RIP iPod Touch - RIP iPod line (2001-2022) (1 Viewer)

[greenscreened]

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624

"Owners of iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, or Apple TV products may obtain service and parts from Apple service providers, including Apple Retail Stores and Independent Repair Providers, for a minimum of 5 years from when Apple last distributed the product for sale."

Going by MacTracker, that means there's about a month left to get repair service on the final generations of the iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle.

• iPod Nano (7th generation) (September 2012 – July 2017)
• iPod Shuffle (4th generation) (September 2010 – July 2017)

But going by the Apple support article, which describes these models as "iPod products vintage worldwide," we may already be into the period when service is not available, or is "subject to parts availability."

Thanks Thomas.

My two surviving 160s are both 7th generation, but I'll have to pin down exactly when I bought them. One may have been in 2008.
I had one of them upgraded a couple of years ago to a 256 SSD by a local shop, but it would go on a song skipping spree, playing the first 5-10 seconds of a song or so, then move on to the next one, and so on, and so on.

Every once in a while I try to find another local shop that can upgrade it properly, but no luck.
I may try to do the upgrade myself, or buy a refurbished-upgraded one off the internet.
I am really babying the surviving one, until then.

 

[Thomas Newton]

Thanks Thomas.

My two surviving 160s are both 7th generation, but I'll have to pin down exactly when I bought them. One may have been in 2008.

The iPod Classic 160 GB (Late 2009) was discontinued in September 2014. Apple lists it as one of the iPods that is "obsolete worldwide" – which means that Apple doesn't provide hardware service or repair parts any more.

The iPod Nanos (7th generation) are smaller, flash-based devices. It doesn't sound like you have one of those.

I just noticed that Apple makes a distinction between

• iPod Nano (7th generation)
• iPod Nano (7th generation, Mid 2015)

and

• iPod Shuffle (4th generation)
• iPod Shuffle (4th generation, Mid 2015)

It looks as if, in Mid 2015, they changed the available colors for the Nano and Shuffle, while keeping the underlying hardware the same.

 

[greenscreened]

The iPod Classic 160 GB (Late 2009) was discontinued in September 2014. Apple lists it as one of the iPods that is "obsolete worldwide" – which means that Apple doesn't provide hardware service or repair parts any more.

The iPod Nanos (7th generation) are smaller, flash-based devices. It doesn't sound like you have one of those.

I just noticed that Apple makes a distinction between

• iPod Nano (7th generation)
• iPod Nano (7th generation, Mid 2015)

and

• iPod Shuffle (4th generation)
• iPod Shuffle (4th generation, Mid 2015)

It looks as if, in Mid 2015, they changed the available colors for the Nano and Shuffle, while keeping the underlying hardware the same.

Thanks for the clarification, Thomas.
Looks like it's back to plan 'B' for me!

 

[Thomas Newton]

Airplane mode is insufficient. There are places where devices cannot have the wireless hardware at all -- there can be no chance of stray EMI. It's obsolete iPods or obsolete CD players or bust.

Based on a quick search on Amazon, it appears that just about all non-Apple MP3 players that you can currently buy have Bluetooth, with many also having FM radios. A few low-capacity SanDisk players (the 8, 16, and 32 GB SanDisk Clip Sport Go players) have FM radios, but do not appear to have Bluetooth. (The similar SanDisk Clip Sport Plus models do.)

Looks like nobody is catering to the market for portable music players without any wireless hardware at all.

 

[DaveF]

Nope. Everything has had BT and wifi standard for years.

 

[Museum Pieces]

I just connected my iPod to my iTunes to update some music, which I have done dozens of times, and I got a message that it did not recognize my iPod, that I must restore it to original factory settings. Like hell I will. That will delete everything on it, and what assurance do I have that it will then reload my music? I find this to be oddly not a coincidence: the first time I try to update my iPod after they discontinue them and I get this message. I've had all the iPods at one time or another, updated hundreds of times, and never received a message like this.

I guess I am reconciled that the music now on my iPod is the music on my iPod until the day it dies.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I remember seeing that message on my old iPod as the HDD was dying years ago.

 

[DaveF]

I just connected my iPod to my iTunes to update some music, which I have done dozens of times, and I got a message that it did not recognize my iPod, that I must restore it to original factory settings. Like hell I will. That will delete everything on it, and what assurance do I have that it will then reload my music? I find this to be oddly not a coincidence: the first time I try to update my iPod after they discontinue them and I get this message. I've had all the iPods at one time or another, updated hundreds of times, and never received a message like this.

I guess I am reconciled that the music now on my iPod is the music on my iPod until the day it dies.

How old is your iPod? 5 years? 10 years? 15+ years? They don’t last forever. it might be dying. MIght be time to think about pulling your backup out to storage and making sure it works.

My iPod nano (4th generation) 16GB from 2008 Is dying. It still charges, incredibly. But screen pixels are failing. And of course I can’t sync music from Apple Music subscription.

I looked into buying a refurb’d nano from the used market. But having found Apple Music sub is now workable in spaces where I previously used my nano, I’m happily moving on to a non-iPod life.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I stopped using an iPod of any kind around 2015 and stick with just using my iPhone for music and podcasts, which is always with me anyway. If I find myself in a non wifi / cellular environment, I go into airplane mode.

*edited to correct date typo

 

[greenscreened]

I just connected my iPod to my iTunes to update some music, which I have done dozens of times, and I got a message that it did not recognize my iPod, that I must restore it to original factory settings. Like hell I will. That will delete everything on it, and what assurance do I have that it will then reload my music? I find this to be oddly not a coincidence: the first time I try to update my iPod after they discontinue them and I get this message. I've had all the iPods at one time or another, updated hundreds of times, and never received a message like this.

I guess I am reconciled that the music now on my iPod is the music on my iPod until the day it dies.

My odd experience with one of my two surviving iPods happened about six years ago.
I was on a forum reading a thread on people upgrading their devices to SSD storage themselves.
One of the members mentioned he was going to change out the headphone port himself, as only the left channel was working.
The next day, I get mine out and connect my headphones to it, and low and behold, only one of my channels is working...sympathy pains?!

I checked the port myself, and even brought it to Apple, and there were no foreign objects (pocket dust) in it to be found.
It's the only one of the two that is still working, so it only gets played in my truck.

I mentioned on this forum that I have approx. 500 playlists, more
Smart ones than statics, and quite a few of them are superfluous, et al. INSTRUMENTALS (all caps designate it is all of them, with no restrictions), Instrumentals 20.0 (twenty hours), Instrumentals 10.0, etc, Instrumentals 10.0 Allegro, Instrumentals 10.0 Reversed, (so the songs with lesser playcounts are at the top of the p/l and get played first!)...AAAHHH!
Many of the Smart ones are also referring to (multiple) other SPLs, and also statics, and rely on them to sync properly.

The last couple of months when I sync it to iTunes, it syncs on average 300 files every time, even if only one song was played since my last sync, which is putting excess wear on the aging unit, and my well being.
I tried to make note of the songs during the sync, to try and track down the p/l that is the culprit, (if in fact that is the issue) but they whiz by.

So I finally started deleting quite a few of them a couple of days ago.
ITunes used to show which SPLs have been compromised if one of the p/ls it relies on has been deleted, but that feature seems to be gone now.
I'm going to whittle it down to less than 100 p/ls.

I do have the music files backed-up to two separate ext. SSDs, and I have just about all the music I need at this point.
If I add any new files, I manually add them to the externals, mirroring their same location as in the Mac's iTunes folder, but most importantly, I manually copy and paste the updated .itl and .xml files, since I do rely on playcounts and other manually added information, since quite a few of my music is in the WAV format.
Without them, iTunes will only show the song title when the WAV file is added to a new iTunes library, but plays, comments, ratings etc. are gone.

I should probably get off my keister and buy a small soldering iron and change the port out myself, and then upgrade the broken one to an SSD, but at this point, I'd rather pay to have someone else do it for me, or just buy a refurbished one with an SSD.

 

[Museum Pieces]

How old is your iPod? 5 years? 10 years? 15+ years? They don’t last forever. it might be dying. MIght be time to think about pulling your backup out to storage and making sure it works.

My iPod nano (4th generation) 16GB from 2008 Is dying. It still charges, incredibly. But screen pixels are failing. And of course I can’t sync music from Apple Music subscription.

I looked into buying a refurb’d nano from the used market. But having found Apple Music sub is now workable in spaces where I previously used my nano, I’m happily moving on to a non-iPod life.

It's 12 years old but basically lives by my bed and is connected to power nearly all the time. The battery still holds a great charge.

Oddly my "new" iPod also received an error message. Basically I got an "okay to disconnect" after plugging it in. I read that all versions of iTunes after 12.7 will not work for iPods. I checked my version and it is 10.4, so I should be good.

Maybe my computer is the problem. It is only five years old but I am trying to find the nerve to wipe it and reload everything to make it a new computer again, as it has developed so many quirks. If I don't open iTunes immediately upon rebooting, for example, it won't open because something starts that blocks it. Same for Premiere Pro. I have to open it right away upon booting. A lot of my USB ports work for sticks but not for external drives. Odd stuff. Of course I have everything backed up. It's just that I don't want to go through the hassle of getting everything loaded and set up again. I know eventually I will have to do it and should just do it, but it's stressful anyway I cut it, and just don't want that in my life right now.

 

[Guardyan]

I just connected my iPod to my iTunes to update some music, which I have done dozens of times, and I got a message that it did not recognize my iPod, that I must restore it to original factory settings. Like hell I will. That will delete everything on it, and what assurance do I have that it will then reload my music? I find this to be oddly not a coincidence: the first time I try to update my iPod after they discontinue them and I get this message. I've had all the iPods at one time or another, updated hundreds of times, and never received a message like this.

I guess I am reconciled that the music now on my iPod is the music on my iPod until the day it dies.

I think the problem might be somewhere else. I can still can my old iPod to my computer and I don't get any warnings. Still operating as if it's the noughties.

 

[GeorgeHolland]

I bought a 128GB iPod touch (7th Generation) on 9/8/2020 to connect to my Anthem STR Pre-amp via the Apple Camera Connector to the USB input on the Anthem. The camera connector allows me to bypass the iPod/iPhone DAC and use the DAC in the STR. I still use iTunes to organize and the Music app on the apple devices.

I wish I had bought the 228GB version; I save all my music files as Apple Lossless (ALAC) and 128GB is only enough space for a couple play lists. If I want to listen to albums as they were intended, I need to plug in my iPhone that has enough memory for my entire library. My wife upgraded and I was using her iPhone X after she got her new iPhone but it will not play the Music app reliably and we kept it to give to one of my daughters as she routinely loses or breaks her mobile phone.

I still use an old iPhone, 3G I think, as an iPod since it is all that will fit in my 2009 335i’s iPhone snap in adapter.

 

[Malcolm R]

I have two quite old Nanos (plus a new Touch) and they still seem to work fine and don't get any error messages when connected to iTunes (which I update regularly).