Battery

• Conserve as much battery power as possible when using your iPod. The first part to go on the iPod is the battery, as it is considered a consumable part. An iPod battery has a certain amount of cycles it can consume before the battery cuts out, or fails to perform as it used to. A cycle on a battery is draining it completely, then recharging it. Each time it does this is one cycle. Conserve battery life so that your iPod does not use more cycles than needed. Whenever you put your iPod away, or in a bag, make sure to hold down the pause button to put it to sleep, then turn on the hold button to keep the iPod from turning on in your bag. An iPod touch and iPhone will lock when you press the home button at the top of the unit. You can also set up your iPod to use less energy, as it works by turning off the backlight in the Menu of the unit, as well as turning off Wi-Fi or other features that consume a large amount of energy.
  
  

Hard disk

• Make sure to properly disconnect your iPod from your computer every time it is connected to the computer. Unplugging an iPod without ejecting it from the software on your computer can cause your iPod to crash, affecting the software and your files. Improperly ejecting the unit may cause the hard disk to freeze up as well. To eject your iPod properly, go into the iTunes software when your iPod is plugged in, and press the "Eject" button next to the iPod icon. If your iPod has disk mode set up, so that you can drag and drop files to the unit, you can either drag the iPod icon on your desktop to the trash when using a Mac, or go into My Computer on a Windows machine and eject that device. If you want your hard disk to have a long life, make sure to do this every time. Try not to drop the unit, or keep it in a extremely hot or cold environment, as this will wreck the disk. Also make sure to use the unit every once in a while to keep all the components working. It never hurts to buy a protective case for your iPod.
  
  

Software

• Keeping the software up to date on your iPod is a good way to maintain the unit. Software updates not only fix bugs on the unit, but will also streamline basic functionality. Older models of iPods were given updates to improve battery life and hard drive functionality. It is incredibly important to apply all updates as they appear in iTunes. If you ever get an error on your iPod, or it fails to switch on, make sure that all current software updates are applied.