Repair guide · iPod 4th Gen and iPod Photo
iPod 4th Gen and iPod Photo battery replacement
This guide covers the iPod 4th Gen (A1059, gray screen, 20GB or 40GB) and the iPod Photo (A1099, color screen, 20GB to 60GB, also sold as the iPod with color display), from 2004 and 2005. One battery fits every one of them, thin case or thick. You open the clipped case, unplug the battery, lift out the hard drive and take the old battery off the front panel, where it sits right behind the click wheel. It plugs into the logic board, so there is nothing to solder. It is a Moderate job, and we allow 15 minutes to an hour.
Which battery fits: A1059 or A1099?
It is the same battery for both models and every capacity, thin case or thick (Apple's 616-0183, 616-0206 and 616-0215 are one family). Order from the page for your model so everything else on the page matches your iPod. Not sure which you have? Identify your iPod
Before you start
- Check for a swollen batteryHere the battery sits right behind the click wheel, where swelling rarely shows from outside. The usual sign is a center button that stops working: it sits low or feels jammed, and the wheel may scroll by itself or stop responding. A swollen battery is worn out and unsafe: unplug the iPod and stop charging it, and never press on, bend or pierce the battery. If it isn't hot and doesn't smell, you can still replace it: work slowly from its edges. If the iPod is very hot or smells, don't open it: set it on a non-flammable surface away from anything that can burn, keep dry sand nearby, leave it until it has cooled, and contact us.
- Run the battery downIf there's no sign of swelling, play the iPod until it is nearly flat. A discharged lithium cell is less likely to overheat if a tool damages it.
- Set up a safe benchWork on a hard, non-flammable surface with the soft cloth on it, and keep a container of dry sand within reach. If the battery smokes, sparks, hisses, pops or suddenly puffs up, cover it with all the sand at once, then get out of the room for half an hour and air it out. If it's still burning or you can't smother it, call the fire service. Don't touch the iPod until the half hour is up. When the half hour is up, put on safety glasses and heat-proof gloves before you lift it out of the sand, and dispose of it under local rules.
- Ground yourselfStatic can kill the logic board. Wear an anti-static wrist strap, or at least touch bare metal first, and work on an anti-static mat.
- Keep the new battery in its bagLeave it sealed until the moment you fit it.
Tools
- Plastic opening tools, one wide and one thinTo release the case clips. The battery comes with one plastic pry tool; a second, thinner one makes the seam easier.
- Plastic spudgerPries the old battery off its glue and works the connectors. Nothing metal goes near the battery.
- T6 Torx screwdriverFor the two black screws that let the board edge rise.
- Anti-static wrist strap or matProtects the logic board while it is exposed.
- Soft clothLay the iPod on it so the polished back doesn't scratch.
- Wall chargerFor the test before closing. Apple's A1070 iPod power adapter is the ideal one.
Step by step
New to opening this iPod? How to open the iPod 4th Gen and iPod Photo (13 steps)
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Step 1: Unplug it, switch it off and lock Hold
Disconnect any cable, charger or computer first. Switch the iPod off by holding Play/Pause until the screen goes dark, then slide the Hold switch to locked, so its orange bar shows.
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Step 2: Release the case clips
Our opening guide shows this in detail. In short: with the screen up and the dock connector toward you, start on the right-hand long side with the wide plastic tool, its edge tilted toward the steel back, and free the five tabs on that side. Then free the two clips beside the dock connector (go lightly past the thin steel there), the five tabs on the left-hand side, and the top edge.
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Step 3: Turn it over and open the back like a book
An orange ribbon from the headphone jack still links the halves. Holding the two halves together with your fingers, turn the iPod over so the screen faces the cloth, dock connector away from you (don't let the front drop away from the back), then lift the back along one long side like a book cover and lay it flat on the cloth beside the front half, inside up, keeping that ribbon loose. If it tightens as the back opens, stop and ease the back closer to the front.
Never pull the back straight off: the ribbon's socket can tear off the logic board.
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Step 4: Unplug the battery, then the headphone ribbon
Find the small white plug where the battery's wires meet the logic board and ease it out of its socket by the plug's body. Then lift the orange ribbon's connector straight up off the board with the flat end of the spudger, and set the back aside, inside facing up.
Hold the battery plug by its body. Never pull on the battery's wires.
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Step 5: Lift out the hard drive
The drive lies on top in the front half, with the battery underneath it. Raise the drive at the dock-connector end; its orange ribbon stays attached at the far end. Holding the drive steady, pull the ribbon's connector straight off the drive's pins, rocking it gently side to side if it sticks. Set the drive down on the cloth.
Pull on the connector, not the ribbon, and take care not to bend the drive's pins.
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Step 6: Free the battery cable
With the front half lying open and its dock connector end away from you, take out the two black T6 screws along the logic board's left-hand edge, one of them right next to the dock connector, on the inside, and keep them together. The board's edge can now rise a little: lift it only as far as you need, supporting it with a fingertip, and guide the battery cable out round the end of the board. Note how the cable runs; the new one goes back the same way.
The logic board is fragile. Don't lever it up any higher than it takes to free the cable.
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Step 7: Lift the old battery off the front panel
The battery is glued to the inside of the front panel, right behind the click wheel. Slide the plastic spudger under one edge and pry upward slowly and steadily; the glue may let go easily or hold firm. Work round its edges rather than bending the battery. Use no heat: no hair dryer, no heat gun. If the battery gets hot, starts to smell or begins to swell while you work, stop prying, leave it where it is on the non-flammable surface with the sand ready, and contact us. If it won't come up without bending, stop and contact us rather than forcing it.
Put the old battery straight onto the non-flammable surface, away from the iPod, the tools and anything that can burn, and tape over its contacts now. Never reuse it: once a glued battery has been pried out, a new one is the safe choice. If it got bent or dented while you pried it, or it feels warm, leave it there beside the sand and keep an eye on it until you take it to a battery drop-off, never the trash or a recycling bin.
Nothing metal under the battery, and never bend or pierce it: a damaged lithium cell can overheat. If the battery smokes, sparks, hisses, pops or suddenly puffs up, cover it with all the sand at once, then get out of the room for half an hour and air it out. If it's still burning or you can't smother it, call the fire service. Don't touch the iPod until the half hour is up.
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Step 8: Seat the new battery
Hold the new battery next to the old one: same shape, same cable. Don't fit one that is dented, punctured, bent or swollen. Lead its cable the way the old one ran, wrapping past the board's end as before, then slide the battery sideways into its recess instead of pressing it straight down, which would flex the board.
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Step 9: Refit the two screws
Lower the board edge, check the battery cable isn't trapped beneath it, and turn the two black T6 screws back in, starting each one by hand.
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Step 10: Put the drive back
Push the orange ribbon fully onto the drive's pins, the same way round as before: a drive fitted the wrong way round on its connector isn't recognized. Then lay the drive back in place, where a small plastic guide pin lines it up.
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Step 11: Reconnect: headphone ribbon, then battery
Lay the back beside the front again. Headphone ribbon next, jack-board end first: that end sits under a small black latch on the jack board's underside, you can't see it, and it slips out easily while the case is open. If you aren't sure it is fully in, reseat it now, while the logic-board end is still unplugged: take out the jack board's two silver T6 screws, turn the board over, flip the latch up, push the ribbon fully in, close the latch and screw the board back. Then press the ribbon's connector straight down onto its socket on the logic board. The Hold check in the test confirms both ends: the lock icon must come and go with the switch. Plug the battery in last, by the plug's body.
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Step 12: Test before closing
Rest the back loosely in place, switch Hold off and connect a wall charger: the iPod should wake. Check that the screen shows a clear picture, the wheel scrolls, the center button and the other buttons respond, a song plays in both ears through the headphone jack, and the lock icon comes and goes with Hold. After a few minutes on the charger, disconnect it: the iPod must keep running on the new battery.
Won't wake at all? Reset it first: slide Hold on and off, and then press and hold Menu with the center button until the Apple logo comes up. Still dead or half-working? A connector you touched is the first suspect: disconnect the charger, unplug the battery, reseat the drive ribbon and the headphone ribbon (lift it off the logic board, reseat the jack-board end, then press the board end back down), then push the battery plug fully home, last.
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Step 13: Snap the case shut
Line the halves up and press them together from one side across to the other with even pressure, until every clip catches. Then look into the dock opening: nothing should block the connector.
If it only closes when you squeeze hard, stop and look for a cable caught at the edge.
Close it up and test
- Charge it fullyA new battery may arrive partly charged. Charge it fully before you rely on it.
- The seam is evenNo gap at the corners, no bend at the dock opening.
- Everything worksWheel, center button, Hold, sound and charging, on the charger and off it.
- Recycle the old batteryTape over its contacts or seal it in a bag and take it to a battery drop-off. Keep it out of household bins, recycling included.
If it doesn't work afterwards
- It won't turn on
- Check Hold is off, leave it on a wall charger for a while and try a reset (slide Hold on and off, and then press and hold Menu with the center button until the Apple logo comes up). If it still won't start, disconnect the charger, open it, unplug the battery, reseat the connectors you touched, and plug the battery back in fully, last. Not working after a repair
- A lock icon, and the wheel does nothing
- The headphone ribbon has come out at one end, which happens easily in a battery swap. Disconnect the charger, open it and unplug the battery. Lift the ribbon's connector off the logic board first, then reseat the end under the jack board (two silver T6 screws out, board turned over, latch up, ribbon fully in, latch closed, screws back), press the connector back down onto the logic board, and plug the battery in last. Hold switch not working
- It plays, but the screen stays dark
- The screen ribbon may have been knocked half out; on the iPod Photo its connector sits near the middle of the board and is easy to leave half-seated. With the charger disconnected and the battery unplugged, lift the drive out (step 5), flip the screen connector's black bar up, seat the ribbon squarely and close the bar; then the drive goes back, and the battery last. Black screen
- It dies when unplugged, or won't charge
- Reseat the battery plug first, with the charger disconnected. A brand-new battery can be faulty too, so it is the next suspect when the trouble started with it. If a reset, a good battery and a good charger still don't help, the charging circuit on the logic board is the likely fault. iPod won't charge
- It clicks or shows a sad face
- The drive ribbon is probably not fully on the drive's pins, or the drive went back the wrong way round. Disconnect the charger, open it, unplug the battery, push the ribbon fully onto the drive's pins, the right way round, and plug the battery back in last. Sad iPod face
- It gets hot
- If it gets very hot or smells, leave it shut and unplugged on a non-flammable surface and contact us. If it is only warm, unplug it and let it cool: a cable pinched as the case closed can short, so open it, unplug the battery and check that everything sits flat before the battery goes back in. If the battery heats up again after that, replace it.
Questions
How do I replace the iPod 4th Gen battery?
Open the clipped case, unplug the battery and the headphone ribbon, lift out the hard drive, take out two T6 screws to free the battery cable, and pry the old battery free of the front panel. The steps above go through each part; allow 15 minutes to an hour.
Is the iPod Photo battery the same?
Yes. One battery fits every 4th Gen and iPod Photo, thin case or thick, and the job is the same on both.
My center button stopped working. Could it be the battery?
On these iPods, yes: a swelling battery presses up under the click wheel and jams the center button, usually with nothing showing outside. Stop charging it and look at the battery before you order a click wheel.
Do I need to solder anything?
No. The battery plugs into the logic board.
Can I upgrade to a bigger battery?
Our 4th Gen and iPod Photo battery pages list a standard and an extended-life battery, and either fits thin and thick cases.
Is this the iPod Classic 4th Gen?
Many people call it that, but Apple's name for the 4th Gen is iPod (Click Wheel), and the iPod Photo was also sold as the iPod with color display. The Classic name only began with the 6th Gen in 2007.
Can you do it for me?
Yes. Choose We Fix It on the battery page and mail your iPod in: we fit the battery and send it back. Turnaround is typically 3 to 5 business days, with a 1-year limited warranty.