ipod shuffle 1st gen charging

That's great. 🙂 I think the 1st gen iPod shuffle has the best sound quality of all the shuffle models. And it's the only shuffle that can charge AND play at the same time.

The blinking light actually does not indicate anything about the battery. When the light is blinking orange, it's a warning. Do not disconnect - Eject iPod before disconnecting. This is because the shuffle's disk (its storage) is mounted by the system. (The light does not blink green.)

When iTunes is running, the shuffle's disk is mounted when iTunes is actively syncing it. Otherwise, the shuffle's disk in unmounted (the shuffle still appears in iTunes). The shuffle's light then becomes solid (not blinking); it only blinks when you tell iTunes to sync songs to the shuffle, and when iTunes finishes syncing, the light becomes solid again. When solid, it means OK to disconnect. And the solid color DOES indicate battery charging status. Orange means currently charging. Green means battery fully charged. You can disconnect it before the battery is fully charged, as long as the light is solid.

NOTE: When iTunes is not running, the iPod's disk is like a USB flash drive. You can eject it using the system command. The light becomes solid and you can disconnect the shuffle.

Your PC may have an "energy-saver" feature that turns OFF full power to the USB port, when the connected device is unmounted by the system. Unfortunately, when this happens, the USB port is not able to charge the iPod's battery (and the light is OFF too). You may have settings in your computer's Control Panels to disable this feature, so that the USB port maintain full power.

Otherwise, try this workaround. Select the shuffle in iTunes (click its device button) to show its Summary settings screen in iTunes window. Find the checkbox for Enable disk use, and checkmark it. Click Apply. This setting tells iTunes to keep the iPod's disk mounted continuously, even when not syncing. If the shuffle's disk is mounted, it should have full power and its battery should charge. And the light should stay ON, although it will be blinking orange continuously. With disk use enabled, you'll need to eject the shuffle in iTunes before disconnecting.

There is an eject button next to the iPod's name in iTunes. After a few hours, the battery should be fully charged. Click the eject button, and disconnect the shuffle. When playing the shuffle, press the shuffle's battery light button on the back. When you see green, that mean the battery has a good charge - more than 25%. When you see orange, that means less than 25%. When you see red, that means very low charge.

NOTE: You can also charge the shuffle using a USB power adapter, like the one that comes with iPhone or other device. The shuffle's light is always solid when charging with a power adapter.

The light should be ON, either blinking or solid, while the shuffle is connected. Does the shuffle appear in iTunes? With the latest version of iTunes, the shuffle should appear as a small device button on the horizontal bar that goes across iTunes window.

You're probably right about the USB power adapter. I have a 1st gen shuffle, and just tried connecting it to my iPhone's power adapter. It does not seem to charge. My memory of having done that before must be faulty. 😉 My 1st gen shuffle's battery is getting old and worn out, so I don't use it very much these days. I recently bought a 4th gen shuffle.

Glad to hear it's working. My favorite shuffle design remains 1st gen, because of its excellent sound quality and because I can hold it in my hand to use it. I used to run with it in my hand, and I could easily use the playback controls by feel (without looking). And I did not need to reach to wherever the shuffle was clipped.

Many years ago, I bought some broken 1st gen shuffles on eBay for cheap, to see if I could swap parts and get some working shuffles. The one I have now is one of those. The most common failure point on the 1st gen shuffle seems to be the USB connector. So, when you plug it in to charge and sync, take extra care to push it in and pull it out gently and straight (not with any sideways pressure). Mosts of those broken 1st gen shuffle I got were broken because the USB plug no longer made a connection.

You can use a USB extension cable, if you want to avoid reaching around to the back of your PC. You can also use a USB hub, but it needs to the type that has its own power supply (not the cheaper type that shares power from the USB port).

FYI - I used the repair guides at this web site

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iPod_Shuffle_1st_Generation