The iPod age is over but some of you still have questions

How do I get all the stuff on my iPod back off of it? Does Apple still fix these things? And, most importantly to some, what are we supposed to listen to now?

At Ask Help Desk, we set out to tackle those issues and hopefully convince a few people to crack open their iPods for fun. And if you have a technology quandary of your own you are trying to figure out, send an email to yourhelpdesk@washpost.com. We look at all of them, I promise. Now, onto the questions this week.

Preparing for the worst: I love my iPod, so what will replace it if it breaks? I have movies that I made and tons of music, more than I keep on my computer. And I dislike my iPhone so probably won’t be using it for music. I am also old school as far as streaming and just don’t want to pay for that.

— Tori, Texas

If it helps, Tori, you are absolutely not the only person who still loves their iPod. And your question touches on two fascinating issues other people also have written in about. Let us tackle those in order.

Saving old music and movies

It is definitely possible to pull media off of iPods, even much older ones. The process can be a little tricky though. Whether you have a Mac or PC, you will have to make sure your computer can view hidden files and poke around in the file structure store on your iPod. Once you have managed that, you can drag and drop your files right back to your computer, even if it is not the one you were using the iPod way back when.

However, if you are willing to pay a little, there is an easier way. I spent a recent weekend trying out a handful of apps that claim to easily migrate from iPods back to a Mac or PC, some of which failed to even recognize an attached mp3 player. (Here is looking at you, AnyTrans.) But one app, called iMazing, worked like a charm.

If you are only after a specific handful of tracks and movies, you might not need to for the service at all, as iMazing lets you transfer 50 files from an iPod to a computer free. Any more than that, and you will need to shell out some cash. The fees start at $35 for use with a single Apple device and go up depending on how many iPods you want to pull from.

Finding your new music player

It may seem like the world has moved on from mp3 players, but that is not completely true. Sony still makes some Walkman portable music players, while SanDisk, a company best known for making storage chips for other gadgets, has a line of tiny Clip music machines.

The catch? Unless you find a good deal on a Sony, many of the affordable ones are kind of junky. And the ones that perform and sound like rock stars can cost more than most people expect. One looker of a media player from Korean brand Astell & Kern will set you back $749, and that is the cheapest one the company makes.

So here is what I would recommend. LG, the company best known for televisions and appliances, for years made smartphones that sounded wonderful paired with the right headphones. The secret? It was about the only company out there that put quality digital-to-analog converters into their devices.

My friends at the website Android Authority do a great job unpacking the geeky details, but long story short, certain LG phones, such as any of its V series phones, or the G7 or newer, make for great music machines. And since LG smartphones basically tanked in the United States, you can find these devices on sites like eBay for a relative steal, at least until supplies finally start to dwindle.

In any case, once you have one in hand, just move your music onto the phone, and voilà, you essentially have an iPod Touch that plays music better than the real deal. Alternately, you could do your best to spruce up your current iPod to keep it running for longer, something another reader was keenly interested in.

Reviving a classic model: I still have an iPod classic that, unlike many other Apple products I have owned over the years, crapped out within about a year. I would love to get it working again because new cars don’t have CD players and my CD collection is huge. Where can I get it fixed? Does Apple still bother with repairs if it discontinued the device?

— Chris Dortch, Tennessee

As you have probably guessed, Chris, Apple officially considers your iPod obsolete. Practically speaking, that means two things: First, Apple will not bother trying to fix it for you. Second, Apple says on its website that authorized service shops cannot even order the replacement parts for those products, outside of some rare circumstances, anyway.

With that in mind, I would say you have a few options. You could, for instance, scour your area for local repair shops that might be willing to take the case. Most of these outfits tend to deal with smartphones, tablets and computers, but you might get lucky. Failing that, the repair chain uBreakiFix offers mail repair service, and still seems to fix older iPods like the one you have.

But if you have even the first twinge of interest in DIY, you might want to try fixing your iPod yourself. There is no shortage of online video guides to help you figure out how to swap out potentially problematic parts. Some of them, like one from Australian YouTuber DankPods, manage to be funny and useful.

And if highly visual guides are more your style, iFixit has a collection of guides that is hard to beat. And with the right parts, like a larger battery and an adapter that replaces aging hard drives with SD cards, your iPod classic could work far better in 2022 than Apple had ever imagined it would.