Shuffle dock and blinking amber light

Question

Shuffle dock and blinking amber light

Got a new iPod shuffle dock (yeah, I know it's a glorified USB extension). I like the stand aspect of it, and I want to charge the iPod without having to plug it into the computer.

So I plugged the Dock into a USB hub and put in the iPod, resulting in a blinking amber light. Supposedly this means "do not disconnect iPod shuffle from your computer." Well, it's not connected to the computer!

My USB hub is really old, so I tried plugging the dock into my Airport Express -- same result. Next I tried plugging the dock into the computer -- same blinking amber light. Only plugging the iPod directly into the computer, not using the dock, results in a steady amber light, meaning "charging."

What's going on?

iBook G4 15-inch Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Posted on Dec 26, 2005 9:06 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 27, 2005 5:28 PM in response to Mark Mckenzie

Wow, I'm bowled over by all the responses here! Update: While the blinking amber continues, I have determined that the iPod is indeed charging in the dock. Still don't understand why it's blinking and not solid amber. I will see if it goes to solid when fully charged.

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Answer 2

Dec 29, 2005 1:10 PM in response to Mark Mckenzie

Well, the iPod shuffle -- sitting in the dock which is connected to the USB hub -- is fully charged, and still blinking amber. In further reading here and elsewhere, I've learned that apparantly plugging the shuffle into anything except a computer with iTunes will cause this never-ending amber blinking, even after charging is complete.

So now at least I know the dock works for charging the shuffle. The blinking is kind of annoying, however. You'd think this would not happen with an Apple-made dock, no matter where it was plugged into a USB port.

I guess I could cut the wire off the back of the dock and just use it as an elegant stand!

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