iPod Touch Wheel Troubleshooting

This is a common problem on some iPods, the touch wheel is jamming up and you won’t be able to scroll as well as before, maybe a dead area on the wheel, until eventually it just stops working. You can probably fix the touch wheel yourself much cheaper than visiting iPod repair companies; you’re going to need to buy a touch wheel (or if you can get one cheap, the whole face of the iPod) off of eBay and open your iPod up.

The best way to repair the touch wheel on your iPod is to run a box cutter along the side of the iPod where the white and silver meet across from the fast forward button (very carefully—those things are sharp and can cause nasty scratches on your iPod or make your arm bleed profusely).

Once you’ve got it open, VERY very carefully disconnect the hard drive and make a mental note of where you’re going to plug everything back in.

Taking a picture is a good idea. Bring out your digital camera, belive me it will be easier when you have to put it all together again. Try not to disconnect anything else, or you’ll have a hard time; it’s going to be pretty obvious what you need to do.

There are some screws to unscrew to get at the touch wheel, though if you’ve got a new face plate you can just skip that step. Put it all together with the placement of everything the same (this is why you need a picture—if anything’s a bit off, your iPod’s hard drive could overheat.