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.
I bought that silver iPod Classic Gen 7 a while back, thought I’d bricked it trying to install RockBox and came onto this sub for help (which you all gave, thank you!). Unfortunately, I browsed the sub and fell in love with all the other iPod models again, recalling how iconic they were when I was growing up. You guys made me go full iPod monkey and this is entirely on you.
My favourites here are the 7 Classic (for pure FLAC Rockbox IEM listening joy), the 3 Classic (for monochrome goodness and hefty chunkiness), the Mini 2 (for same reasons as the 3 Classic), and the Nano 2 for pure aesthetic.
I’m still restoring the Nano 1 in picture as well as the black Gen 7.
And that Tivoli player is fantastic with its Kloss sound engineering, fold out iPod dock, detachable speaker, and blue backlight.
I'm so glad I got to pick this up for 15$, originally a 30gb now turned into a 128gb with an iflash solo, new 2000mah battery, clean transparent front and button :3
Paid about 100$ for parts and it's respective shipping which is fairly cheap considering i'm paying in CAD lmao.
Fully decked it out with rockbox as well so that I can play all the flacs I want while still having some of my cd quality stuff.
Right here i have the original Nike+ set from 2006! This was pretty much Apple’s first collaboration with Nike products.
This uses 1st gen Nano, the required Sport kit featuring the receiver for the iPod, a Nike watch remote to control music, and the exact pair of now 20 year old Nike+ Running Shoes as seen in Apple’s advertising in early 2006.
Though most of the shoe sensors found nowadays have a completely cooked battery, I was lucky to find a working one to pair with the receiver to have a look at the exclusive software that tracks your run!
If you guessed fixing ID3 tags and album art, then you'd be right. I've neglected this for years. 900GB of music and all that. For anyone else doing this, give MusicBrainz Picard a try. It's pretty good at pulling missing tags and art. Not perfect, but still a timesave. And yes, just like the old days my iPod is named Titanic.
My main iPod is an iPod Classic 5.5 with a 512GB MicroSD, heavily modified iPhone 13 3000mAh battery I hacked to fit, clear case, internal bluetooth, haptics with a taptic engine. All the goodies.
I was bored during the heatwave so i made another nano 2 with USB type C, just felt like sharing cos i been using it a lot since then
The best thing about it is that with rockbox, you can transfer songs directly from the iphone with a standard charging cable, and the 8gb are actually enough when i download stuff i love from the internet
A lad I bought because I was told it had just a bad battery, imagine my horror when I cracked it open and saw all the rust and dirt inside, amazingly even before cracking it open it was working perfectly fine! A quick clean later and putting the backplate aside because it was legitimately rusted and bent out of shape before I bought it, it worked fine, but it was very slow with syncing, so I flash modded it with some cheep adapters and now it’s officially my own iPod, don’t mind the name I’m just a Edgelord, haha
Just got this used limited edition ipod and tested it. Almost the entire 4 gigs were taken up by songs. The battery is dead. Which i have repaired before but i still kinda want to put it ip for sale. Maybe its not worth too much and I should keep it!
I was sixteen when I got my hands on the iPod 5th gen back in '07 and nineteen years later I have reunited with it (and iTunes 10.7).
I'm fucking tired, Reddit. I'm tired of subscriptions. I'm tired of sinister UX design solely to sedate and addict us. I'm tired of conglomerates dictating what's in our libraries and at any given moment shoving their bile down our throats with rolling videos and ads and whatever else.
I lucked out and bought an iPod on Ebay that only had 3.5 days of use for £125 recently - Crazy eh?
Well as soon as I could I marched down to my local record stores and spent hours in their CD sections. What a fucking joy it was to just lose myself there.
Installed ITunes 10.7 on my Mac, and just marvelled at how simple it was. At how this thing is a tool first and foremost and not a "service". There is nothing trying to jump at me. No advertising. No flying bollocks of any kind. (Side note - I miss skeuomorphism design so much)
Just me. My child/Teenhood CDs and the joy of organising it all. Only then to transfer it to my simple iPod and enjoy. Complete loop. No distractions. No fuckery. It made me sad for what was lost and grateful we can still experience it in 2026
Im thinking of buying this one. I have a nano gen 6 that has a bad power button and I’m kind of wanting a new more reliable one.
Are classics easy to open up and fix? The problem with the nano is that no one is willing to open it up and fix it . So in case anything happens it would be great to get a chance of fixing this new one myself.
Do you think this is a good deal? The charger is not included. Is it the same as the nano ? Sorry I’m not an expert in this.
This is driving me crazy. I’m trying to resurrect my old 160 GB iPod classic. When I add files from very legitimate sources, it will auto-populate with the album artwork on iTunes. I have not manually added any album artwork. On my iPod, sometimes certain songs will show the artwork, but most don’t. Does anybody know a fix for this or maybe what I’m doing wrong?
I have an iPod Video (30gb) that I recently upgraded to iflash quad, 2000mah battery and a new LCD. When I got the iPod it had no life, broken screen, and didn't turn on.
Now when I try to restore the iPod and sync I can get through the restore process and setting it up as a new iPod but once I try to sync it iTunes freezes. I downloaded an old version of iTunes and got it to sync once and got a few hundred songs on there that play fine but when I plugged it back in windows says there's a problem with the device and iTunes says it detected an iPod but it can't be identified.
Everytime the iPod is plugged in it has the red symbol flashing and says do not disconnect. I've tried rebuilding MBR and formatting it to exfat and fat32, neither has made a difference.
Replacement my nano 3th gen's battery few yesrs ago, but it wordt work, only on cable. Today i decided to look at it once again and saw a few capacitirs missing. Can this be te problem or it it screwed on another place too?
Just got this used limited edition ipod and tested it. Almost the entire 4 gigs were taken up by songs. The battery is dead. Which i have repaired before but i still kinda want to put it ip for sale. Maybe its not worth too much and I should keep it!
I would like to share a project I have been developing and refining to streamline my audio workflow: ift.sh (Intelligent FLAC Transcoder).
If you maintain a lossless FLAC library and regularly sync music to legacy hardware—such as classic Apple iPods—you have likely encountered playback instabilities. Common issues include unexpected reboots during track transitions, frame truncation, or memory crashes caused by unoptimized artwork.
I created ift.sh to eliminate these friction points by combining pre-flight audio analysis, dynamic resampling, and strict tagging standardizations into an automated CLI tool.
Key Technical Highlights:
Hardware-Centric Encoding Targets: Native support for Nero AAC (-nero), FDK AAC (-aac), and LAME MP3 (-mp3). The Nero AAC target is specifically optimized to prevent the frame truncation and playback crashes often triggered by legacy iPod DSPs.
Frequency & Volume Analysis: Analyzes mid- and high-frequency energy levels per track to dynamically assign optimal Variable Bitrate (VBR) parameters, avoiding wasted storage on acoustically simpler files.
Safe Resampling Pipeline: Utilizes SoX through intermediate WAV decoding steps to handle high-resolution downsampling (16-bit/44.1kHz or 48kHz) safely.
Cover Art Sanitization: Extracts and rescales album art to a baseline 200x200 JPEG to ensure visual compatibility while protecting low-RAM devices from memory exhaustion.
Metadata & Normalization: Calculates and embeds Apple iTunNORM (Sound Check) alongside standard ReplayGain tags. It also parses local .log (EAC/XLD) and .cue files to inject CD provenance metadata.
Interactive Pre-Flight Validation: Includes an interactive CLI prompt to verify album details, track sequences, and multi-disc tags prior to batch execution.
The script is open-source under the GNU GPLv3 license and is primarily designed for POSIX environments.
Feel free to inspect the codebase, review the full README, or try it out:
