What I've Learned from Modding / Repairing Broken iPods
TL;DR: it's never as easy as it looks in the videos
A few months ago I decided to try my hand at the iPod modding thing. I ordered a 7th gen (not pictured) from eBay and was so surprised by what good condition it was in that I decided I didn't want to screw it up as a newbie. So, I set it aside and bought a few 5th gens and a 6th gen that were all listed as Parts Only on eBay, albeit in some seemingly kinda-working order.
The parts for the 6th gen arrived first, so I tried my hand at that - not a great idea given how hard it is to open, but I wasn't going to keep its case anyway so I didn't need to care. Diligently followed a few videos I installed an iFlash Solo, got it all up and running, it looked great! That's it on the right in the picture. Woohoo, success!
Or not.
I'd tested that it was charging fine before I put the backplate on, and it was, but then the next day it died, and nothing I did would get it charging again. Not connecting it to a computer, nor any charger. 6th gens are notoriously finicky about chargers so I bought a few different low-voltage models and some dongle thing that I saw recommended in a thread here, but finally concluded I needed to pop it open again - that shiny perfect new case, alas, would be shiny and perfect no more.
I tried new batteries, tested fine with case loose, kept putting it back together, it would die over and over. And, insult to injury, all the opening and closing led something to come loose with the inner headphone ZIF connector, so it would only do sound through one ear unless something pressed down on it.
I finally figured out the issue - the battery cable kept coming loose when I put it back together. No idea why, it just did. When I finally thought to move the battery cable under the iFlash Solo that seemed to fix it. Of course, by then I also had to have stuff packed in under the iFlash so that when I'd put the backplate on it would all press down on the headphone connector. But, it finally works! It charges, it plays for hours, the headphones play through both ears. The casing is now all beat to hell around the edges from all the opening and re-opening, but it works. How long will it work? Who knows, probably until some piece of cardboard inside comes loose and I only get sound from one ear. But for now I feel victorious.
As for the 5th gen: I bought two of them and figured I'd get enough working parts to assemble one. For this one I tried an AliExpress dual SD card adapter rather than the iFlash. In one of the iPods the ZIF connectors for both the headphone connector and the storage were broken, the motherboard unusable. But, at least the display was good. The other had a display with one small line on it - not awful and up near the top out of the way, but I switched it out for the good display. But, no matter what I did I could not get to a "Connect to iTunes" screen, just the unrelenting scorn of the Sad iPod icon. I tried different brands of SD cards, I tried different connector cables, I tried thin layers of tape on the back of the connector cables, finally I even bought another iFlash Solo and even that didn't work. I concluded that something was bad on in the connector on the motherboard, ordered a replacement board from EOE, put it in, and...the AliExpress adapter still didn't work. But the iFlash did! Connected it to my ancient 2009 Macbook and it restored with no issue. Briefly did have a battery charging problem, but a different new battery took care of that, and it's now all up and running.
Costs for all the parts that ended up as two functional (one already kinda beat up) old iPods? More than I want to admit. But, that was never the point, and despite the frustrations it was fun and challenging. And whenever the battery and/or HD die in the unmodded 7th gen I'll be better prepared to get it up and running again.