One of the hallmarks of Apple’s great media devices is that they just work. If you want an MP3 player and hand-held computer that does its job and hardly ever gives you trouble, you can hardly do better than to invest in an iPod Touch. Every computer suffers from the occasional glitch, however, and every device is prone to its own set of foibles. The iPod Touch doesn’t fail often, but it may occasionally hang or crash out of an app. Knowing a few maintenance tricks can help to keep your iPod Touch in great shape and running smoothly.
Power Off to Boost Performance
The iPod Touch is unlike a traditional computer (but similar to many other modern devices) in that during regular use, you never really have to turn it off or close down apps. The iPod Touch seems to take care of that for you. If you leave it alone, it goes to sleep. If you push the Home button, the app you were using just goes away. No muss, no fuss. The drawback to having these things happen automatically and out of your sight is that occasionally they don’t work quite correctly. An app may hang in the background and not shut down properly, or continue to work on something and use up processor time and battery power, slowing down your iPod Touch and shortening the time until it needs a battery charge. Plus, the computer which runs all of your apps and plays referee between competing processes can get clogged up with information, or try to balance too many moving parts. This can also slow down the device.
To help avoid this, you can do a hard reset of your iPod Touch periodically. Start by pushing the Home button of your iPod Touch twice in a row to open up the multitasking bar at the bottom of the screen. This shows all of the apps that have been used, starting with the most recent and going backwards in time. Touch one of the apps and hold it until the app buttons start wiggling, and a red circle with a white minus sign appears in the top right corner. Tap on that red circle on each of the apps. This will completely close each of the apps, so that nothing is left in the iPod Touch’s background processing. Then press the On/Off button and the Home button simultaneously. Hold them both down until the screen goes black. When the Apple logo appears, you can release the buttons. That means the device is in the process of doing a hard reset, shutting itself completely down and booting back up again. Repeat this process every week or so to keep your iPod Touch running at top speed.
Battery Maintenance
Even if you never need any other sort of ipod repair, the battery in your iPod Touch will eventually lose its efficiency. This is true for lithium-ion batteries in any device. To keep your battery in good shape longer, go through at least one complete charge cycle every month. Also avoid subjecting your iPod Touch to excessive heat, which is damaging to a battery’s capacity. If your battery loses too much of its capacity, it can be returned to Apple for a replacement, which will keep your iPod Touch running for even longer.