'An ipod has been detected, but it could not be identified properly'

I just got through with dealing with this problem on my MBP. The iPod would mount, but eject as iTunes started and the "An iPod has been detected, but could not be identified properly...message would come up. After I spent some time on the phone with AppleCare, we determined something in the OS was corrupted. I ended up doing an archive and install with my original OS discs. After the re install, I had to install all of the updates for the past year, but all of my iPods sync again.

Perhaps...

iPod is not recognized properly by computer when USB drivers are not installed properly or are out of date
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538
Patrick

I have the same issue, if someone has an answer -- it would be great!
thanks
Alain

I'm no expert - and I feel like even less of one after sweating this out for nearly eight hours, off and on! But here's what finally worked for me:
As near as I can tell, iTunes 8 will not recognize a 4g iPod Mini (2nd G). Fortunately, I saved iTunes setups back to 4.something. I uninstalled 8 (had to use the 8 installer, as the iPod Service kept hanging the WXP 'remove program'). Then I installed 7.11 - which wouldn't open because it didn't recognize the 8 library! Copied the 8 library to another drive, tried again - success! It took a minute, but 7.11 recognized the iPod Mini. Of course, now I had no songs in my library. No problem, I'll just add a few from the iTunes folder and sync them to get things rolling. Yeah, no: 7.11 told me I needed to authorize my computer to play or sync them - when I tried, it then told me my computer was already authorized. <sigh> Found some non-Apple music on my hard drive, added them to the library and synced them. Ejected the iPod, upgraded back to 8.02, connected the iPod. 8.02 said I couldn't sync to two different iTunes and did I want to reset the for this one? I said yes and (so far) it now seems to be working fine.

I think Apple should give more importance to us, old iPod versions owners, because we are on their side since we bought our minis.

I'm having the same problem, my iPod was working just fine last week, then I moved the songs paste to another location, by mistake, and had to restore my iPod. And it didnt restore, it kept telling me my iPod was corrupted. Then I downloaded the version 8.1 today and the same crap happened.

Now I have to use my Playstation Portable to listen to all my songs, and I really hate it, because PSP is big, and I dont mind a device that plays video, I want my songs. ON my iPod.

Apple should think of that and fix the driver or the software or ANYTHING. I dont know much of that, im not a computer noob, but Im not good at this technical part, I really need someone to help me out.

Thank you.

The way i fixed this was by downloading itunes from the apple website and reinstalling.... I also restored my ipod just incase. hope this helps 🙂

did you put it in disk mode first?