Having read about issues facing the 1.0.2 firmware that’s been pushed out, here’s a quick guide to downgrading to 1.0.1.

*NOTE: Downgrading firmware will format your player, so backup your data before continuing. Also, this guide is solely for the iPod Classic.

Windows:

1, Firstly, reset your iPod. To do this, hold down the menu and centre button until you see the Apple logo appear.

2, Open iTunes, head to Edit > Preferences > General and untick ‘Automatically check for updates’. **CLOSE iTunes**

3, Head over to X:\Documents and Settings\*YOUR PROFILE NAME*\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPod Software Updates where ‘X‘ is your drive name (example, C:\). Alternatively, you can do: Start > run > %appdata%

4, Delete the files ‘iPod_24.1.0.2.ipsw’ and ‘iPod_24.1.0.2.ipsw.signature’.

5, If you don’t already have ‘iPod_24.1.0.1.ipsw’ and ‘iPod_24.1.0.1.ipsw.signature’, download them here: Signature | Firmware

6, Put the downloaded files into the directory above.

7, Plug in your iPod and start iTunes.

8, Head over to ‘Devices’ and select ‘Restore’. A dialog box will appear asking if you want to check online for updates, click ‘Don’t check’.

9, Another dialog box will appear asking if you want to use an older version, select ‘Use Older Version’.

10, You should have successfully downgraded your iPods firmware.

Mac (courtesy of comment poster ‘Dem’):

1) go to spotlight and do a search for .ipsw
2) in the results click on “show all” this will open the results in a separate spotlight window.
3) right click (ctrl click) on iPod_24.1.0.2.ipsw and select “Reveal in finder” this will open the folder where the files are kept.
4) simply drag the iPod_24.1.0.2.ipsw and the iPod_24.1.0.2.ipsw.signature files to the desktop or another folder or to the trash, wherever you want.
5) in iTunes click the restore button making sure you don’t have the option to automatically update your ipod with the latest software turned on and this will restore your ipod to 1.0.1
WARNING: as i’m sure you’re all aware this will delete all the songs from your ipod, so you’ll have to re-sync to put them all back on..

Note to Apple: Bugtest your software before you put it out to the masses!