How to distinguish a 5.5th generation ‘Enhanced’ iPod

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5thgen

The best ever iPod (for sound quality) was the 5th generation ‘Enhanced’ version. But it has the same Apple model number as the 5th generation (A1136) so it’s hard to tell the normal and the Enhanced models apart. You cannot tell from the outside. You need to look at the display.

Click on ‘Music’  and look right down the bottom under ‘Audiobooks.’

The ‘Enhanced’ 5th Gen iPod has a ‘Search’ function at the bottom of the music menu. Here’s a picture of what it looks like on the Enhanced version.

Click on ‘Music’  and look right down the bottom under ‘Audiobooks.’

The ‘Enhanced’ 5th Gen iPod has a ‘Search’ function at the bottom of the music menu.

This identifies it as the best ever iPod!

It will look like this:

The 'Enhanced' 5th Gen iPod has a 'Search' function at the bottom of the music menu.
The ‘Enhanced’ 5th Gen iPod has a ‘Search’ function at the bottom of the music menu. Some of the later model A1136 iPods were ‘Enhanced’.

 

All the 'U2' iPods were 'Enhanced'
All the ‘U2’ 5th gen iPods were ‘Enhanced’

Everymac is a great source of information on different mac models. According to Everymac the only way to tell the 5th gen ‘Enhanced’ apart from the 5th gen is that it has a ‘Search’ option in the software.  The exception is that all the U2 iPods were ‘Enhanced’ so if you have a Black and Red ‘U2’ 5th gen iPod, you can tell that it is enhanced!

Written by Wayne Connor
Mac user since 1996
Helping people master their Macs since 2005

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16 responses to “How to distinguish a 5.5th generation ‘Enhanced’ iPod”

  1. Fearafter

    How can an article about “The best iPod ever” not even talk one word in regards to sound quality or audio characteristics? The iPod is legend for ONE thing and ONE thing only, and that is being a revolutionary dedicated digital MUSIC player. It’s not legendary based on the pure fact that it has a 5.5thGen (OMG the 5.5th U2 edition Enhanced with the search!!! omg, so cray!!) Why is it better? Or had you never thought about it like that before?

    Reply
    1. Wayne

      If you follow the link ‘best ever iPod’ you can read the article you are after – it’s all about the sound quality and why the 5.5th Gen is the best.

      Reply
      1. jimbob

        Great article..I will try to find a 5.5 with search function. I am using a android phone now (my son wanted my nano 5th) and it stinks compared to the Nano 5th.
        I’ll keep looking until I find the Enhanced..I travel alot so a good sound is important to me.

      2. Alexander Hyland

        Check out the fiio x1, SQ is excellent, has enough power to drive high impedance ‘phones and can hold up to 256gb of music depending on the micro SD card you use. Also if you are in the UK the distributor is fantastic, I had a 1st gen fiio that died after 11 months, they sent me a brand new 2nd gen model at no extra cost and even reimbursed for postage on sending the old one back. Very impressive!

      3. Fast

        Wow… What a response. Guy writes the most viewed article ever written strictly on iPod SQ and you ask if he’s ever considered SQ before. May want to grab a second serving of humble pie at some point…

  2. voxish

    I’ve modded quite a few 5.5gen videos with SSDs (now that SSDs have come down to a reasonable price) but recently I’ve found that Kingspec/Zheino SSDs just go into a recovery mode/restore loop on installation. It could be down to motherboard compatiblity as they work fine in the Classic 6th and 7th gen (and after a bit of persuasion in the ordinary Video 5th gen). But is there any tech who knows why this should be?

    Reply
  3. mee

    Voxish this may help:

    After doing a bit of work on an old iPod 4g classic I scored. I was able to get a Dual MicroSD to Compact Flash adapter to work in my iPod.

    Setup your CF adapter with SD card arrangement you would like to use. If you want to only use one MicroSD make sure you put the SD card in the correct slot. If you are unsure check the size/capacity of the CF card. If its 30MB then move the sd card to the other slot in the adapter and you should have the same capacity of the single card. Dual card set-ups need to be matching (I am using 2x 64GB) and when mounted should show the combined total size.

    Download Easeus Partition manager – and plug in the ipod with installed CF adapter and CF card in to your pc.

    Drive should now pop up and use the above partition tool to format the drive to FAT32. Remember to apply the settings or the drive wont format.

    Now this may sound weird but right click on the ipod drive in the partition manager software and hit rebuild MBR. Do not hit apply yet.

    5 By this point iTunes has most probably complained about the ipod and wants to restore the ipod. This is the tricky part. We want iTunes to restore the ipod and when the restore progeress on the PC hits 100% we want to hit the apply button in the partition management software before the ipod reboots.

    6 If it worked then you should be greeted with “plug ipod in to wall” icon and doing this allows the ipod to finish restoring and you will have a ipod you can now install Rockbox on.

    I have no idea why the adapter needs this process and normal CF cards do not need this process.

    Reply
  4. mee

    The rebuild MBR bit may be the bit that helps you. Helped me with microsd

    Reply
  5. Rick

    I just bought a ipod Gen 5.5 enhanced. All the contents on the ipod are from a macintosh computer. How do I transfer to Windows which is all I have. Will I lose the songs that are already on the ipod?

    Thanks, Rick

    Reply
    1. Wayne

      Yes when you sync you lose all the music. Even if you had a Mac it would be the same.

      Reply
    2. Kerguney

      There are some other programs for either Mac or Window based ( i.e; iExplorer .AnyTrans etc ) to Manage iPhone/iPad/iPod Content as iTunes Alternatives and it can be used without any restriction .you can import and /or export all contents without going thru iTunes..Take care..

      Reply
      1. Wayne

        e.g. WALTR

  6. Jacky

    How to Sync my iPod with iTunes without losing music from both ends

    Reply
  7. Chris Ruprecht

    I have upgraded a few iPods in the past few weeks, details can be found here:
    http://www.seconnect.net/SEConnect/Skunk_Works/Skunk_Works.html. The Ultimate conversion will complete today after I have synched it and closed it again, with a TB of flash space. Then I will compare the 5th Gen DAC with the 5.5th Gen “Enhanced” DAC.

    Reply
    1. gehx

      link not working bro…..

      Reply
  8. Liz

    Can I delete my music from my IPod 30gb and replace with my Spotify music? Simple instructions for an idiot if possible! Thanks in advance. :-)

    Reply

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