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How to make an iPod better than new

Restarter Ben Skidmore provided research for this post.

It’s National Upcycling Week, which for our purposes should be National Upgrading Week.

Here at the Restart Project, giving old objects new life is something we think should be happening every week of the year. Now is as good a time as any to head to the dreaded Drawer of Abandoned Electronics and dig up an old gadget.

But to give you a bit of extra motivation this week, we’re focusing on a previously much-loved, now rarely-spotted device: the iPod. Mp3 players have two major advantages as a music-listening device over your phone: they have longer battery life and more storage. And with a bit of patience, you can make them better than new.

Storage

Swap a smaller or faulty hard drive with new flash storage. This requires an adapter and careful formatting. See here for a detailed, step-by-step guide, or our wiki page for some more general information on repair

Note: We recommend SD cards as they’re cheaper and use less power than an SSD or hard drive: we bought our adapter here.

Battery

Batteries tend to run down over time. Luckily, you can buy good quality replacement batteries that will make your iPod last longer than ever. You won’t have to choose between taking the bus to work in silence and draining your phone.

Portability

Perhaps you stopped carrying your iPod around with you to cut down on weight? These two fixes have the added advantage of making your iPod lighter: the newer parts are much less bulky than those used in the original model.

If you’d like to have a go at a DIY iPod upgrade but you feel you’d benefit from some guidance, why not come along to one of our Restart Parties and have a chat to one of our volunteers?

There are plenty of things you can do with old parts, and no object is useless. If you don’t have a use for your old Mp3, someone else might. Visit our page on how to sell your old things on Ebay and support Restart.

 

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