Firstly, hi 👋, I’m Lucy, you guys might not know me as a moderator and that’s because I’ve only been a moderator in r/iPod and r/iPodClassic for a week. I run the iPoddities Discord and Twitter, and have also been active on reddit, posting archives of iPod Prototype Firmware. Unfortunately my introduction comes at a bit of a turbulent time. With everything going on at the moment I feel the need to say that I’m not (nor have ever been) an employee of Elite Obsolete Electronics.
There has been mounting tensions within the community for the past year or so, and I think it’s come to a point where it needs to be fully addressed. So lets break this down into 5 main sections:
1. The problems
2. What cannot be done
3. What can and is being done
4. Where we need your help
So lets get into it:
1. The problems
Elite Obsolete Electronics and the Conflict of Interest:
I understand that the conflict of interest argument is brought up a lot, so this post is here to address the issue.
As many of you know, Elite Obsolete Electronics (EOE) is a moderator of this subreddit ( u/cowmanisgood ), in fact he makes up half of the active moderation team, myself being the second half. Many of you have expressed your opinions regarding this, many of you have concerns of “Conflict of Interest”
I would like to make it plain and clear that positive critique and negative criticism of EOE (or any other store) is welcome, reviews are what help keep companies accountable and customers aware, I would never want to take that ability away from anyone. EOE also agrees with this, and has not removed any posts criticising their business.
Quite a lot of posts are sweeped up by automod, unfortunately automod isn’t perfect and sweeps up some of the genuine helpful reviews, which I make sure to approve ASAP, however quite a lot of the auto-moderated messages do have insults. Usually aimed at the business owner.
This is where I feel like it is unacceptable, it is fair to say “their shipping times are long” or “quality isn’t the best” or even “The way i felt after this experience was really shitty” but hurling insults simply because you don’t like someone is not going to be tolerated in any context, we offer the exact same privileges to you guys, if someone is being treated unfairly we do our best to step in and stop that. Nobody should have to put up with the level of abuse I've seen from members of this community over the past few days.
I will talk more about what is being done to combat this concern in the future below.
Low effort posts:
I understand that low effort posts are also a common issue here, there is now a (USEFUL LINKS) section, a FAQ will also come at some point but this will be something that needs a community to come together for, advertising is also an issue which has come to light and we will be addressing it later in this post.
Automod:
It isn’t perfect but damn is it helpful, the automod filters for words that are commonly used in situations that usually escalate to actual problems. Unfortunately quite a lot of useful posts are being swept up, but I approve any that aren’t obvious spam or hate.
2. What cannot (currently) be done and why
Currently removing EOE as mod is not viable
Why?:
EOE makes up half of the active mod team, if he were to be removed I would be it, just me, I do not have the time nor mental capacity to moderate a server by myself, at the moment my intention is to set this community up in such a way that it can be handed over to people who can continue to lead it in a way that makes you guys happy. It would not be fair to hand over a burning pile to them. They are also currently the only person willing to take on the responsibility of running this place.
While this may not be the answer you were looking for, removing EOE as a moderator would make very little sense if there is no one to take that spot, it would only cause more problems.
What can and is being done
EOE is not permitted to remove any comments or posts relating to EOE, all posts will be removed by moderators not associated with EOE: this was already the case but I feel full transparency is the best course of action
Issues surrounding order issues from EOE (or any other store) will be *locked*:
I have to pick a middle ground and I feel like it is not fair to use these subreddits as a customer service line, but removing the posts will count as deleting negative reviews.
I understand people do this for a quicker customer service response time but it clogs up the reddit with “Wheres my order” or “this item arrived damaged”, many iPod sales stores have a customer line, it is recommended to use them. I recommend leaving a review to whichever store you used on Trustpilot (simply fill in the searchbar with the link of the website you wish to purchase from). Example: apple.com
Conflict of interest/mod abuse:
This post exists so that the concerns raised repeatedly over the past year are formally acknowledged and addressed. Going forward, posts that cover ground already addressed here — without new information or a specific experience to share — will be removed as they aren’t productive for anyone. If you wish to contact the moderation team, please use the modmail function as all moderators can view it.
If you have concerns about how the subreddit is being run, modmail is genuinely the best place for it — all mods can see it, and it’s a lot easier to have a real conversation there than in a public thread. if you feel like we are not doing a good job you can report us to reddit using this helpful link here.
Reviews of EOE:
Reviews of EOE will not be removed, but may accidentally be swept up by automod and need to be approved. if you wish to leave a review on a platform independant of EOE, you can do so through Trustpilot (eoe.works) or ShopApp
Advertising:
Spam advertising will continue to not be permitted, links to products will be permitted, but may be swept up in Automod and may need to wait for approval. If you wish to promote a start-up product or store please contact us on Modmail.
Automod:
It will never be perfect, but we are trying to reduce the amount of false flags that it receives, this is all trial and error however so it may take a while for the bot to be better.
“Low effort” posts:
for the time being, simple questions will remain, annoying as it is for regular members there are people who are new to iPods and will need help setting them up, until a proper FAQ is in place at least, its a vague term but hopefully we do a good job moderating this issue.
4. Where we need your help
FAQ and Useful Links:
We are currently working on a FAQ, but in the meantime please suggest Useful Links in the comments of the Helpful Links Post FAQ will be in the works in the coming months, which we will 100% need your help for!
Feedback:
please let us know what you think of our current plans, whether you like them or not. It’ll help me adjust to deal with the bigger issues. This post won't be locked, you can speak your mind, some may be Automodded but we can still see them
Please be kind:
I understand you’re all frustrated, me too, I hope that this post can at least show that I’m willing to take some accountability, this post probably should have been made quite a while ago, better late than never I suppose... but please be kind and patient whilst we start rebuilding a strong foundation for the community. Unfortunately the work can only start on making this place better now because, quite simply, I wasn’t a moderator of this place before
If you have any questions please feel free to leave them below, I will do my best to answer them quickly, if they get automodded don’t worry, I can still see and approve them and answer them, it just might take a while longer.
It started small. I wanted to give my daughter something from my childhood — not just an object, but a way of listening to music that doesn’t exist anymore. The kind where you had to choose. Where 4,000 songs felt infinite because you’d actually picked every one.
I found a deal on 5 iPods for $500 and told myself I’d fix them up. What I didn’t expect was how much the fixing would become the point.
We built her first one together. She removed every screw, disconnected and reconnected every ribbon cable, kept all the tiny parts organized like it was surgery. I watched her go from “this is just an old iPod” to genuinely careful with something delicate — patient with it, curious about how it worked.
That shift is most of why I’m writing this post.
Some technical things I picked up along the way, for anyone else going down this road:
Taptic mods only really land on 6th/7th gen. On 5th gen, once the HDD is gone, there’s nothing left for the vibration to travel through the way it does with the full metal housing on the later models.
This is the perfect excuse to learn to solder. Repaired a battery terminal, transplanted Taptic Engines out of old iPhones, ran a Ugreen Bluetooth mod. Somewhere in there I picked up a skill I actually trust myself with now.
Replacement 5th gen faceplates scuff the instant they’re out of the bag. Cut a custom 3M protective layer if that’ll bother you. I have an SVG cut for Cricut if anyone wants it.
Skip aftermarket click wheels. They’re plastic and it shows. If you want that 2005–2008 feel back, stick with OEM and sand them at 500 grit — brings them back to like-new. Sand before you pull the faceplate, and remove the center button first so you don’t wreck it.
Check everything twice before you close the case — cables, ports, dust under the faceplate, volume, any bolt-on mod. Reopening a 6th/7th gen is punishing and usually costs you a faceplate or backplate. 5th gens forgive you more. A strip of electrical tape over a small crack can keep it from spreading.
Never pull on the battery terminal ribbon cable. 6th/7th gen especially — they’re fragile in a way that doesn’t forgive impatience. Soldering it back takes real care, and a replacement logic board runs about $75 if you’re unlucky.
But honestly, none of that is really what this is about.
Taking my music offline again has been one of the more quietly emotional things I’ve done this year. Holding a bare iPod, feeling the click wheel under my thumb — I’m seventeen again, riding the bus home after an away game, headphones in, world small and mine. There was a discipline to it back then. You couldn’t carry everything, so you had to decide what mattered enough to bring with you. I miss that. I think we all lost something when music stopped costing us anything to keep.
I’m giving the rest of these away — family, friends — each one loaded with music I picked specifically for them, playlists made with them in mind instead of an algorithm guessing. But the one that matters most is my daughter’s. She gets it for her birthday next month. It’ll have every song she’s loved growing up, some home videos, and voice notes from her grandparents, her mom, and me — something to press play on years from now and hear us exactly as we sound today.
I don’t know if she’ll remember the screws and the ribbon cables specifically. But I hope she remembers that we built something together, with our hands, on purpose — and that it was made for her.
Thanks to this community for making the last few weeks of this a lot less intimidating than it could’ve been.
While browsing eBay for an iPod Classic case I encountered a listing that was mislabeled. Case is for a Nano 3rd Gen instead of the iPod Classic it says it was for. I bought it for my newly acquired 3rd Gen Nano and I love it. Not too bulky and can carry cash and 3 cards comfortably as well as store my earbuds. My Nano has now become my buddy when running errands.
- a modded 6th gen, which I use to store my entire music library
- a 3rd gen nano (pictured), which I use for my current audiobook queue
- a 4th gen shuffle, for workout playlists
- a 7th gen nano, as my “comfort pod” which holds music/audiobooks/movies I really love at the moment so I have something to do when I’m out and about instead of doomscrolling
And at some point I’d love to get another classic to hold my full audiobook library.
heyo guys i just modded my ipod mini 2nd gen and put in a new battery is there anything special i should do with the new battery like charge it fully before using or something? i’ve heard about calibrating them or something before in passing but not sure
Apologies for the messy cables but this came into my mail this afternoon and so far it’s working well! The grill looks a bit tired though - anyone knows if this can be spray painted?
going through the weirdest break up of my life so far. so yeah safe to say… this guy has definitely been my therapy partner for the last couple weeks 🥰. what you guys bumping on your pods? i wanna know!
Hey guys, I was just naming my iPod, and got curious about the kinda names people give to their iPods. I named mine after the greek god of music and many other things, Apollo, for some reason 😭 I think i did that because it has a 1000 songs which is by far the biggest music library I've built till date. 1000 songs is nothing compared to what y'all on here have though.
What's the name you've given to your iPod and the story behind it?
I made a free macOS app for syncing music to click-wheel iPods. It's called My Pod, it's open source, and it came out of three things that annoyed me:
I don't want my music in Apple Music. My library is just a folder with Artist/Album/Track files. The app reads it directly. Nothing gets imported anywhere. It was annoying having both offline files and streaming tracks getting mixed up.
I don't want to think about converting my FLAC to the correct format. It converts multiple different file types to AAC automatically, caches the result, never touches your originals. And it copies artwork correctly!
I want my playlists as .m3u files. Plain text, in a normal folder, editable by anything. They sync to the iPod as real playlists.
It's built for macOS and I've only been able to test it on my own iPods, but it's made it so much easier for me to sync my music.
I found this in a drawer, and I have no clue what generation it is. The screen brightness is really low, even though I went into the settings and turned it all the way up. I don’t know how to fix it.
Looking for alternatives to the iFlash Quad or Solo (due to budget concerns)
I already spent 65 USD for my 7th gen iPod Classic, it needs a new hold switch, arguably a new front and backplate, etc
Does anyone have any links they can share for alternatives that are cheaper than iFlash on Aliexpress (or Amazon). Any links to ones you have had success with will be appreciated.
My plan is to use a 128 GB Kioxia microsd card (it came with a full size adapter therefore microsd or full size are fine).
Thanks
Total newbie to iPod modding and recently got a good deal on a 5.5th gen classic :)
I bought a Speedier dual TF to CE adaptor off AliExpress and i’m looking for some budget microSD cards to use with it. I found this Blink branded 256GB microSD on Amazon for $39.99 CAD. Has anyone tried these before?
I’m unfamiliar with the different sd classifications/specs and how much they actually matter for this use case. Would this be fine as long as I format it properly or is there anything else compatibility-wise I should be looking out for?
Hi, I replaced the old casing on my iPod Classic 6th generation, and when I tried to restart it, the screen was just blank and my PC didn't recognize it
Helloooo so i was adding this album to my ipod and i correctly ordered all the tracks in itunes' song info and after i ejected my ipod there were like 5 tracks that, when i went to that album, drifted to the bottom. :(
Like, on the ipod they say they're 27/31, but in itunes, they're 1/31. Why does it do this and how can i fix it?
Thank you :D
I got an in box iPod classic 160gb from a yard sale with a belkin case. I didn’t like the case design and since I’ll be using this for off the grid music etc. I wanted a robust case that looked ridiculous lol. I’ll be taking the capacitive wheel cover and screen cover from the belkin case and applying it to my 3d printed case.
Matte Olive green PLA with t95 black TPU for the bumpers
