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iPod doesn't appear in iTunes or on desktop

My iPod does not appear in iTunes or on the desktop even though it is charging though the firewire. Can anyone help? I tried the steps recommended in the support section of Apple's website, but nothing changed.

Posted on May 8, 2005 9:59 PM

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128 replies

May 9, 2005 3:56 AM in response to Emma Thompson

I've got the same problem. Only at first I was getting an file error message on my iPod. I updated all the software & even then my iPod was unresponsive. It was not even picked up by my computer (finder or iTunes). I sent it to Apple for fixing. They did nothing, and slapped me with a $20 bill for finding no fault (which I was bemused by after having it fo about a day and not even formatting the device!). It was returned with a a few scratches & a dent in the back! I'm still having the same problem. I don't know why this happened after several months of good use. It's flying back to apple now!

May 9, 2005 12:46 PM in response to Emma Thompson

This is what has happend to me and what I usually do:

I have my ipod connected to my dock and most often then not, my ipod wont show on the desktop or itunes but it will be in disk mode.(the delete symbol flashing on the ipod screen)
At this point I restart my ipod and when I see the apple symbol, I pull it off of the dock, and the ipod's menu pops back up. Then I disconnect the firewire from the computer, wait about 60 seconds and reconnect the firewire then I plop my ipod back in the dock and "BAM" there it is.

I do this alot and sometimes it doesn't work; when that happens, I take the same steps,however, I restart my computer before I plug the firewire plug back in.

More than that I couldn't tell you because its always worked for me after that. I sometimes also run the disk utility program and check to see if there is any problem with hard drive.

Hope this helps.

May 9, 2005 9:26 PM in response to Emma Thompson

I am having the same problems. My iPod was left on for sometime and locked up along with iTunes. Now I rebooted the computer and took the iPod off. It was locked up as well, so I thought, well, I will just let the batteries die. They did in a VERY short time. When I go to hook it up now, I get nothing, no iPod on the desktop, no iTunes starting up, iTunes cannot even see it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I did hold down the Menu and center button to try and reset it, which it did, but still nothing.

Christian

May 10, 2005 10:55 PM in response to Emma Thompson

My iPod knows it's plugged into my Mac. It charges, shows up in the Finder, and very very occasionally even pops up in iTunes. Here's the thing though, it's about a 1 in 50 chance of iTunes recognising the iPod is plugged in, even when the Finder does.

I've gone through the endlessly entertaining process of restoring the iPod software (it's currently at 2.3, and was when the problem first showed up), unplugging and plugging it in countless times, and finally reinstalling 10.4. Things became flakey, albeit workable, from the day I first installed 10.4.

After reinstalling 10.4, the problems persisted. So when I saw iTunes 4.8 had been released this morning, I hoped a quiet fix had been included. First time it ran, my iPod showed up, but the second time, same old problem. It's present in the Finder, Disk Utility knows it's there, it works with iSync (or did when I last synced anyway), but iTunes usually completely ignores the device.

When it does show its face in iTunes, I haven't done anything special as far as I can tell (well, besides restarted my Mac, reset the iPod, and reconnected it countless times).

I'm lost for options. Next step is calling Apple.

May 11, 2005 2:54 AM in response to Liam Doughty

I am experiencing the same kind of problem but in slightly different way:
• When I connect my iPod (40 Go, 4th G) it shows up in iTunes and in the Finder for a very short time. Right after it has been synchronized with my iTunes library, it disappears from the Finder but I can still see it in iTunes.
I have tried to reset my iPod, restore the latest version of iPod Software but it.
The first time the problem occurred was when I started my Mac with my iPod connected and an audio disc loaded. When I logged in, I got a dialog window saying something like 'the disk was not recognized' (don't remember the actual message). I thought this came from the audio disc that was loaded and ejected it. Still it seemed like iTunes was not running since I could see it in dock but when looking at the Activity Monitor I noticed the iTunes process was running but not responding. I tried to kill the process with no success and I was forced to power off my Mac. Ever since my iPod is not recognized by the Finder.

May 12, 2005 4:29 AM in response to Guillaume Lasnier

For those of you thinking that calling Apple may help this may not be the case as I have found out. I called, was placed indefinately on hold, got referred to the wrong department, whom instead of helping me placed me back at sqaure 1 (i.e. wasted my time). I was however informed by Apple that only the iPod hardware is under warranty i.e. if it is a software problem inspite of the fact that you have paid for other iPod accesories within the box, you will be billed for assessment. I've left several messages on the customer relations supervisor's voice mail....almost a week later : no reply.
I've sent about ten e-mails: one reply (four days later) from a customer relations officer: "please send iPod in" (what, again?). No reply as yet when I asked for reassurances that I won't get billed for another $19.95 as Apple did not even re-run the updater the first time and allegedly completely analysed my iPod.

My Hint: call (early in the morning close to 0900hrs) & e-mail, insist on speaking to a customer relations supervisor (the underlings are pretty ineffective)& get their full name. Call & leave messages.

May the force be with you.

May 12, 2005 5:44 AM in response to Pranav Mehta

I've just been browsing the other discussions about loads of people with a similar problem. Someone has sugested trying the following: Either changing the firewire port that your plug the device into, or unplug all other firewire devices.
Another thing to try is to try to use a USB 2.0 port instead of firewire (though i feel that Apple ought to pay for the cable if it did not come supplied). This unfortunately did not work for me. Pants!

May 13, 2005 3:14 PM in response to Emma Thompson

ditto ditto ditto

I posted on useage problems with exactly the same ordeal. My finder, itunes and updater all say my ipod is not connected. (in fact, the updater says it's 'attached' but not 'mounted to the desktop'.

Lord help me.

I too have restarted both computer-s, ipod, and switched firewire cables to no avail.

I would like to get the music off the ipod, but I can't b/c no computer recognizes it. if I send it in, all will be lost and I will probably be charged exorbitantly for it.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I feel your pain,
Rachael

May 14, 2005 3:27 PM in response to Emma Thompson

I had the same problem. it occurred a few days after i installed Tiger. i have two ipods syncing to my powerbook and when i tried updating the second one, OS X just crashed. when i rebooted it would not recognize the second ipod. i followed the advice in one of the earlier posts and used disk utility. it found an error and could not repair the ipod, so i just went ahead and erased the disk and reinstalled my music.

iPod doesn't appear in iTunes or on desktop

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