Fixing a 4th Generation iPod Shuffle that's shorted out

I read this tip on how to fix an iPod shuffle, the small 4th-Generation one, that's shorted out, and it worked for me so I thought I'd post the solution.

This model of iPod shuffle has a terrible design. The headphone jack doubles as the charger and so is prone to shorting out if a little moisture gets into the jack. A search on Google for "iPod shuffle sweat shorting" returns a ton of hits with people complaining on how their iPods died after only a few months. The main problem is that a lot of people use this device when exercising. Sweat then runs down the headphone cable and into the jack shorting out the battery. With other mp3 players, this doesn't happen since the charger isn't built into the jack. It's normally built as a separate docking jack or a simple USB connection.

In my case it wasn't sweat. It was rain water. Normally if it's raining and I run outside, I wrap my mp3 player in plastic wrap. I didn't and some moisture ran into the headphone jack. I heard crackling in my ears and just thought that the jack was getting loose. I tried switching it on-and-off, unplugging and plugging in the jack and soon the device was dead. Thinking the battery had died, I plugged it into the charger and the charge light didn't come on at all. After some searching on Google, I found out why.

Solution:

• Immerse the iPod in rubbing alcohol for about a day. This will displace the water from the inside of the iPod and since alcohol evaporates easily, it will dry out later faster.
• Put the iPod in a container with rice for a couple of days. Rice will absorb the moisture.

That's it! A simple solution but very effective.

If the iPod has shorted and destroyed some of the internal components, then this won't work, however, since the device is dead, it doesn't hurt to try this solution to see if it will work before you dispose of it.

Good luck