Nano keeps pausing itself.

Jump through the usual troubleshooting steps that are laid out here:

http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/nano5gen/

If that does not do it, let us know.

i

It's happening to me as well with podcasts. It also goes into a skipping mode as if I were holding the forward button down. Even toggling the hold button to it's red setting doesn't stop this behavior. I've reset it three times. The first time it helped for a while. Yesterday it didn't help at all. Today I tried toggling the hold button and resetting. I don't know if that is different than just resetting without first toggling hold button as I was doing yesterday. It's working properly at the moment. We'll see if it lasts this time. I've listened to the same tracks on my iPhone and they are working fine there, so it's not a problem with the podcasts.

For what it's worth, the "OK to disconnect" screen lingers a fair while before you can do anything with the iPod after unplugging - possibly a minute or more.

My iPod is back to it's skipping and fast forwarding - it behaved well for about 2 minutes of usage following the toggle reset before going back to misbehaving.

I'm trying to restore the iPod now - presumably the same problem affecting the pausing / skipping kept interfering with the restore. Putting the iPod into disk mode shut it up enough to allow the restore. I'll post this evening to confirm whether this seems to have resolved the issue for me.

I realized as I was resetting my options that the first sign of a problem was that the iPod started speaking the names of tracks at the beginning of each track without my pressing any buttons. The pausing came later, and then the fast forwarding. It seems the issue is that the iPod is thinking buttons are being pressed (and not just one in particular). Putting the hold button on did nothing to stop this behavior, so presumably it's on the software end, not the hardware end.

Well it didn't take long to see that didn't help at all. The iPod is back to talking - the minute I turned it on it starting reading the entire list of tracks on the iPod and randomly playing and pausing. I think it's time to take it back....

Got the same problem here on my brand new 8GB Nano. I have gone through the resets recommended here and turned the shuffle off. It even skips/pauses when the hold is on.
I think I know where the problem is coming from though as it doesn't skip when the headphones are unplugged and using the internal speaker. I also have issues with the speaker switching over when the headphone jack is plugged in fully, you have to unplug it and try again. I'm guessing their is a problem with that connection causing the unit to have all these faults.

Take your 2nd new Nana 😉 to the Apple Store to see what they say this time about your issue. If again they say "accidental damage" you have 14 days from the date of purchase to exchange it or you can take the matter up with Apple Customer Relations 1-800-767-2775. That department deals with customer complaints. It is NOT tech support.