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

+This question is answered. "Helpful" answers available: 2 . "Solved" answers available: 1 .+

There's five pages of stuff here. Any chance links to the three posts above could be provided in the OP?

hi .
ive 3 ipods 2 classics and a touch, tried all this nothing makes then work even reinstalled windows xp ,one of the classics charges that it !

OK, as everyone on this post already knows, iPod Classics have a problem with iTunes 9. Here's some more data to ponder. I just tried restoring my iPod Classic on a different computer. This computer NEVER had iTunes 9 on it. I started with iTunes 7, then moved up to iTunes 8. My iPod Classic STILL won't restore!

This is really bizzare. Are there any programmers out there reading this? It would appear that iTunes 9 has actually written some kind of bug into the firmware on the iPod that is preventing it from working EVEN ON AN OLD SYSTEM!

Here are my current working theories:

1. Apple didn't anticipate this bug and it's just an incompatibility between iTunes 9 and iPod Classics.

2. It may have been an unintended consquence of Apple trying to mess with the Palm Pre. (Google this and check it out.)

3. Apple deliberately wrote a self-destruct bug into iPod Classics to force us all to buy new machines. I really don't want to believe that.

4. This is just some strange incompatibility that certain users are having because certain system configurations don't play nice with iTunes 9.

The strange thing is: why can't we restore our crashed iPods? How could iTunes 9 have created a PERMANENT situation on our iPods? That defies logic.

Are there any programmers reading this? Can you share any insights?

thank you to Apple for ruining my husbands birthday. I got him a used 80 gig ipod . Loaded his laptop with itunes 9.0 plugged in the ipod. and pof wont read, stops the cpu, itunes quits responding, reformatted, restored, rebooted,and evry other problem thats also posted here. Tried EVERY solution out there. I know its the ipod cause i did a sys restore on our desktop and it read our other ipod 80 gig just fine(this ipod was never exposed to itunes 9.0).
have tried it ona emachines desktop, and two different/model/year toshiba laptops. All running windows XP

Since I seem to be the only person who actually solved this problem, I recommend everyone to try what I did:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2244718&tstart=0

ummmmmmm that would be great if itunes even recognized my ipod so i could begin to even THINK about how to transfer?????????

Darn, I overlooked a bit of your issue, sorry.

@razz............. Im sorry didnt mean to jump on you either. am just so aggravated with this issue.

I had the same problem as everyone else on this thread, iTunes 9 bricked my 120g iPod. Luckily I had 5 days left of my warranty and handed it in for service. They decided to replace it and today I finally got a my new 120g iPod.

This is where it gets interesting, I plug in the brand new device and: "iTunes can not read the contents of the iPod...go to the blabla...to restore this iPod to factory settings" comes up. Yes, because this is exactly what an iPod fresh out of the factory needs. At this point I start searching online and find this forum. I never post but I had to make an account for this.

As disgusted as I am by the idea, but this reeks of planned obsolescence. The worst thing is, if the warranty had been out I would have assumed my iPod had died and bought a new one by now.

I am extremely disappointed with Apple.

Here I am, back again after I thought I had put this problem to bed.

Here's the funny part - after my total reformat and then restoring with iTunes 9 and loading my songs onto the iPod, I decided to uninstall iTunes 9 and just keep my iPod as it was.

So here's what happened - five days later, I plugged my iPod into my PC to charge it. No iTunes on my machine. I instruct Windows Vista to eject it - and suddenly the iPod reboots and now won't display/play any songs.

This is AFTER I got rid of iTunes 9. I swear, iTunes 9 did something to this brand new 120Gb replacement for my 80Gb that it also ruined. Something permanent, maybe in the firmware, or maybe incompatible with Vista in some way... I'm out of ideas.

I can think of only two options for all of us:

1. Apple must be reading this post and similar posts. I would like to hope for the best and assume that this was an inadvertant bug. They must be working on an update to iTunes that will let us restore our iPod Classics.

2. If not, I think it's class action lawsuit time. Any lawyers out there reading this?

P.S. Rustling Ragazza's post above does not work for me as I can't even restore my iPod at all.

to everyone with this annoying problem. after the same stuff happened to my new ipod classic, numerous tries at reset, restore re-download, i thought id try something different. i got nowhere by trying to use the 'report a problem' thing on itunes, they just dont like being told that they stuffed up with their software. yes, it is a problem with itunes software. how to FIX it yourself, just get the last version that worked and get rid of the newest one.

<Edited by Host>

While shopping around to see which Ipod classic to get my wife and I (one for each), I started reading bad reviews all over the internet concerning the new Itunes and Ipods and then I came about this thread.

I think it's completely irrespectful to say the least that Apple hasn't issued a statement concerning the matter. Especially seeing that this thread is a the TOP of the list on the ipod classic discussion forum

Now I can definitively say I'm not getting us Ipods for christmas. Thanks Apple for your ****** customer support and shady business.

Hi elmalvao,

while this thread seems to be very negative and users try to figure out why thier iPods are having this penomionon, it doesn't mean that this is a universal issue!

Over the last 5+ years of owning iPods and apple products I have personally never experienced this! Additionally the problem is occuring on older iPods. While the root could be indeed a problem that may have come up after iTunes 9 doesn't mean that there aren't other factors applying to the iPods (such as software conflicts - realplayer/iTunes competing for the player or environmental factors bot listed)...,

additionally the classics are the only generation reporting the problems (with my above criteria included)... As you can see with my footer of this post I am not having this problem! And withall the different series of iPods out on the market you have alternatives!

Inclosure I'd like to also mentionthat the other vendors don't have as much market place out there! And most of the accessories and components made are for iPods... It adds to your convenience when you want speakers or to connect it to your next car!

I'd really suggest you stop onto an apple store and talk to a genius employer about this before jumping right to this decision.... However it is your dollar and you have the right to make such decisions!

Hope this helps a little!

This is a reply to iNexxFear above. Please keep in mind that these so-called "older" iPod Classics that are experiencing this major problem are, in some cases, only two years old (or less!). My iPod Classic is two years old and it has crashed since meeting iTunes 9. Are you saying that iPods should last only two years and we should all be rich enough to buy new iPods every two years?

I would like to ask anyone out there: has anyone actually gone into an Apple Store/Genius bar and had them try to restore one of these trashed iPod Classics? I plan on doing this, but simply don't have the time yet with a 4-year-old, a 5-month-old and a full-time job. However, I would like to know: can an Apple Genius worker actually restore one of these iPod Classics that iTunes has killed? I would like to know. If so, then I will get over to an Apple store ASAP.

The REAL solution would be for Apple to put out an iTunes 9 update that restores all of our dead iPod Classics.