iPod mini battery replacement

Yesterday I replaced the two-year-old battery in my iPod mini. I decided to risk a little cosmetic damage and do it myself, rather than pay $65 + shipping to have Apple do it (and not even get back my original iPod!).

iPodBatteryDepot had the cheapest price (about $20 including the shipping). The kit included teensy flathead and Phillips screwdrivers. The "skin" of the battery looked more papery than the plastic-y one on the original battery, and wasn't as skin-tight. Also, the wires were slightly longer than those on the original. Both of these seemingly minor details made it more difficult to get everything back into the case.

I followed iPodBatteryDepot's instructions, and also referred to Tim Coyle's blog post for some detailed photos.

Overall, getting the thing disassembled was not as difficult as I had expected; getting the guts back in was the problem.

I had pictured the glue under the endcaps as being a few dabs here and there, but it actually seems like a solid sheet of rubber-cement-like material. Once you can grab one part of the endcap, you can peel it off of this glue easily. Try removing the bottom end first; you'll be better at it by the time you remove the top end, where cosmetic damage will be seen more.

I found that squeezing the sides of the iPod gently made it much easier to wedge in the flathead screwdriver and pry off the ends. In fact, I was able to pop off the bottom endcap in about two seconds using this method. Too bad I found out after I had removed the top!

The included tools were not of very high quality, of course, and the tip of the Phillips screwdriver was not up to the task. It was worn down in short order, so I finished the job with a better screwdriver of my own. It would have been easier if I'd just started with that one.
You might be able to save even more money by using your own tools, removing the battery, and taking it to a local store to find a replacement. It never occurred to me that I might be able to find a stock battery in the neighborhood!

Swapping out the battery was simple. I thought I was home free, but then it was time for reassembly. That stuff just did not want to go back in there. I gently tried different angles and amounts of pressure for a good 15 or 20 minutes. Finally, I managed to wedge it in, but when I flipped it over, there was a big, black something across the entire screen.

After removing the guts again, I found that the black tape around the inside of the screen had been torn off at one corner, and a strip got bunched up and peeled back over the screen when I had mashed the guts back in. I did eventually get things back in place, but you can see that the black tape is still out of place along the bottom edge of the screen.

But now the click wheel wasn't working properly! I opened the top up again, and found that one of the screws wasn't quite tight enough. After I fixed that, the click wheel was fine.

And I found this nice little case on clearance at Fred Meyer, so the minor surgical scars won't show much anyway.