Old school iPod Nano battery replacement

We have two Apple products in our house from the early 2000s; one iPod Nano 1st generation and the 1st generation iPod colour.

Apple tech polarises opinion as it’s always premium priced and is quite locked-down to ‘Apple only platforms’.  Some people love the ease of use that their products seem to offer, others get frustrated with the lack of integration with other products.

Despite being an Android house, we keep the iPods as they are quite robust, but due to age, battery life has recently become an issue.

Make and model:  Apple iPod Nano

Fault reported: Battery not holding charge

Cost of replacement:  eBay, loads out there

Cost of parts:  £8.00

Hours spent on repair:  1

Tools needed:  Spudger, small flat-bladed screwdriver, soldering iron

Sundry items: None

Repair difficulty:  4/10

Cups of tea:  1

Biscuits:  2 (Custard Creams)

Let’s just get it out of the way now.  Apple really don’t want anyone opening up their devices and it was a wrestle to open up the casing, without snapping something (the iPod, not one of my nails or something).

The battery in the Nano is situated beneath the metal cover, which must be removed using a spudger.  A spudger is a small lever with a fine edge that can be used to gently open up small, usually plastic, push-fit, ‘clicked-together’ things.  Spudgers are kind of disposable and I always seem to break one on each job.  I must look out for a strong, stainless steel item.

Using the spudger on the Nano isn’t easy, since (as I later found out) all of the metal tangs located around the metal casing, dig in to the plastic face.  Trying the separate the two halves is a real battle and there’s a real risk of damage should you use too much force.

After a good 15 minutes of wrangling with the Nano, the casing popped off.

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The battery on this model uses a small fly lead which is soldered to the main PCB, again more evidence to suggest that Apple had no intention of making the Nano’s battery replaceable by most users.  Extreme care had to be taken with the soldering too since the PCB’s components are so close and small, making it too easy to use too much heat, causing irreparable damage.

I took my time and was able to fit the new battery (push fit) and solder the connections OK.

The cover popped back on and fortunately, the screen lit up once more, when the menu button was pressed.  Phew. Tea time.