My uncle in Buffalo said my 2006 iPod would die without iTunes, it's still going
He swore I needed iTunes to put songs on it back in 2010, so I just dragged MP3 files straight onto it instead from a folder and it worked fine. 14 years later it still holds a charge for about 6 hours and I've never once opened that program on it. Anyone else skip the official software and just brute force old devices like this?
The "dragged MP3 files straight onto it" part is the real trick. Those old iPods show up as a plain USB drive when you flip the setting, so the computer just sees a folder full of music instead of some locked down device. I did the same thing with a Sansa Clip and a Creative Zen back in the day, and the only thing that ever bit me was album art and playlists not showing up unless you got the folder names right. Six hours of battery on a 2006 model is honestly kind of amazing, mine started dying after 4 by 2012.