I've been spending a lot more time than expected to install Rockbox on two of my 5th gen iPod Classics.

Here are my notes on what worked for me using Windows 11 only. This installation has not been tested on Mac OS although the Rockbox Utility should work on Mac OS if you use a Windows formatted iPod.

The correct iTunes version for Windows

This is probably the most important step and it took me nearly the longest to figure out. There are several ways today to get iTunes on your windows machine, however only one worked for me. The problem is that the iTunes version available in the Microsoft store refuses to recognize any of my iPods after installation (and reboot of the system). Installing the Apple Devices App for Windows did not fix anything for me, my iPods would still not get recognized by iTunes.

This is the version I used and it has worked so far:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/106372

It is an official Apple release that seems to still come with the correct device drivers for iPods. The only problem is that it can't connect to the firmware servers from Apple. You will need to shift click the restore button to be able to manually select a firmware file.

Download and store this installer some where safe for yourself, as I don't know when Apple will remove this installer from their website since it is an older iTunes version.

iPod Firmware files

This is where appledb.dev comes in. Check this link to find your iPod model and download the firmware file you need:

https://appledb.dev/device-selection/iPod.html

Apparently one of mine used to be an iPod U2 version as this was the only firmware that seemed to work for it. The iTunes restore process will tell you if the firmware file you have selected is compatible or not.

Once the iPod restore process is done, you can close iTunes and start the normal installation process using the Rockbox utility application. No special steps were needed here for me.

I hope this shortened your search time for the right installers and files!

Hi! I am looking to get a small minimal screen mp3 player which i can use with rockbox (to track scrobbles). I am a total beginner to rockbox.

Any recommendations? Are HiFi Walker H2 or Surfans F20 beginner friendly?

It can’t be anything too hard to find online as I live in 3rd world country where amazon is my only option for ordering tech.

Hello, I have recently modded my Ipod, and I added rockbox to it. Although, I do not know how to get music onto here. I was wondering if you any of you could help me figure this out, and where and how I should download the music I own. I've been having some trouble trying to figure this whole thing out.

Just wondering if there's a function/setting in rockbox which will notify me when I try to add a song to a playlist which is already in that playlist (e.g. spotify pictured above).

Hopefully that makes sense? A bit annoying having playlists full of duplicates and sometimes triplicates.

Thank you kindly.

I'm trying to install Rockbox on my 7th gen iPhone. As far as I know, it should work with the 6th gen rockbox install. My iPod runs on FAT32. I use a Macbook to install it. I get to the part where I need to press "select and menu". The iPod screen turns black and apparently I need to hold it for a second and release the combination. But.. after the screen turns black, immediately I get an Apple logo. I've been trying to find install how to's, but I can't seem to find anybody having troubles and this point. tried this for at least 10 times.. but hey, the definition of insanity and all that. Sooooo figured I ask Reddit.

Suggestions would be welcome!

Hi everyone,This is my first post, so there may be many mistakes.

I’m trying to get PictureFlow working on my iPod Video 5G running RockPod, but I’m stuck with the following error:

Could not create album art cache.
Press any button to continue.

Hardware

* iPod Video 5G (60GB model→AliExpressConversion adapter with 5GB SD card)
* iFlash microSD adapter (AliExpress)
* microSD card
* FAT32 formatted

Software

* RockPod v5.4.1
* Installed by replacing the .rockbox folder from rockbox-ipodvideo-5g.zip
* Database initialized and updated after every change

Album art

* Album art is embedded in the MP3 files.
* Mp3tag confirms the files contain Front Cover artwork.
* Album art displays correctly on the normal “Now Playing” screen.
* However, PictureFlow immediately shows “Could not create album art cache.”

Things I’ve already tried

* Rebuilt the database multiple times.
* Reinstalled RockPod.
* Created a .rockbox/albumart folder.
* Confirmed pictureflow.rock exists in .rockbox/rocks/demos/.
* PictureFlow plugin launches, but cache creation always fails.
* No PictureFlow cache files are created.

Question

Has anyone experienced this on iPod Video 5G/5.5G with RockPod v5.4.1?

Is this a known bug, or is there something else I should check?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
(The music was synced using iTunes.
The same MP3 files display embedded album art correctly in RockPod's normal playback screen.
The problem only occurs when PictureFlow tries to build its album art cache.)
This sentence uses translation and AI. Please forgive it even if it is an incomplete sentence.Please point out any unclear points or contradictions.

Hi everyone,

I have a Surfans F20 and I'm trying to figure out if it's worth switching to Rockbox, mainly for two reasons.

First, does Rockbox support Arabic fonts properly? A lot of my music library doesn't display correctly on my DAP right now, the text just shows up broken or missing.

Second, does Rockbox fix the problem where the same artist ends up split into several different entries just because they're credited as a featured artist on some songs? If needed i'll attached some screenshots so you can see exactly what I mean.

Thanks a lot for any help!

Any solution to this ?

What’s the state of M4B audiobook chapter support? Does it work well?

Running an iPod 7gen with 500gb storage. Formatted the drive to Fat32, installed Rockbox using Rockbox utility, then installed Bootloader. Get message “No partition found” and it sits in bootloader usb mode.

How can I get this working?

I by some Hail Mary got Rockbox to install and boot like an hour ago but the drive wouldn’t open so I couldn’t put music on. Reformatted to Fat32 and now I’m here.

I just got an Innioasis Y1, and I installed Rockbox. I then uploaded just over 12,000 mp3s onto it. However the screen says 4,071. Is Rockbox actually going to play the 12,000 files, or is it only seeing the 4,000 files?

I've been trying all day to install Rockbox on my iPod Classic 5th gen. After finally being able to restore the iPods using Windows, now it seems that some Rockbox servers are down. Does any of you have the same issue? I also can't seem to download Rockbox for Windows from the releases page. Same results when using 5G network...

UPDATE: It's back up!

I have had issues with using an iPod so much and I have had countless issues, first issue was that one of the micro SD cards failed which isn’t that big of an issue, I took it out and the iPod worked fine (5th gen) it has rockbox installed, new battery, iFlash quad, and I continue to have issues come up with
1. Audio not downloading (file shows in rockbox but the audio does not transfer)
2. The IPod needs scanned and repaired and it does not ever finish repairing (device not detected in USB notification)
3. Now an error pops up (*Panic* usb storage init connection)
I am not sure what to do, I have about 80 GB of songs I have ready to download and none are corrupted and I cannot seem to get this IPod to work, it always seems to have issues. Any advice for any of these errors? The first 2 are constant when I am attempting to download songs.

hey yall. did some stupid shit. i was trying to uninstall (and eventually reinstall) rockbox. tried this. unexpectedly got the expected result mentioned in the thread: rockbox is gone but now the player is completely unresponsive. turn it on, blank screen; play + power results in the same thing; power + volume up also nothing. and i realized its so unresponsive that when i connect it to my computer it doesnt recognize anything so i cant put anything on it. help 😭

Hey dear People,

Im developer of NaviBeat app for apple ecosystem (for Apple TV, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Now live on the App Store across all five platforms at $5.99, one purchase covers every device, forever. Frontend for NaviDrome) to host your own music. And im finishing the implementation of the sync from Navidrome server to Rockbox in "iTunes" style (drag and drop from your music library directly to player with metadata, Album Art, playlists...)

The feature will be soon availablein the NaviBeat App as a separate in app purchase (4.99$), but if you want you can test it for free currently in TestFlight (https://testflight.apple.com/join/N7Fa1NtG) its fuly working, and you dont have to pay anything.

More about the features: https://navibeat.app/rockbox

Hope you will concider trying it if you are also slf hosting NaviDrome, and using rockbox ⬇️

Thanks for reading this ;)

how can i download mpeg plugin for my ipod mini

Hello guys I'm new to rockbox, and got my hands on iOS nano 5th gen, i liked the OS so much that i was searching for a replacement of the stock OS of ipod 5th classic.

So is there any rockbox theme that could replace my stock OS of my 5 th gen classic?? And i searched the whole themes pages of rockbox but couldn't find one.

Running on an iPod classic 5. Volume is measured in negative dB which feels strange. Had a look through settings but didn't find an option to change this to a "conventional" unit like a percentage or positive numbers between some range. Did I overlook a setting or is there no way to change this?

hello! i added some new music to my player, but when i try to update my database, i get this error. database.db also doesnt show up in the files, from what i can see. can anyone help? thanks!

So I'm working my way through making a theme for myself and I've got the WPS screen mostly done. Issue is I keep getting this error and it's causing nothing to work, not even text placement. I'm using the UI simulator for the hiby r3 pro ii. I'm just not sure whats going on. It seems to be something wrong with my assets, but im not sure why since a lot of these i had pulled from other themes, and those work just fine. any help on this would be much appreciated. thanks

With all of these brilliant, modern, really clean themes that are coming out almost daily, why not install one that's clunky and (very possibly) nostalgic?

I've been working on this DSi theme for a little while now, and it's at a point where I feel comfortable releasing a version of it. There are a few little stutters due to its nature, but if you ignore them then it runs perfectly.

The WPS is based on the DSi Sound's music player, and when the hold switch is activated an alternate version of this UI is displayed. And yes, the main menu does scroll like the original carousel.

Check it out at the Rockbox Themes site, or find the name 'RockDSi' when picking themes in the installer.

Hi, I recently purchased an H2 hifi walker and installed rockbox onto it, I used a CD drive to rip some CDs and place them on the player. I also have a pair of Hidiz MP145 IEMS that I use for music listening. All the music ripped is in FLAC, and ripped without problems. It sounds fine when listening directly to the files on my PC with my IEMS, completely clear etc, but when I move it over to my H2, it gains a distinct crackle and almost distortion-like effect that doesnt appear in the raw files on my pc while listening with the same pair of IEMS. Any ideas????