Jailbreaking (?) iPod Touch and Classic

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rackleberry

11 posts

Geek

Topic # 138916 21-Jan-2014 19:12

First up i understand that jailbreaking can be 'dangerous' and can lead to bricking and no support from apple. The latter of which is of no concern to me due to the age of the iPods.

I have a classic 60GB and a Touch 16GB that no longer connect to iTunes they are full of music, but of course i want to put more on.

I have tried to connect them to iTunes using different cables (all of which work with a iphone)

When they are connected to a Mac nothing happens. When plugged into a PC on vista a message comes up saying device has been connected but has malfunctioned and is not being recognised.

I have put the touch into recovery mode and tried plugging it in but no connection was made.

I am tentative to do a complete reset on them as this may lose all the songs that are on there, and i dont want to do this incase they cannot be jailbroken to reconnect and as a result lose the slight usability they have at the moment.

The iPod touch chargers when plugged in, however the classic only chargers off a car charger, but this is an old problem from before the non connecting issue.

My main questions are: Is it worth doing a complete reset? Is this likely to remedy the problem?
Should i try jailbreaking to make them usable, will this remedy the problem or will they remain unusable?

Cheers for your help in advance.

iPod models
Touch A1213
Classic A1238

skewt

471 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 72

Reply # 971827 21-Jan-2014 19:24

Ive never heard of anyone bricking from a jailbreak, you can recover with DFU

Check for any dirty contacts on the devices or try another software that lets you put music on like copytrans

rackleberry

11 posts

Geek

Reply # 971837 21-Jan-2014 19:48

Would dirty contacts explain the ipod not recognising that its been connected. neither display charging icons when plugged into computers or wall chargers. i tried using xPort to connect to both and it didnt recognise any ipod plugged into any of the usb ports

Edit: checked contacts. nothing obvious dirty on them that could be hindering connection.

clicknz

371 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 34

Trusted

Reply # 971849 21-Jan-2014 20:09

Hi - AFAIK the iPod Classic isn't able to be Jailbroken at all - whole different operating system.

I would agree that there's a high chance of a build up of crud from pockets, bags etc in the charging ports (and possibly transferred to some of your charging cables). I'd suggest getting under a bright light or using a torch & a magnifying glass to get a good look into the ports. I've had good success with using a thin toothpick to scrape around and remove crud from iPod ports.
I don't think that JB'ing would actually help with any connection issues... there may be some clever tweaks out there, but not connecting to a computer would mean this would be impossible anyway.
You could try a simple reset in the Touch if the cleaning didn't work... you shouldn't lose any data (only with an 'erase and reset').

Cheers,
Mike

iPhone photo/general blog - here

rackleberry

11 posts

Geek

Reply # 971853 21-Jan-2014 20:14

I tried a Reset, (not erase and reset) and this fixed nothing. i have been very vigilant with keeping the port clean on the Touch, it has had a protective sleeve of card folded inside the case that covered the port and kept it covered and clean for almost all of its life, (save about 4 months as soon as i got it)

I have seen classics with some kind of firmware replacement. it ran a monochrome monitor style, green text on black screen.

lxsw20

2055 posts

Uber Geek
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Subscriber

Reply # 971855 21-Jan-2014 20:15

I've seen a classic before that's run a different OS but not sure what it was.

clicknz

371 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 34

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Reply # 971903 21-Jan-2014 21:04

Hi again - sorry you haven't made any progress so far. Another thing that you could try (gave contact to dodgy ports with an iPod & an iPhone in the family) is to apply a small amount of pressure to the cable connector at the point where it goes into the device. Usually upward pressure ie. with the face upward you would want to either push the connector with consistent pressure from the bottom, or place something like a 9 volt battery under the connector and put some weight on the device. It could also be worth trying the pressure the opposite way... but I'm thinking you've got hardware issues rather than software... but of course I could be wrong (I was once).

Cheers,
Mike

iPhone photo/general blog - here

rackleberry

11 posts

Geek

Reply # 972102 22-Jan-2014 10:42

Ok, cheers for your reply.
i tried upwards and downwards pressure in both ipods with two different cables but still no connection.

clicknz

371 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 34

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Reply # 972141 22-Jan-2014 11:33

Oh, bugger - that's a shame. If the iPod Touch is operating normally and getting power via a cable I would still suspect that it's a hardware issue in the port or the cable... a pin not lining up or something.
I'm not too familiar with Classics.
All I can add is that sometimes I've had to try different angles and pressure levels on the cable insertion (with known good cables) and that they sometimes need to be held for 30 seconds or so to be recognised by the host machine. There's nothing as sweet as the sound of a finally connected iOS device after you think it's stone cold dead.

Cheers,
Mike

iPhone photo/general blog - here