How do I keep my iPod battery from dying so quickly?

Turn down the backlighting.

It just happens. Mine did the same so I had the battery replaced. It was 20 bucks + shipping here. They are only going to keep a charge for a few years and I don’t think you can to much to make them last longer.

But here is some info from Apple to preserve the lifespan.

Assuming the battery is defective I would power cycle the iPod (charge it all the way, run it down and leave it down for about an hour and recharge it all the way back up. I would also recommend what @Captain_Fantasy stated.. keep the backlighting down. If you are not getting anywhere near the recommended life span per charge then take it in for replacement.

Lithium-Ion batteries lose capacity over time.

Temperature also affects them as does storing them with a charge in them. For optimal life, keep them below 20C (room temperature), don’t charge them (flowing electricity raises the internal temperature of the cells), don’t allow them to self-discharge into polarity reversal (actually impossible to do; the monitoring circuits drain charge over time even when you don’t use them), and don’t let them near oxygen (if you can breathe then your battery is going to slowly die), and don’t turn your iPod on (same reason you shouldn’t charge them).

In other words, it will happen. If you have Lithium-ion batteries, get used to having them replaced periodically. Typically, they lose about half their capacity in 3 years, though high temperatures can shorten that time to 6 months.

Turn down the brightness,
avoid constantly skipping songs,
charge the battery only when completely dead,
make sure you put it to sleep when putting it in your pocket, holding it etc. so you won’t activate the accelerometer

run your battery all the way out. then recharge.

@Tenpinmaster is it better for the battery if I power cycle it all the time? Or should I only be doing it every once in a while?

@PhillyCheese by “putting it to sleep” do you mean just pressing the on/off button to turn the screen off, but not actually shutting it down?

@logjam Incorrect. That is the proper method for old-school Ni-Cads, but Lithium-Ion batteries do not like that treatment

”The battery prefers a partial rather than a full discharge. Frequent full discharges should be avoided when possible. Instead, charge the battery more often or use a larger battery ”

@desiree333
yep. Just turn the screen off. I remember when I didn’t do that, it would constantly switch from “now playing” to the cover flow.

That backlight is the reason that there is such a dramatic difference in playtime between playing video (backlight always on) and music (backlight mostly off except for a few seconds after a button-press). As a rough estimate, the backlight alone draws about 4–5 times the power of the rest of the rest of the machine combined.

@ainiwo I beleive you meant to send people here instead.