How to restore (or replace) your beloved iPod

How do I get all the things on my iPod back again off of it? Does Apple continue to fix these issues? And, most importantly to some, what are we intended to hear to now?

In this week’s edition of Ask Assistance Desk, we established out to tackle individuals troubles — and with any luck , influence a few persons to crack open up their iPods for enjoyment. And if you have a tech quandary of your personal you have been seeking to determine out, do not be shy: send an email to [email protected], or fill out this kind. We look at all of them, I assure.

Now, onto this week’s queries.

Planning for the worst: I like my iPod, so what will swap it if it breaks? I have films (that I made) and tons of audio, extra than I retain on my personal computer. And I dislike my Apple iphone so likely will not be utilizing it for new music. [I’m] also previous college as considerably as streaming — just really don’t want to pay out for that.

— Tori, Granville, Tex.

If it helps, Tori, you are certainly not the only particular person who nonetheless loves their iPod. And your query touches on two interesting problems other individuals have written in about, way too. Let’s take those people in buy.

Rescuing your previous new music and movies

It truly is certainly feasible to pull media off of iPods, even a great deal more mature types. The procedure can be a minor difficult, although — whether you might be utilizing a Mac or Computer system, you will have to make confident your personal computer can check out concealed documents and poke all around in the file construction shop on your iPod. Once you have managed that, you can drag and fall your files proper back again to your computer system, even if it isn’t really the one particular you had been working with the iPod way back when.

But, if you are prepared to pay out a small, you can find an less complicated way. I have used the weekend making an attempt out a handful of applications that claim to simply migrate from iPods again to a Computer or Mac, some of which failed to even acknowledge an attached mp3 player. (This is hunting at you, AnyTrans.) But just one app, identified as iMazing, worked like a attraction.

If you’re only immediately after a particular handful of tracks and films, you may well not have to have to for the services at all — iMazing allows you transfer 50 files from an iPod to a pc no cost. Any a lot more than that, and you are going to want to shell out some dollars the company’s one-time fees start at $34.99 for use with a one Apple product and go up relying on how quite a few iPods you want to pull from.

Discovering a replacement tunes participant

I know it would seem like the planet has moved on from mp3 gamers, but that is not fully accurate. Sony still can make some Walkman-branded moveable music players and SanDisk — a company most effective known for making storage chips for other devices — has a line of very small “Clip” new music machines also.

The catch? Except you find a excellent offer on a Sony, a lot of of the economical ones are type of junk-y. And the types that conduct — and seem — like rock stars can expense far more than most persons count on. This looker of a media participant from the Korean brand name Astell & will established you again $749, and that is the most inexpensive one particular they make.

So here’s what I would recommend. For yrs, LG — the corporation arguably most effective recognized for TVs and appliances — built smartphones that sounded amazing paired with the suitable headphones. The magic formula? They ended up about the only enterprise out there that place high quality DACs, or digital-to-analog converters, into their gadgets.

My close friends at the internet site Android Authority do a wonderful position unpacking the geeky details, but prolonged story short, specific LG phones — like any of its V-collection telephones, or the G7 or more recent — make for great new music devices. And since LG smartphones fundamentally tanked in the States, you can find these products on web sites like eBay for a relative steal. (That is, until supplies eventually start out to dwindle.) In any scenario, as soon as you have just one in hand, just move your songs on to the cellular phone, and voilà: you have primarily obtained an iPod Contact that plays new music much better than the actual offer.

Alternately, you could do your greatest to spruce up your present iPod to keep it managing for for a longer time — a thing a different reader was keenly fascinated in.

Reviving a Classic: I nonetheless have an iPod basic that, contrary to numerous other Apple products I’ve owned in excess of the many years, crapped out within just about a calendar year. I’d enjoy to get it working once again for the reason that new automobiles really don’t have CD players and my CD selection is large. Exactly where can I get it set? Does Apple nonetheless bother with repairs if it has discontinued the gadgets?

— Chris Dortch, Chattanooga, Tenn.

As you’ve likely guessed, Chris, Apple officially considers your iPod out of date. Virtually talking, that implies two matters: Initially, Apple won’t even hassle making an attempt to take care of it for you. And 2nd, Apple says on its web page that licensed services stores can’t even get the alternative components for those goods (exterior of some scarce circumstances, anyway).

With that in head, I would say you have a handful of alternatives. You could, for instance, scour Chattanooga for community fix shops that might be prepared to choose the situation. Most of these outfits tend to offer with smartphones, tablets and computers, but you could possibly get fortunate. Failing that, the maintenance chain ubreakifix features mail-in repair service provider, and even now would seem to fix older iPods like the one you have.

But if you have even the 1st twinge of fascination in Diy, you could want to consider correcting your iPod on your own. There’s no scarcity of online video walk-throughs to enable you figure out how to swap out likely problematic sections. (Some of them, like this one particular from Australian YouTuber DankPods, manage to be funny and comprehensive.)

And if highly visible, stage-by-action guides are a lot more your fashion, iFixit’s selection of guides is tough to beat.)

And with the suitable pieces — say, a greater battery and an adapter that replaces growing old tricky drives with easy-to-find SD cards — your iPod traditional could perform much superior in 2022 than Apple experienced ever imagined it would.