Q: After iTunes 9 upgrade iPod Classic is corrupt without ability to restore

Ok poeple this is what I did to get my IPod Classic 120 "ok job but not fixed" So.
First thing is uninstall ITunes from my pc " I have windows 7" so its gone every single folder that means my music folder that iTunes makes its own directory. Make sure to delete that folder in your music directory go to folder and options and click show hidden folders and delete everything that ITunes makes. I reverted Back ITunes 8.2 . So now when I install itunes 8.2 dont update or do something ridiculous and go back to 9.XX w/e. Now back on 8.2 restore ur Ipod and then load up all you songs back into itunes key word dont sync ipod do it manualy when moving songs to your ipod if you sync your songs into you ipod it will freeze. What I did is Each "Album I moved my self by selecting the whole album and manualy move it to my ipod. Repead this step for every Album or every 25 songs to your ipod. Just dont sync your ipod and manualy move everysingle song to you ipod.

This may not be the solution for everyone but its only for those that have similar problems so please don't hate on me.!

I also notice something on 8.2 is that whenever I convert my music to AAC it stays in order so what I mean is that on 9.XX the music is scramble and that it makes random alphabetical letter for each file of music.

Message was edited by: TheUnknown07

I'm with most people on this, this is a shambles. Apple issues software update, I install it properly, and it damages my Apple hardware, the same hardware that is dependent on that software? Probably terminally? That doesn't seem a very fair way of transacting, to me. My 80Gb iPod Classic is sitting here shining a grey screen at me, and completely useless. iTunes doesn't recognise it, and I'm left with something that is useless because the manufacturer has rendered it useless at their whim. This is not the type of support and quick fixes that I expect of Apple, and that I expect when I'm paying the premium for Apple products. If I want cheap and nasty I can go elsewhere.

What I am getting is no recognition in iTunes, and the iPod shows a completely blank screen, albeit one that is lit. When I try to reset, the screen goes dark, and I can hear and feel the disk working, but it sounds as though it is 'sticking'. The lit screen has a slight difference between the left and right half of the display - the left is white, the right is a very pale grey. There is no error message. My iPod is about 2 years old, so warranty is irrelevant. Clearly there are a lot of us affected, and not just one generation or one model of iPod - there are a lot of threads about this on here!

Add me to the ever-growing list of people who are furious with Apple over this unresolved issue.

iTunes 9.0.2 for Windows XP turned my iPod Classic 120GB into a paperweight.

Windows XP SP3
iTunes Software Version 9.0.2
iPod Software Version 2.0.1
iPod Classic 120GB

This is only a 6-7 month old iPod Classic 120GB, so don’t start with “maybe the drive has gone bad”. *

I had upgraded from iTunes 8.x to iTunes 9.0.2.
I plugged my iPod into my computer, a few days later, for the first time since the iTunes upgrade, in order to recharge it.
iTunes gave me a message with something to the effect that the iPod device could not be recognized and that it would need to restore it to the original factory settings. I figured that the iTunes upgrade must require some corresponding upgrades to the iPod firmware, and seeing that I still had music files on iTunes and a backup if I needed to restore my music files, I said OK.
After the factory restore of the iPod was complete, iTunes re-synced all of my audio files onto the iPod.
When the re-sync and recharge of the iPod were complete, I ejected my iPod from iTunes.
But when I went to use my iPod, it said “No Music”!
I reconnected my iPod to my computer and noticed that there were now 40GB of Other (Orange) files while iTunes automatic-synch proceeded to re-copy all of my audio files onto the iPod again.
I was confused, wondering where my audio files went and thinking that 40GB seemed like a lot of software to have been loaded by the iTunes/iPod upgrade.
When this second re-sync was completed, iTunes now showed 20GB of Audio (Blue) and 40GB of Other (Orange).
I now recalled that I had about 20GB of Audio (Blue) files before this all started.
So the 40GB of Other (Orange) must include that original 20GB of Audio files, that are now unrecognized, and 20GB of Audio files added by the first re-sync.
So at least I know that the iPod disk is getting written to. *
Of course, when I ejected my iPod, it once again said “No Music”.
And sure enough, when I plugged the iPod back in, it now showed 0GB of Audio (Blue) files and 60GB of Other (Orange) files, and the auto-re-sync proceeded to put another copy of my 20GB of audio files onto my iPod.
So now after this third full re-sync I now have 80GB of unrecognized files put on my iPod by iTunes, that neither the iPod nor iTunes can recognize!

WHAT THE WHAT, apple!?!?!?

You’ve been hearing about and seeing these problems for months now!
Yet you don’t address this issue anywhere on your website that I can find.
You haven’t put out a fix or a procedure to fix the iPods that have been affected by this problem.
You haven’t put out a new version of iTunes to fix this problem.
You haven’t put out a new version of iTunes that avoids this problem.
You haven’t pulled this version off of your website so other unsuspecting users will not incapacitate their iPods with this problem.

I had all the same problem and I was able to convince the tech support to make an exception and they were able to restore my ipod classic! Its is a fairly long process but it worked and my iPod is still and opperating device now!!

DOn't buy a new one, call and demand them to help you restore.

Thunderpoopsie, what did they have you do on the phone with them? I've deleted itunes and reinstalled and still nothing, it seems like my ipod is missing a file or something to make it work as an ipod, right now it's operating just like a junk drive.

Yea what did they get you to do to it? i am unable to restore my ipod as it doesnt show up in devices. Ive tried uninstalling itunes and reinstalling numerous different versions, downgrading the firmware on the ipod itself, formatting, restoring (when it did show in devices). I even opened the ipod up to see if i could see anything wrong with it internally, nothing worked. I've been without my ipod for over a month now and for me that is a long time. I used to take it everywhere with me. I just want my classic back! Come on apple, stop picking your noses and do something about it.

I have my 80 gb iPod, and I am to the point where I just want to update my music again. I can download so much off of iTunes, but then can't put it on my iPod. I have tried everything mentioned in these forums and nothing works. It is getting annoying. I wish Apple would do something soon. I do not want to buy a new iPod and do not think I should have to, but wonder if I am getting to that point.

Anyone have any luck at an Apple Store?

I have an 160 GB iPod classic and have only used approx. 50 GB of the drive.Everything was just fine until today. I uploaded some music to it,disconnected and later noticed that on the iPod settings it showed that I only had 176 KB free. I couldn't find anything on point in the manuals so after much fooling around I tried restoring. It won't restore and my computer will not recognize my iPod. Fortunately I still have my music and can still use the unit but can't add or delete music. This is totally wrong. Apple has to be aware of the situation (they monitor the board)and should at least issue a statement saying they're aware of the problem and are working on a fix. If everyone who has had a problem went into their local Apple Store on a busy Saturday afternoon and pitched a polite but loud fit it might get their attention.

I'm a first-time poster here with another war story about iTunes 9... sounds like I have plenty of company.

I started with an 80Gb classic 5th gen which I had had for 2.5 years on a 3 year warranty as of the iTunes 9 release in September. Then, a day after installing iTunes 9, my iPod enters an endless reboot loop. I am able to stop it only by putting it into disk mode. I try in vain to use iTunes to Restore it - but here's the kicker: iTunes crashes every time I connect my iPod (whether in disk mode or after rebooting). Without iTunes, I cannot Restore.

So I return it, thinking it's either defective, or iTunes 9 killed it somehow. I go through a few refurbishes (replacement hard drive and battery). Sometimes it works for a day or two.

Finally, I get a brand new replacement, a 120 Gb model from 2008. I use iTunes, load all 5000 songs on there, and it works great for exactly 2 days. Then - voila, same problem. My conclusion: it is iTunes 9 causing the problem. Once again, I am stuck with an iPod that I cannot even Restore, because it crashes my iTunes. I am trying a reformat in Windows as we speak.

One question I could pose - I have heard it suggested (elsewhere) that specific ID3 comment tags on certain mp3 files might be the issue... either iTunes has a SERIOUS incompatibility with long comment tags, or non-Unicode characters, or some such. I did use iTunes to strip all comments from my mp3s last time out, and no luck, the problem persists.

Can an Apple rep please, please comment on all that is going on between iTunes 9 and iPod classics? I had a brand new iPod with the latest firmware, latest iTunes, and still it entered this death spiral.

Who knows, maybe apple planned this during the run up to christmas? Think about it, only a small amount of people with this problem would have thought to check the forums. So not knowing everyone has this problem, and the fact apple isnt acknowledging theres a problem they just think their ipod is past its sell by date. Anyone else with me? Just think of all the added sales they'll get because of this.

Update - I used Windows to format my iPod. It took 2.5 hours or so and I let it go overnight. Then (without unplugging the iPod) I opened iTunes 9 - and it detected the iPod "in recovery mode", at which point I was able to do a restore. Then I put my entire music collection back into the Library, synced with it, unplugged by iPod and uninstalled iTunes 9. I will no longer use iTunes until I have reason to think it's fixed!

Hey Everyone, that's having this problem I just wanted to let you know that I was contacted by Apple yesterday, and I talked with a nice guy named Jason, who had me try some different tests to get my ipod to work and even with what he was doing, none of it worked, so he had me go to a store and they replaced my ipod. He said he got my information for this thread and they were contacting people on this thread, so keep commenting on here, if anyone wants, send me a comment on here and I'll ask *** if I can send his contact information to you.

<edited by host>

I have another one to add to the list.

Ive had my ipod about 16 months, and have never had any problems with it. I then recently downloaded itune 9. Added a couple of songs, and just carried on, when I went to play my ipod the tracks wouldnt play, so my only option was to restore it. I went through the normal process of restoring, as Ive done it before, and when I went to plug it into my mac, to complete this, the restoring failed, and came up with an error code.
After many attempts at restoring, I phoned apple, who were extremely unhelpful, and simply told me to go buy a new one as it was out of warranty without any suggestions of how I could solve this problem.
After debating with his for a while, and telling him I had read the messages on this forum about everyone having this problem he finally made me an appointment at the genius bar near where i live. I took my ipod there, and the guy was helpful, and managed to get it to restore, but as soon as i got it home, and tried to load music onto it, it still said it needed restoring, and continued to fail. I am now left with an ipod which does nothing, apart from have a white screen with the ok to disconnect and tick symbol. And am not sure of what to do, surely apple are going to have to accept some responsibility for this.
I dont know about anyone else, but i have reported this matter to bbc watchdog, hoping that if enough of us complain that they will get involved, as apple seem completely unwilling to provide any help to their customers.

Hi, do you think that would apply to customers in the UK? Thanks for the update.

I too am angry!

This is definitely an Apple problem that they seem to be ignoring. I have 2 older iPods that will no longer synch. My iPhone synchs fine. I'm beginning to think it's a plot to make us all have to out and buy new iPods. This is not the Apple I once knew and loved. (#1 in customer support - what a joke) If they won't recognize there is a problem and do something about it, then I may just have to look at other music player options. I'm NOT going to buy a 2 new iPods just because they refuse to support their older ones that were working perfectly before they screwed them up with the own software updates.