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

I have had the same thing happen to me with iPod classic 80GB model. Four weeks ago it was working fine and then I plugged it in and my PC started freezing and not synching or anything. I have reviewed all the solutions and suggestions from Apple and different chat room and nothing. I took the iPod to authorized service and they said: "there is nothing we can do, you will have to buy a new one" I am out of warrantee (bought nearly 2 year ago) period, so that is it. No one will fix it and the only option is to buy a new one. The worst thing is that the iPod was working just fine before I plugged it into iTunes. The iTunes messed the iPod up. I know this because I had another iPod (nano) and iTunes messed that up at the same time. Initially, I thought that maybe this had something to do with the iPod classic harddisk being corrupted, but I guess that is not possible since my iPod nano did the same thing as soon as I plugged it in. It is a bit too much of a coincidence that both would break the same time. So, to sum up: iTunes broke my iPod classic and after that it broke my iPod nano. I hear that there are many options available for mp3-players these day. I can safely say that I will not buy another iPod and I can not recommend anyone else does either.

Booting in safe mode was a good test. Since the iPod apparently worked when you did that, it has to be something that is being loaded when you are not in safe mode. This could either be a corrupt driver or something like virus protection software. If you have virus protection software on, turn it off just to connect the ipod and see what happens.

Otherwise, it sounds like you need to do some poking around to figure out what is causing the problem. I would not lean toward your USB drivers, since when you booted in safe mode, it worked.

i

Try putting the iPod into disk mode:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1363

Once you have it there, see if you can at least see it as a hard drive. If you can, then try just dragging stuff onto the iPod. If it fails to do that, or gives you an error, then there is something wrong with the hard drive itself inside the iPod.

You can try formatting it, etc. to see if that gets the drive going again for you.

i

If you can be a bit more specific on what you are seeing, maybe some of us can offer some suggestions to get you going.

What happens when you connect the iPod to your system? Does it show up as a drive? Does iTunes see it at all? Can you copy files to it like a hard drive without using iTunes?

i

The pc doesn't recognize the iPod when I put it into disk mode. I've tried that a couple times now. The one and only time we were able to get the iPod to sync we had left the pc unplugged overnight.

Here is what I do:
Start pc
Wait on Windows to fully initialize
Put iPod on dock
Error code *Usb device not recognized* pops up in the task bar

It doesn't show up in iTunes or in my computer.

I can connect the iPod to another pc and drag files to the iPod and it works fine. Only briefly did it pop up *unknown usb device* in the task bar but then it loaded fine in iTunes.

If you start the pc with the iPod attached it connects, says syncing then when the Windows logo appears it will say okay to disconnect. It may even cycle through that a time or two before eventually stopping. It doesn't even charge on that pc. I managed to fully charge it on my pc and added songs to it earlier this evening, but I can't get the pc to recognize the iPod.

I have tried downloading dll's, an .inf file, uninstalling /reinstalling iTunes, restored iPod (to which it synced once after and none since). I've uninstalled and reinstalled the usb drivers, iPod driver is up to date (oddly though it only shows up to date on my pc - not the normal pc the iPod is synced to) When I run diagnostics on the iPod from iTunes it says iPod not found. I'm not sure what else to do, formatting Windows would be my last resort and I'm not quite there yet.

Kelly

I did try yesterday afternoon to see if the pc would acknowledge the iPod in disk mode and had no luck. I'll try again and see if it works. The iPod still works..and my son (teenager) insists on taking it everywhere! I have to literally pry it out of his hands to do some troubleshooting, so when he gets home later I will give it another shot. I appreciate the input and advice.

Kelly

Hmmmm.... when you re-installed iTunes, did you uninstall everything including Quicktime and the other stuff that is spelled out in the troubleshooting document linked below?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1925

Could be something wrong with the install of the Apple Mobile Device Support part since you keep getting that message in the taskbar.

i

Well there's not much to be said... iTunes 9 killed my iPod classic 120GB... I've tried every single tip on this forum and many others with the same results: NONE...

PLAIN AND SIMPLE, throw away my iPod that was working PERFECTLY for a year, but it died just with the launch of the "great" iTunes 9...

Nothing said from apple, but it was curious when I went to the Apple Store, the guy there just said they didn't know about any problems with the iPods related to the iTunes 9, with a smile on his face. I just felt stupid on the store and walked away...

t's really a shame Apple just playing deaf to customers... Well I'm just one more of the huge amount of people who will never do business with apple again in my entire life...

This same issue has happnened to me and has gotten me quite steamed. My ipod Classic 80GB (which is a bit over a year old) was working just fine until I updated my itunes to the current version and purchaced a song. Apparently this was a bad move cause apparently it viritually destroyed my ipod. It froze up itunes and my ipod as well so I restarted my laptop and disconnected my ipod. My computer rebooted fine but my ipod was still frozen so I restarted that as well. Holding menu and the center button worked but the apple screen thing stayed up for about 5 minutes and just made clicking noises if I held it to my ear. Once it had finaly brought up the menu screen all my songs, video, podcasts, et cetera were gone... Blast! But my ipod had only killed off my media and not the settings, so it is just the way it ususaly would be but without songs and such. My itunes thankfully is safe and all my media is still there. When I try to connect my ipod to try and restore it, everything freezes up, both itunes and the classic. I have tried connecting it on several PC's but not on a mac because no one in my family owns one (we are PC people). I have no idea what to do and I am certainly not buying a new ipod. I have put too much money and time into my current itunes to start over.

If anyone knows any solution to this problem besides waiting this all out, please do share

-Gary

Message was edited by: Gary1953

Ok I completely deleted everything related to Apple and iTunes off my pc, restarted multiple times and reinstalled iTunes with the latest version. Hooked up the iPod and it was found, but after unhooking it (yes I waited for Ok to disconnect to be complete) it now says usb device not recognized.

Kelly

My 80GB ipod kept rebooting when I had it plugged in and iTunes kept crashing everytime I'd open it up. I put the ipod in disk mode and tried formatting it using Windows quick format exfat (I'm using Windows 7), if you don't have exfat I guess you should use fat32. Took only a couple of seconds to format. Anyway iTunes doesn't crash anymore and I was able to restore and I am syncing all my music at the moment. I'm glad this worked because I was really worried my ipod was toast. Not sure yet if it will crash again after I disconnect/reconnect it but I guess this is good enough for now, at least I have my music back on the ipod.

Pawel

Message was edited by: pkoper

I have a iPOD Classic - 80 GB. Running under Windows Vista Home Premium - 64 Bit and iTunes 9.0.2.25. Although I cxan't say for sure that my iTunes version is the problem, my problem is in syncing Contacts from Windows Mail.

my iPod syns songs and playlists just fine, but when sysncing the Contacts from Windows Mail, it synced the first time, but then when I tried to sync again with some chnages to my Contacts in Windows Mail, it would not sync, and gives me a message of Unknown error - 50. It won't even delete the Contacts from the iPod!

Lucky for me that the music files and the playlists are still sysncing just fine!

This is the first time I tried to sync the contacts and it is under the iTunes 9.0.2.25!

I had a little streak of luck where I almost got my entire 80 gb iPod filled, but then the familiar ERROR returned during transmission and found the whole thing erased after I ejected it. Third time! And this is what happens only if iTunes recognizes I plugged in the iPod. Apple, please fix your software or send me a new iPod. Correction: fix your software AND send me a new iPod. This is maddening. My wife's Shuffle works just fine.

If you are in the UK and outside warranty, please read this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/may/27/news.consumernews

Update:

After formatting my iPod and syncing, iTunes still crashed the next day and I had to resync everything again. So after that I formatted again and also uninstalled everything related to iTunes by following http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1923. Then I reinstalled iTunes 9, resynced and things have been running smoothly ever since then. No more crashes. Try that and see how that works for you.