Downgrade iPod Classic OS (2.0.5) to make it PPC compatible.

[abbotkinneydude]

Hello everyone,

Back in 2014, just before it got EOL'd, I was able to purchase a brand new iPod Classic (single platter 160GB - last revision ever).

However, much to my surprise, this iPod requires OSX Lion for Compatibility which is very surprising considering the similar earlier revisions (except for the 160GB single platter) were PPC compatible.

In OSX Leopard 10.5.8 (MDD G4), the iPod mounts on the desktop as an external drive but is a no show in iTunes 10.6.8 except for "requires OSX Lion" message at startup.

I've located every earlier iPod Classic OS revs but, everytime I double click on them, it either has no impact (PPC setting) or, at least in 10.14 Mojave, it fires up iTunes, claims to re-install the earlier OS but then, at boot, the classic again shows 2.0.5 as default OS.

I know about RockBox but I'm very attached to the iTunes / iPod integration as I have several PPC setups with 10.5.8 installed and I don't want to break that bond.

If anybody has been in my shoes and has been able to downgrade that OS, please write here to detail your experience.

As always, huge thanks to the PPC community.

 

[Doq]

Now don't quote me on this, but from what I remember about the "7th"-gen Classic (which is really just a 6th gen with a storage bump), in 2012 Apple bumped up the OS X requirement to 10.6.8 (from 10.4.11), and I believe it was done at the hardware level.

If what I remember is true, no amount of iPod software downgrading is going to make your Classic work on your MDD.

 

[Project Alice]

If what Doq says above is correct, I would recommend just using RockBox on it. With rockbox, you can just drag media files to it, update it’s database and it’ll completely bypass iTunes.

This will still work with iTunes as you can just drag your music from iTunes to the iPod using Finder. The only thing that becomes a hassle are playlists. RockBox also has vastly superior audio quality IMO.

 

[abbotkinneydude]

@Doq and @Project Alice

Thank you for responding.

I actually tried installing RockBox in the past but there was no stable release for the classic at the time.

It seems it has changed.

I'll update this thread post-Rockbox install.

 

[repairedCheese]

@Doq and @Project Alice

Thank you for responding.

I actually tried installing RockBox in the past but there was no stable release for the classic at the time.

It seems it has changed.

I'll update this thread post-Rockbox install.

Oh yeah, I have Rockbox on mine. I've been using it since long before it was ever stable. The battery life under Rockbox isn't quite as long, but I have WMA and FLAC playing on my iPod, and my music collection is just made of all kinds of formats.

It's also made up of playlists that come from a classic music player called Winamp, and I can just use the same M3U and M3U8 playlist files that come out of that, or out of foobar2000. Using a basic file sync app is a lot faster than any kind of real music app sync, what with the USB 2 speeds that come with using an iPod.