I revived my old iPod to escape my phone

Why I Needed an iPod Again

I keep trying to cut down on my phone, but every time I hit play on a service like Spotify I end up scrolling through feeds, replying to messages, or checking the news. The music that should stay in the background becomes a front-screen distraction. And with that, switching a song became somewhat of a burden for me, because it distracted me from what I wanted to do originally and took me out of the focus zone. On top of that, I found myself consuming more and more music or artists I did not want to listen to in the first place just because Spotify suggested it to me. This is nice if you use it intentionally to discover new artists you might like; however, I found that the quality of the suggestions provided by the algorithm steadily declined, with AI-generated music occasionally slipping in.

This was a kind of wake-up call, reminding me of simpler times when I tried to curate a collection of music from different sources on my first laptop and synced it over to my iPod via iTunes. Back then, I had no idea how to enrich files with metadata or properly maintain a music collection, so I wanted to do it right this time. And I suppose the nostalgia factor gave me the final push to kick of this project.

The Makeover

Using an iPod in 2026 may be negatively affected by various factors. The model I wanted again was the latest iPod Classic released in 2009, of which there are few (or none at all) with a battery in good condition. In addition, the iPods use small HDDs for storage. These are quite susceptible to vibration and, after such a long period of operation, are probably no longer fully functional. This is where my journey began. I read through subreddits such as r/ipod and watched countless guides and videos to find all the information I needed about what I would need for a conversion. My first step was to open the iPod and remove the old disk and battery. If you plan to mod your iPod yourself, be careful when opening it. I damaged the pin for the battery cable at the beginning and had to have it soldered.

iFlash Storage Upgrade

The internal 1.8‑inch HDD was replaced with an iFlash Duo board. The board plugs straight into the HDD connector and lets me attach two SD cards. I saw a few people who were successful with inexpensive AliExpress SD card mods, but I didn’t want to risk the long wait for delivery and preferred to use something that is often recommended in the community, even if it is more expensive.

Upgrade the Battery

The original 650 mAh battery gave me barely 2 hours of playback. I swapped it for a 2000 mAh battery that uses the same connector as the original battery. This has significantly improved the runtime, even though Rockbox is more resource-intensive than Apple’s stock OS. You have to be careful here because not all batteries fit the slim version of the iPod Classic with its thin back plate. If you choose a thick backplate, you can also install larger batteries. For me, the 2000mAh used for old LG phones was enough.

Using a Custom OS

I flashed Rockbox onto the iPod. It coexists with the stock iPod OS, giving me a dual‑boot setup. Rockbox adds multiple improvements like the support for multiple additional file types (f.e .flac files), a modern UI and custom themes, gapless playback, an Equalizer, and ohh I can play Doom on my iPod! Rockbox is somewhat of actively maintained, and it is actually quite simple to install it on your music player via the Rockbox Utility tool. If you are curious, you can have a look at the supported devices on the official website.

Lessons Learned

Opening the case was the hardest part - the plastic edges are razor sharp, so I always wear gloves. After installing the iFlash board and the battery, I had to reformat the iPod and both SD cards to FAT32 so Rockbox could see them.

Booting was smooth; the iPod now boots into Rockbox by default, but the original Stock OS is still reachable via the bootloader menu. If you want to switch to the original OS, you can hit a combination of different areas on the clickwheel in a specific order.

Syncing music is a breeze: with Rockbox, I simply drag‑and‑drop files from my Mac or PC. If I ever need the Stock OS, I can still sync via iTunes. Even though that was one of the reasons why I want to use Rockbox. iTunes works in 2026, but it’s exhausting. For example, you can either use the iPod via MacOS or Windows, you have to reinitialize it, and the stock OS doesn’t support .flac files either.

The only drawback I noticed is that Rockbox draws a bit more power than the stock OS, so the new battery doesn’t last quite as long as it would on the original firmware. Still, the trade‑off feels worth it for the clean, distraction‑free experience. With my listening habits (2-3 hours per day), I didn’t have to charge the iPod after a whole week still sitting at 51% battery life. So it works great for me.

How I Use It Now

I keep the iPod strictly for music. No podcasts, no notifications, no apps. All my personal collection lives on the used SD cards, synced manually. The device feels like a dedicated music player again, and it genuinely helps me stay off my phone when I want to focus. Also, it is kind of meditation for me to curate my music library, adding metadata, storing it on my NAS, and slowly building up a nice collection.

Closing Thoughts

While using this iPod works quite well for me in terms of spending less time on my smartphone, it may not work for others. You need a little patience and possibly some storage space for your music collection (storage space varies greatly depending on the file formats used). However, if you want to become more actively involved with the media you consume, I can only recommend that you build up your own small collection, even if it doesn’t end up being an iPod.

Sources

iPod Classic models - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_Classic#Models

iPod Subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/ipod/

iFlash.xyz - https://www.iflash.xyz/

Rockbox - https://www.rockbox.org/