it allowed by a great degree of adjustment based on mood without having to micromanage the queue in way that contemporary music library apps just don't have.
I keep an old and battered iPod nano (4th gen, I think?) just because I kinda like how I have one device I can use for music and music alone. It's too bad that I don't have the skills and patience to make it decently usable again. It's technically still usable, but it runs out of juice before I can play a couple of songs. I guess the battery's on its way to completely dying, and I would likely have to go through much trouble opening it and finding a replacement battery.
I've never worked on a 4th gen Nano, but am led to believe they're something of an arsehole to take apart, particularly if the battery has swollen. You'll know if it has by a black blob in the middle of the screen. To dismantle them, you have to slide the inner gubbins out of the end, which is basically impossible if the battery is wedging everything tight.
It might be worth picking up a Mini or something. They're fairly easy to refurbish and flashmod. Mine has 128gb currently.
Thanks for the information. The battery in my iPod isn't swollen yet, and I guess I can dismantle it if I have to. For now, I'm fine with having my phone also being my music device, but I'll keep it in mind. Again, thanks!