How to Mod an iPod Classic

r    This is my first time writing a blog on here and i don't know what to talk about so I'm going to explain iPod Classic modding. This tutorial and explanation will be specifically about the 5th Generation iPod Classic as it is the easiest of the iPod Classics to modify and repair. The iPod Classic is a wonderful MP3 player and its especially great today as they are easy to find online and the parts for getting yours working are super cheap and easy to find online and having a dedicated music player can be really good to avoid distractions from your phone when trying to listen to music. this guide also works for the 6/7th generation of ipod classic but those are really damn hard to open so i recommend the 5th gen if youre gonna start

The Motherboard is basically the brain of the iPod and it's where all the internal components of the device connect to. Located on here are the connections for the headphone jack cable and the hard drive and the click wheel.

 The Click wheel Connects to the motherboard via a flex cable. It is easily replaceable and you can be any color you want

The screen is an LCD screen and it connects via a flex cable as well.

The faceplate is the the plastic part of the exterior that you interact with. Its purpose is to look good but also to secure the clickwheel and the screen to the midframe of the iPod.

The midframe is a piece of aluminum that goes in the middle of the iPod and it is responsible for providing structural integrity to the ipod and all the internal parts sit on it including the backplate

The iPod Classic uses a miniature mechanical hard drive for storage and they can hold from 30 to 80 GB on the 5th Generation i think. One important thing to note is that the higher storage models use a thicker back plate and slightly different size headphone jack. The hard drive is connected the iPod by a small flex cable that connects to a connector on the hard drive and to another connector  on the motherboard.

The backplate is the stainless steel part on the back. it scratches way too damn easily but it looks really nice and shiny so if thats something that bothers you it can be changed for a newer one. The battery and headphone jack/hold switch flex cable are located here.

The battery powers the iPod and is probably the first thing you wanna replace if you get a used one or find your old one in a dusty drawer that you haven't used since 2005 because batteries lose their ability to hold a charge over time with use but especially if you dont charge it for a long time. There are larger capacity batteries that you can get but make sure its the correct battery as there is a thin and a thick model for the battery. The connector for the battery on the motherboard is really sensitive so be very careful when opening the iPod as it can be very easily broken if youre not careful and then it becomes impossible to fix unless you can solder. (dont ask how i know :'c)

The headphone jack and the hold switch are connected together in a single flex cable and thats about it

The first thing i would recommend is getting a new battery

Next i would recommend swapping out the hard drive for an SSD as the stock hard drives that came with them are really slow and unreliable. There are cheap SSD mods available on amazon and they can work but some are of questionable quality. If your going to put an SSD into your iPod i would recommend getting an SD card adapter from iFlash as they are the best and most reliable adapters for this. id also recommend getting an SD card of your desired amount of gigabytes for the storage (the iPod Classic can support up to 1 TB but due to limitations of the hardware it will be be unable to properly shuffle songs if you fill it up all the way. and honestly 1 TB is overkill for an iPod so I would recommend around 256 GB to 500 GB for the best experience)

The other options for modding are purely cosmetic like changing the color of your faceplate, backplate, and click wheel.

 
There are other options like adding Bluetooth but those mods tend to be more complex and may require soldering.

Time for the scary part, opening your iPod. The 5th generation is honestly quite easy to open up and it shouldnt be too difficult for a beginner. The iPod is held together by small clips. To open it up you want to use a flat steel opening tool and sliding it in between the back plate and faceplate and carefully prying up to loosen the clips and you should be able to open it up but dont open it up all the way completely as the headphone jack and battery are still attached so carefully remove the battery from the connector first and then lift up the hard drive to access the connector for the headphone jack and remove it. After this you can begin disassembly to do your mods.

Parts can be found on Ebay but i recommend using Elite Obsolete Electronics as they have every part you need and even complete custom prebuilt iPods if you find that modding it yourself is too challenging for you.

This is their website:

https://eoe.works/

Video guides for opening up your ipod and more detailed explanations can be found on youtube and iFixit. I really recommend the Youtube Channel Dankpods as he has many detailed videos about fixing ipods.

iFixit also has written guides with pictures that are easy to follow for whatever device you might have.

these two places can explain everything you need to know and more.

Links:

https://www.ifixit.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@DankPods

so in conclusion ipods are really simple to mod and hopefully this sparks an interest in bringing your old ipod back to life it can be a very fun hobby because old tech is cool af.

i like ipods that is all

thank you reading my dumb ipod rambling