iPod won't synchronise completely

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iPod won't synchronise completely

A couple of days ago I gift a refurbished iPod Classic as a gift. My last one, which worked fine and as in sync with iTunes, ended up in the toilet and is still waiting for some parts to arrive.

I connected the iPod Classic to my Windows laptop, opened iTunes and started the synchronisation of my 12.500 songs. This amount should fill the iPod for about half. However, after a while I got a notification (-50) that iTunes was unable to copy a certain song to the iPod. I retried a couple of times and different errors popped up (-50, -53, couldn't reach the iPod-error). All between 8,000 and approximately 9,500 songs. Even sometimes ending in the iPod being wiped and completely reset.

I'm using a Windows laptop (Win 10), iTunes 12.12.2.2, iPod 2.0.4 PC.

I even used different software to copy my songs, but that ended in an empty iPod too.

Does anyone have an idea on what I could do best? Any workarounds maybe?

Windows, Windows 10

Posted on Dec 11, 2021 10:13 AM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

272,937 points

Dec 12, 2021 5:44 AM in response to Conelano

As noted, the stats are quite bad, and they only represent the known issues. As the drive fills up you may run into new problem areas that have yet to be identified. Check the stats again. It may take several rounds of restore and reload to get all the media on without errors. See also the advice on breaking up large transfers, this can sometimes help when the drive is OK, but iTunes trips over itself as it transfers content.

tt2

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Answer 2

turingtest2

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272,937 points

Dec 11, 2021 12:55 PM in response to Conelano

See Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to factory settings - Apple Support. Restoring wipes all existing content on the device, which will normally release the pending sectors for automatic reallocation. See also the DFU Restore and Reformat Drive sections of my user tip. Try one of the methods, check the stats, and in particular that pending is now zero, then try to reload the media.

tt2

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

272,937 points

Dec 11, 2021 5:26 PM in response to Conelano

I'm referring to the headings in Corrupt iPod Classic - Apple Community:

DFU Restore

If the device still won't restore normally try this method. Connect the device to the USB cable, press MENU+SELECT like a standard reset but keep holding for 12 seconds. The device should reboot as normal and then the screen should go blank. Now open iTunes and try to restore again.

Reformat Drive

If all else fails try Erase your iPod - The Super Fix for most iPod Problems. Basically a low level format of the iPod’s hard drive to get around whatever problems are stopping iTunes from restoring it properly.

Another approach for a Windows formatted iPod is to get a Mac owning friend to restore the device and then return it to you for restoring again on Windows, or have a Mac formatted iPod restored by a Windows user and then restore it again on a Mac.

tt2

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Answer 4

turingtest2

Level 10

272,937 points

Dec 11, 2021 12:15 PM in response to Conelano

Max. temp has gone over the recommended 50C, but I don't think that is significant. The 16 pending sectors are areas of the drive that won't read reliably. They need to be converted into reallocations by restoring or reformatting the iPod and then attempting to reload content to it. 12,160 reallocations is quite a high count, though there should still be some room for more. As you clear and the repopulate the device you may find further areas that need mapping out. Rinse and repeat until it is done, or you lose patience.

tt2

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Answer 5

Conelano Author

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Dec 11, 2021 1:01 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks, that's very helpful. Now I understand your advice and patience a lot better :)

I will rinse and repeat for the factory settings then.

However, could you please give me a link to the DFU Restore and Reformat Drive sections? If the factory settings restoration doesn't work?

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Answer 6

Conelano Author

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Dec 12, 2021 4:06 AM in response to turingtest2

So I've been messing around with erase the memory and having patience:

The good news is that after formatting the iPod the amount of pending sectors is 0.

The bad news is that after 8959 songs I got the same error message again (error -50).

What could I do best?

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Answer 7

Conelano Author

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Dec 13, 2021 3:15 AM in response to turingtest2

After a couple of formatting sessions, a DFU session, factory settings reset ánd some disk restores (from the Windows notification) I finally managed to synchronise my iPod completely. iTunes usually tripped around 9200+ songs, but I decided to chop the upload play up into bits of 200 songs per time. Apparently that was enough for iTunes and the iPod not to choke.

The only minor issue is that my album pictures aren't in sync with the music. But apart from that: issue fixed.

Thanks a lot for your help and patience! :-)

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Answer 8

turingtest2

Level 10

272,937 points

Dec 13, 2021 9:38 AM in response to Conelano

You're welcome. 🙂

If the artwork starts in sync with the albums and then goes awry then there are likely some inconsistencies in your tagging. See Grouping Tracks Into Albums for some advice on fixing this type of issue. Every value that is supposed to be the same should be, and with consistent casing, no random trailing spaces, etc.. Sort values should not be used to try to merge different things together.

tt2

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Answer 9

turingtest2

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272,937 points

Dec 11, 2021 11:12 AM in response to Conelano

See Corrupt iPod Classic - Apple Community. What are your HDD stats?

tt2

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Answer 10

Conelano Author

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Dec 11, 2021 12:04 PM in response to turingtest2

Retracs: 6

Reallocs: 12160

Pending sectors: 16

PowerOn hours: 65

Start/Stops: 65

Temp: Current 32C

Temp: Min 5C

Temp: Max 52C

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Answer 11

Conelano Author

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Dec 11, 2021 12:18 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for the information. So in 'noob terms': I just have either to reformat my iPod (how do I do that?) or to keep on trying to synchronise my music until it somehow all is copied?

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iPod won't synchronise completely

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