IPOD Mini and Itunes freezes?

Just adding another voice with the hope that Apple will hear and fix this problem (or these problems, as it appears there may be more than one issue here).

In my case, with a brand new iPod Mini, and a flat panel G4 iMac -- disconnecting the iSight camera fixed the problem. In fact, iTunes had frozen while "updating" the iPod Mini, I disconnected the iSight, and iTunes "unfroze" and finished transferring the music.

I am having the same problem however i don't even get as far as itunes. as soon as i plus the cable into the USB port and then the other end to my mini ipod the computer freezes?!!! its soo annoying, what can i do??

Try it the other way around... Plug the cable in to the mini first, and then plug it in to your Mac...

Hey guys,

I was having the same problem trying to get songs from my mom's imac to her new iPod Mini. iTunes kept freezing up and I couldn't even do a force quit. I DID, however, have an iSight connected and as soon as I unplugged it......viola, it worked like a charm. Hopefully Apple will get on this one.

~Josh

Just want to chime in and say I'm having the same problem. I've got a titanium 400 MHz running 10.3.7 and I do not have iSight. Until I read these posts I assumed it was a hardware problem but just ran a diagnostic on the disk and it checks out OK. Agree that Apple needs to see these posts and address them!

hi all. just wanted to write and say i've been having similar problems.
I am running 10.3.7 with the combo update on a g4 imac with an ipod mini and itunes 4.7. i also have an isght camera.
initially all seemed fine, but yesterday, after downloading some songs from the itunes music store, i tried to sync and itunes froze. it then froze every time i synced the ipod. itried reinstalling the firmware on the ipod and that froze too. i cant even force quit itunes.
however, i have a g4 powerbook and the ipod was syncing fine on that. i reinstalled the firmware via the powerbook but it still crshed everyitme i connected to the imac.
after reading these posts i tried disconnecting the isight and all is well again in the world of ipod!!
I sure hope apple start reading these posts and listening to us - i imagine there's an awful lot of customers out there with similar problems.
APPLE PLEASE SORT THIS OUT.
thanks, sonia

Thanks for your post Sonia... I've been having the same problem only without an iSight. I started using the USB cable, and the problems went away. They added USB 2.0 support with 10.3.5 or 10.3.6 I believe...

Oddly enough, my wife's regular 20 GB iPod works flawlessly via Firewire. Its just my mini that's misbehaving.

I spent some time on the phone with apple, they think it's a bad firewire cable. I tried my wife's iPod cable and still no luck. Then I updated iPod with older updater that has version 1.1 and it worked great. The problem, thus, seems to be with version 1.2 software. Unfortunately you cannot download older versions of software from website but the disk that came with iPod should have version 1.1 (they haven't started to distribute version 1.2 yet). This would explain why a lot of the posts note that things worked great the first time they used the iPod but then crashed later (i.e. after it upgraded the firmware).

Hope this helps.
AGS

Apple's dodging the bullet here. Its not the cable, as I've tried it with my wife's regular 20 GB iPod, and it works without a hitch, but when its with my mini, its a show stopper.

Next time anyone talks to Apple, tell them to check out our little rant here! They need to address this!

The support person at Apple I talked to said this was the first call she's had with anything like this. I think if everyone calls up and complains and tries to get tech support maybe their antenna will go up but unfortunately with only one "free tech support issue" per iPod it's a waste of your valuable resource. I recommend that if anybody has the extended warranty (which does not limit you to one issue phone support) make the call and complain and point them to this thread.

Good luck,
AGS

Anyone had any luck with this? I seem to be having the same problem. Synching from iTunes (4.7.1.) starts off very slowly and invariably hangs after a few songs have transferred leaving the iPod frozen showing "do not disconnect" and causing iTunes to hang.

I also had problems restoring the system software as the updater also froze - although it eventually worked in disk mode.

My 40 gig 4G iPod works perfectly on the same system and the mini iPod worked fine on a G4 iBook with iTunes 4.6.

Unfortunately the CD that ships with the current iPod mini seems to update the system software to 1.2 so I haven't even been able to try reverting to 1.1. Does anyone know where I could get an older version of the updater to try this?

Jon

Hi all fellow suffering iPod Mini owners trying to sync with iTunes and getting the spinning wheel effect. Before you read on there is no solution within this message, however I will pay (yes pay) anyone who can fix this problem without any additional hardware/software/firmware expense. The reason I make this offer is I know without Apple releasing a fix, patch or ungrade the problem will not go away...

The iPod mini was purchase just after Xmas from the Apple Store in Regents Street, the iMac it is connected to was purchased online from Apple about 3 years ago. The only software on the machine that is not from Apple is Microsoft's Excel/Word/Powerpoint and MSN Messager.

The Mac is a 2nd generation iMac, the only additional hardware is an Airport card. The OS is 10.2.8 with ALL software and firmware updates applied as of 16/1/04. iTunes is 4.7.1 (ver 4.7 didn't work either!). The iPod mini has been updated to Ver 1.2 (ver 1.0 didn't work either!)- The same iPod works perfectly on my other iMac (3rd generation) and my Sony Vaio. My other iPod mini will not work on iMac one either. The iTunes 4.7 and 4.7.1 works on iMac 2 and Sony Vaio.

I believe problem is related to Firewire port / buffer on 2nd generation iMac.

Can anyone fix this?
If you need more info, just let me know.
Does anyone know how to raise this with Apple (not some poor tech who won't have the power to do anything) ?

Cheers
NgH

I spoke to Apple tech support about this today after having tried everything I could think of (or had read about) including (1) removing the iPod driver and reinstalling iTunes and (2) deleting the iTunes and iPod preference files without success.

They did not have any useful suggestions other than to reset the iPod and restart the system (which I have probably done about 50 times trying to sort this problem) - and their only solution was to return the iPod mini for service. I don't want to do this as I know that it works perfectly well with a G4 iBook so I can't see how it can be hardware issue with the iPod.

I am getting really frustrated with the level of customer service for such an expensive piece of kit, which is basically now just a highly priced paperweight.

I agree that it could be a problem with the Firewire - but my 4G iPod works flawlessly on the same system so it still seems as though a software conflict that is specific to the mini could be to blame.

I don't know if anyone at Apple actually monitors these strings, but this really needs to be sorted - or at least some acknowledgment that there is a problem

When you say 2nd Gen iMac, you mean the Flat Panel iMac, right?

My mini doesn't work with a 15-inch flat panel iMac with FireWire. I really hope Apple is watching this. Its ridiculous no one has addressed our forum yet. We're about to go over 50 posts (not that many, but still significant).

I'm having the same problems as i posted elsewhere:

Is there a compatibility problem with iPod mini & iMac G3 500Mhz? I have no problem loading tunes from the iMac to my 3rd gen 40GB but when I try and load to the iPod mini it crashes iTunes after loading about 10 songs, a restart is only solution. I tried it via my G4 powerbook and all is fine.