Credit to u/Podage for this discovery. Pretty stoked to have this working for long drives.

Unfortunately the clickwheel is disabled, but the car controls all work. It took a couple minutes to index about 6k songs, but album art works and everything.

Am I gonna run into any compatibility issues replacing my logic board (6th gen 120G) with a 7th-gen 160G board? Is it compatible with the 6th-gen LCD? I already have the Tarkan iFlash Quad conversion and 3800MaH (thin model) battery installed. My iPod keeps resetting or disconnecting when I have it hooked up to the stereo in my 2013 Chevy Equinox ( factory Pioneer system ). It seems to not totally like having two SDs, either. I notice some songs only play once if I select a playlist on shuffle...

I know this is an iPod subreddit, but it's the most active subreddit dedicated to mp3 players (I think).
I know there are some fans of these players around here but let me know if you want this gone though.

After a few frustrating weeks of trying to upgrade my Creative Zen Micro to 128gb, I finally succeeded on upgrading it. Here is a step by step.

With a Virtual Machine

Given that the software part can get very frustrating, I suggest that you first focus on creating a working environment based on your stock mp3 player. This will limit the number of things that can go wrong.

This was tested on a Windows 11 machine (called Host from now on).

Download Virtualbox.
Use your own Windows XP SP2 image or find one (google: archive + WinXPProSP2ENG).
Download the Windows Media Player 10 updater from archive.org
Download the Creative Zen Micro drivers and upgraders from archive.org

Install Virtualbox.
Install Windows XP on Virtualbox - this can be a big step if you don't have much experience in this field, but there are plenty of tutorials on how to do it - check the references below.

Now that you have your Windows XP VM (called Guest from now on) up and running, go to the Devices tab on the top of your screen and click on "Insert guest additions CD...".
This will insert a virtual CD containing some Virtualbox drivers and you'll get a pop up on your Guest machine.
Install them and reboot your machine.

Turn off your Guest machine.

Connect the Zen Micro to your Host machine. Your Host machine should recognize the player with no trouble.

In Virtualbox, click on your VM machine and go to settings > USB > USB2.0 > click on the 'plus' sign and add your device there. The name should be "Creative...".

Now, in the same settings menu, go to the tab "shared folders" and click on "add". Now, choose the folder you want to share between the Host and the Guest machines. Give it a name and a mount point. I picked "sharewithxp" for all the fields, including the name of the directory on Host. Check 'auto-mount' and 'make permanent' (if it exists).

On your Host machine, copy the files MP10Setup.exe, ZenMicroPDE_PCFW_LB_1_11_01.exe and JB3MV2_PCWDRV_US_2_01_00.EXE to the shared directory you just created. Also copy MP10Setup.exe.

Turn on your Guest machine and go to "My Computer".
You should see your shared folder in there.
Copy all the files from there to your Guest's desktop.

Install MP10Setup.exe - this upgrades the Windows Media Player from 9 to 10. By experience, Windows Media Player 11 was problematic and apparently 9 isn't ok either. Stick to WMP 10. This was key for me. It really didn't work without WMP10.

Install JB3MV2_PCWDRV_US_2_01_00.EXE - these are the drivers for the Zen Micro.

Disconnect your Zen Micro from your computer.
Connect it again.
Go to devices > usb on the top menu and make sure your device is selected.

Execute ZenMicroPDE_PCFW_LB_1_11_01.exe
If everything went according to plan you should now see an "Upgrade" button.
If you see said button - congratulations because this was the most painful part of the process. I realized that when the device is correctly loaded, the executable won't open right away - It takes a few seconds. If the device wasn't fully recognized, you'll see a message saying "Your player is not connected, please connect your player".

(If you got the dreadful second message and no "upgrade" button, try to reboot your Guest machine. Disconnect and connect your player again. Make sure it appears on the devices menu.)

Now that you have a working environment, let's move to the fun part.

Format your micro sd card (fat32 if I'm not mistaken) - I used a Sandisk Extreme 128gb (the golden ones) and it worked fine.
Insert the micro sd on your CF-to-SD adapter. I got the the only adapter I could find (red one).

Disassemble your Zen Micro - there are tutorials and videos around that show you how to do it better than I possible could - check the references below.

Remove the CF card from the mp3 player and insert the adapter.
Pay attention to the position of the old CF card. CF cards don’t have a big distinguishable difference on one side like sd cards do. It's really easy to get mistaken and connect it on the wrong side. The only differences are the slots/openings on both sides of the CF card/adapter - one is larger than the other. When the adapter is connected and in place, its label should be visible (pointing upwards). Take a picture of the original CF card if needed or check the video in the references below.

Assemble everything back but do not insert the battery right away.

Toggle the power button to the left and hold it that position. Insert the battery.
You should now be in recovery mode.
Navigate to "format all" and click ok.
Navigate to "reboot" and click ok.

Connect your player to the computer and, in the Guest machine, make sure it is selected on the devices > usb menu.

Open ZenMicroPDE_PCFW_LB_1_11_01.exe
If everything went according to plan, the upgrade button should now be visible.
Click.
Wait.
Enjoy.

PS:
Inside the Creative Zen Micro link, there is also an upgrader for the most recent version - 2.21. I haven't tried it because I don't think it brings anything that interesting to the player. There are also 2 older drivers in there - also untested.

References:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ipod/comments/18e1698/creative_zen_micro_upgraded_from_5gb_hdd_to_a/
https://www.instructables.com/Upgrade-the-Zen-Micro-5gb-to-8gb-on-the-Cheap/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VERkcCTJFyI
https://www.intowindows.com/how-to-boot-and-install-from-iso-in-virtualbox/

Without a VM (native Windows XP running on a modern computer)

^(Soon.)

This has happened before. I order some nerdy product (like my iPod mini battery) from AliExpress and they throw in some cute and crappy toys! It is kind of endearing, tho I would really just prefer a bit more runtime in the battery haha.

I wonder if it is done just to be sweet or it is is for some way to sneak Li-Ion batteries through mail systems that don’t really like stuff shipped that way? Anyhow it is cute. I will report on battery health when I install it.

Clearly I have to recreate “A Team” chase scenes first!!!

Mine is 7,156 and I’ve been collecting music since the start of this year most of it is from the ‘80s (I’m 16 btw) so when did you start

I have my old iPod, which I just found, and I want to use it again, it has the disabled on it with the iTunes connect thing, I watched some videos, first, it was to use with your phone on find me but it's not connected to any of my things so it isn't there.. so then it said to try with a UBS but I don't think I have one and I can't get one. What do I do? and how do I get this to unlock and accwork?

https://i.imgur.com/ZTHYJmS.jpeg lol I don’t know why I never tried that but today I was like mm I should try it.. And it’s worked great! Finally I can use my car remote to control the iPod I think it’s funny because I guess that it’s something known but I didn’t thought my car will recognize it

Hey... I got some super white car paint... I was thinking of making a Ipod that matches my car color.

Would a 7th gen white clickwheel fit a fifth gen? I would add some layers under it to raise the wheel

might paint the click wheel and button as well... (for that a grey 5th gen wheel would be fine... just not sure if the paint will stick)

.. and last question, can the transparent part and the white/black part in the frontplates be separated? I would love to separate it, paint the inner part, and hopefully reconnect the two. Im open to using a 3d printer if thats not feasible

Sick of using Apple Music just to read „this album isn’t available anymore“

So.. iPod it is! 😁

(iPod Mini 2nd gen with 16gGB Compact Flash Card) (The Nano is for other kind of music when my colleagues aren’t there)

hi, im considering purchasing an ipod classic 5-5.5

i am not very familiar with purchasing a used/refurbished device off of ebay. what should i look out for on ebay listings, what questions should i ask regarding a gen 5-5.5? are the additional protection plans generally worth it?

and (if applicable), what is your experience with situations in which you received a defective product and had to return it?

Picked this up this 15gb 3rd gen for $50 cad on ebay, seller said that it would not charge or turn on and that it was for parts only. As soon as I plugged it into a firewire charger it turned on immediately and as a bonus it is loaded with music from the 2000's ! All that it needs is a little bit of polishing.

Has anyone tried to put something like ipod linux or rockbox on the ipod mini? I saw it's not fully supported for ipod linux.

I was just wondering if I change the firmware or os would I be able to return to the original if something messes up?

Secondly does anyone know if there's an app or module for a moveable map for any custom os?

I've just bought an iPod, and I'm excited to use it primarily as a music player to enjoy high-quality sound and disconnect from my phone.

I have a hard drive with a music library that I've been building for the past 10 years. However, it's been dormant for the last four years as I switched to using Apple Music exclusively.

I've already synced this library with my Apple Music to use the iCloud Library, allowing me to have the same library available for streaming on Apple Music whenever I want.

Now, I want to get back to owning my music files. My plan is to discover new music and artists throughout the month, and at the end of the month, I'll choose one or two albums to download or purchase on iTunes.

My question is, how do I mix downloaded files, iTunes purchases, and my old library now on iCloud Library?

Should I sync my iPod with the music app, or upload the files manually? If I go with manual uploads, how do I access the files from an iTunes purchase?

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Note: I use a MacBook, and I need to buy on iTunes because some indie artists I like only have their music available there, or they're too obscure to find through alternative means

I used iPodWizard on my Windows PC to install a custom firmware onto my iPod (NOT ROCKBOX). I did this because I found out that if you do this, you can install clickwheel games onto the iPod. When I installed the firmware, all of the music on my iPod disappeared and iTunes refused to see the iPod as connected, so i couldn’t sync. When I reverted to the stock firmware, everything was back and syncing fine. Is there any way to fix this? In every tutorial I’ve seen for this, they always have you sync with itunes after installing the custom firmware, so i’m assuming there’s some way to do it. I know there’s a way to manually input music using file explorer but I’d really like to use iTunes because of the way it keeps track of my play count and organizes my music.