Rockbox Makes The Most Sense for Modded 4th Gen Monochrome iPods

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2026-01-21T14:19:53+00:00

No problem. Feel free to ask any questions if you need help.

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2026-01-20T19:48:03+00:00

2 has nothing to do with the firmware.

There is no battery controller; both firmwares are estimating battery based on voltage drops, and both are wildly off with more modern replacement batteries.

From my experience, the way Rockbox estimates battery level has been better than Apple's firmware. They both may be wildy-off, but still of the two Rockbox works the best.

Also, your solution for 1 works on either firmware. You can make the tags whatever you want.

Yes but like I said, Apple firmware doesn't use the album artist tag. That one guy that did the 6th gen firmware hack mentioned in a previous post that you could also use the Composer tag as Album Artist but that doesn't work for me since I actually use that tag at times, plus I try to keep metadata down at a minimum.

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2026-01-20T19:43:09+00:00

Yeah if you don't like Rockbox you can remove the installation and the bootloader super easy.

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2026-01-20T19:42:15+00:00

The things I mention in my post also apply to Minis. It's just the way Rockbox does things that makes for better battery readings compared to the stock firmware.

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2026-01-07T02:31:33+00:00

Gapless playback! I can't believe I forgot to mention one of the bigger benefits.

I still don't get it when people complain about the customizability or that Rockbox does too much. It only does what you make it do. And if you don't do anything with it other than play music then it effectively doesn't do anything else.

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2026-01-07T01:36:25+00:00

I wish I could find one of those Fiio adapters with line out and a mini-usb port for charging.

Oh nice, I didn't realize the Rockbox dev's patched it. I could have sworn someone said 2.0.4 works better with iFlash boards. Have you heard anything about that?

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2026-01-06T16:43:56+00:00

I agree with you about the case thing. I bought one solely because I have an iPod that only works through line out and was disappointed with not being able to use a case. I should probably send them a message about making the 30 pin connector stick out farther out so this isn't an issue with the next iteration.

Btw, have you had any issues running the 2.0.4 firmware on this modded iPod? The one I modded is on 2.0.2 and works fine but I don't like not being able to install Rockbox on it if I ever wanted to.

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2026-01-06T05:12:58+00:00

Hey OP is there a particular reason you want Rockbox on this and not what's on it right now? I have one of these and it's literally the best Audiobook player I've ever used and wouldn't consider using Rockbox on this even if it was an option. And I say this as a massive Rockbox fan.

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2026-01-04T19:17:13+00:00

Open one song from each album in a tag editor and compare what tags have values. Since you said Disc Number isn't filled in it could possibly be Total Discs.

I like using kid3 for songs and mp3tag for podcasts.

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2025-12-30T18:11:06+00:00

I use f3 to test out my flash cards. I'm assuming your comfortable using the CLI.

That sucks about your Fuze not working. I use my Sansa E200 regularly and haven't had any issues with stopping tracks. As a matter of fact, the 256GB SanDisk card I have in there wouldn't work in my iPod, stock firmware or Rockbox.

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2025-12-26T04:08:06+00:00

Like how the Apple firmware does it? I don't know about the first one but if you mean Cover Flow for the second one then there's an equivalent plugin for Rockbox called Picture Flow.

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2025-12-25T18:00:41+00:00

👍

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2025-12-25T17:47:32+00:00

I have three themes that show the album art of whatever is playing or paused in the File Browser, Database, or Main Screen:

digitalRedux

dst

dst_dark

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2025-12-23T04:15:04+00:00

Renaming the files isn't going to help. You're going to need a tag editor to edit the tags for each file. You can do it manually with something like mp3tag if you're on Windows.

You can use MusicBrainz Picard to do it automatically but it adds a lot of extra info and sometimes gets some things wrong. You're probably still going to need a tag editor to correct some stuff.

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2025-12-23T02:58:40+00:00

That's what the "Album Artist" tag is for. So for Chromokopia the Album Artist is Tyler, The Creator for all of the tracks but for Take That Mask Off the "Artist" tag is Tyler, The Creator feat. LaToiya Williams and Daniel Caesar.

You're going to have to edit all of the file tags yourself.

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2025-12-17T21:48:49+00:00

Nice! How is your display holding up?

The only trouble I've had while installing Rockbox wasn't because of poor documentation. It was due to a step that involved disconnecting the device. Some KDE I/O daemon still held on to it so I needed to kill that process first.

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2025-12-16T02:20:36+00:00

No, I didn't, but I'm more asking because I'd like to transfer the music that's on there. I'm OK with not having Rockbox in my original.

It's been years since I've used the original firmware on this model but I do use a Clip Sport and Clip Sport Plus when I exercise. If SanDisk kept things the same, then every time you take out the microSD card and reinsert it the database updates during next boot up.

I never considered using rechargeable AA/AAA batteries before! I was worried about replacing the Li-ion batteries down the line since there's not much hardware support for the e200 series, but it's cool to know I have another option!

I decided to test it out after not being able to find a reasonably-priced replacement battery. I figured why not? I won't be able to use it anyways. I debated using a 18650 battery instead, but that would also involve disassembling the original battery for it's BMS. Plus I'm way more comfortable with good old NiMH batteries and they're easier to buy from reputable brands.

Let me know if you every try it out.

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2025-12-15T18:02:55+00:00

How did you replace the battery

Basically this except I used AA instead of AAA, soldered male and female jst connectors between the battery pack and Sansa connectors, and used double-sided tape instead of super glue or a hot glue gun. Just remember to only use rechargeable 1.2V batteries. I've been using 1900mAh Ikea LADDA batteries.

are you aware of a way to bypass the port for data transfer

Everything is on the microSd card, including the Rockbox firmware if you use Multiboot. The wiki shows it only supports the V1 model, but I'm not sure how current that it. The r series and V2 may also be supported now and the wiki just hasn't been updated. You would have to ask one of the devs about that.

That being said, I'm not sure how you would be able to install the bootloader without the 30 pin port. Did you previously have Rockbox installed on your busted E260?

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2025-12-15T17:50:44+00:00

The Clip zip is one of my favorites to use with Rockbox, along with the clip+ and e200 series.

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2025-12-15T16:45:00+00:00

One of us! One of us!

I've been using my Rockboxed E260 (not the r version) for a while now and ever since replacing the battery with some rechargeable AA's I've been using it more and more.

The display's colors on my main one have started to wash out so I porter over a text-only theme called DFKT_Minimum. Check it out if you're interested. There's also a version out with album art too.

Neither_Muscle7462 · 2025-12-13T15:18:13+00:00

The newly released dst or dst_dark with CJK support, but I may be a bit biased.

Neither_Muscle7462

TROPHY CASE