Restoring//Reinstalling OS on iPod Touch

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Level 1

22 points

Restoring//Reinstalling OS on iPod Touch

Afternoon,

We've got an old iPod Touch (A1213) that's made its way around my wife's family before coming back to us a couple of years ago. I dug it out with the intention of setting it up just for my son to play with (versus my own phone), and I discovered that at some point, it was jailbroken by an unknown software, and I suspect that they attempted to undo the jailbreak improperly. So I'm stuck with a iPod that sorta functions, but on a crippled OS (since various parts of it were seemingly removed).

I've tried restoring it a few times while connected to my MacBook with Music, but both during a regular reinstall and in boot//recovery mode, the updates seem to fail because of the iPod being so old. Is there any way around this, or a resource I can look at to basically do a complete wipe and restore of the latest iPodOS available for this old touch?

Thanks!

Posted on Apr 12, 2021 11:27 AM

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Answer 1

ryane77

Community Specialist

Apr 13, 2021 10:51 AM in response to mattagc

Thanks for reaching out, mattagc.

It sounds like you have a first generation iPod touch, and you're looking for options to update it after unknown software was previously installed. We can help.

When it comes to the original iPod Touch, it is able to support up to iOS version 3.1.3. Apple considers this model to be obsolete, and support is no longer offered for it. You can learn more about the lifecycle of your Apple devices, and what to expect once they reach a certain age in the article, Obtaining service for your Apple product after an expired warranty.

You also mentioned that the iPod Touch may be Jailbroken, which may complicate things. According to the Unauthorized modification of iOS can cause security vulnerabilities, instability, shortened battery life, and other issues article, you may want to consider the following:

"Apple strongly cautions against installing any software that hacks iOS. It is also important to note that unauthorized modification of iOS is a violation of the iOS end-user software license agreement and because of this, Apple may deny service for an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that has installed any unauthorized software."

That said, you may have some luck following If you can't update or restore your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch and the links inside the article to restore the software and overcome any error messages you may encounter.

Best of luck!

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Answer 2

mattagc Author

Level 1

22 points

Apr 13, 2021 6:44 PM in response to ryane77

Thanks for the input, but unfortunately I've tried this already. It seems like whatever they did when they jailbroke it messed it up good. I was hoping that there might have been additional steps I could try after the attempts in recovery mode don't complete.

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Answer 3

mattagc Author

Level 1

22 points

Apr 13, 2021 6:52 PM in response to mattagc

I also should add to this I end up with "The iPod “iPod” could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (5)."

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Restoring//Reinstalling OS on iPod Touch

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