ipod replacement battery not holding a charge

I too have owned several ipods, and yes, the batteries are just not good. They all start out well, but after a couple years become incapable of holding a charge for more than a day. I’ve owned 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th gen ipods and in all of them I end up needing to carry a power bank or keep chargers at work and home.

I think it’s just the nature of the beast, desiring to have a thin product, thus a thinner battery, but a device that runs on the iphone infrastructure that was designed for the beefier battery that’s in a phone. (And while speculation is not really condoned here it would not surprise me if the persistent battery issues have something to do with iPods now being discontinued - that and phones being a much larger part of the market)

as users of a now discontinued product all we can do is find our own work arounds.

To add to Skydivers119's comments, I own a 6th generation iPod Touch and the battery life has always been dire, much worse than my previous 2nd generation Touch.

I performed some tests this morning that might enlighten you. They may not be conclusive, but they do indicate the nature of the iPod and how it charges. I used two 6th generation iPod Touch models.

Upon plugging the iPod into a power source the battery charge percentage figure (Apple's in-built one*, not a third-party app) does the following (as an example):

First iPod Touch:

• • no external power: 67%
  • plug into power: 76%
  • unplug after 1 minute: 85%
  • 1 minute later (iPod in sleep mode for this time): 77%

Second iPod Touch (first test):

• • no external power: depleted, iPod will not power on
  • plug into power (& wait for iPod to restart): 18% (it took 66 seconds for the battery app to start)
  • unplug after 2 minutes: 18%
  • 1 minute later (iPod in sleep mode for this time): 12%

As a further test, I redid the second test, even though that I had only just unplugged it from the first test:

Second iPod, second test

• • no external power: 12%
  • plug into power & within 2 minutes: 37%
  • unplug after 6 minutes (total): 48%
  • 1 minute later (iPod in sleep mode for this time): 24% (with red battery indicator)

An important point to learn from this is that the battery percentage indicator should be treated with a great deal of scepticism, especially while the iPod is on charge. It will report a false higher charge during charging. I recommend that:

• • if charging from very low or depleted, let the iPod charge fully. The more reliable way to do that seems to be to allow the charge indicator to show 99% for at least 30 minutes as mine rarely shows "fully charged"
  • if charging from a higher level (i.e the battery indicator is still green), just remember that even if the percentage indicator states 85% (for example), as soon as you unplug it, the percentage will drop considerably

A possible work-round to your iPods running out of power too quickly (i.e. when you're out) is to either re-charge your iPod from your car's USB outlet (if you have one) or to use a power bank. Power banks are portable battery supplies that have a USB outlet that you can plug the iPod into for charging. A 10,000mAh power bank should be adequate for a day or so. You simply charge them at home and take them with you, ready for use.

* For those who doubt this, the 6th generation iPod Touch does have a built-in battery percentage indicator. It's a widget that can be added to the "pre-home" screen (I don't know it official name, possibly it's the Widget screen):

1. 1. swipe to the right to reach the leftmost screen
   2. tap the Edit button at the bottom of this screen
   3. on the More Widgets list, tap the Batteries + icon to add the battery percentage indicator to the widgets display
   4. use the drag bar to reposition the Batteries icon if you wish
   5. click Done

The Batteries display will also indicate the status of some (but not all) Bluetooth speakers and headphones connected to the iPod.

I’m sorry but I’m not sure if there’s much we can do to help you here. You replaced the batteries yourself and this site isn’t much into DIY mechanical fixes.

you may want to look on a third party site to see if someone not on an official site has any help.

I’ve used ipods for years and can say their battery life - in general - has always been pretty dire. It’s great for a while, then will go downhill to the point of not holding much of a charge at all.

what I may guess is that there is some incompatibility between the iPod’s mother board and your third party batteries. Whether or not there is a resolution to that will have to come from elsewhere because I don’t think that’s anything that can be discussed here.

Good luck resolving it.

If i could suggest, please recycle them when you are done with them. Apple will take them back for free, and other places like Best Buy also recycle tech.