Ipod only recognized as "unknown device"

I HAVE FOUND A FIX !!!!


Having already decided I would need to purchase a new iPod I went for a last ditch attempt, and re-formatted the iPod. It worked perfectly and instantly iTunes recognised the iPod and started synching tunes that were queued. The only additional thing I had to do was reset a few preferences that had been wiped.

To re-format the iPod:
Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management. Select Disk Management and right click on the drive that is your iPod. Select Format..., click yes to accept that it will wipe all data, enter a volume label and choose FAT32 as the file system then OK.

Hope this helps everyone out as it did for me. Enjoy ...

Hi,

Thanks for the info.

Santo

I have the same problem. It actually occurred earlier, at which time I tried most of the recommended steps. Then it suddenly went away. But now I have had the problem for several weeks, and nothing seems to help.

hz

guys guys, the fix.. for most of you at least is simple... I had the same problem, i got a pci to usb 2.0 card for my pc for my ipod but it would only show up as unknown in the device manager. all my other devices worked fine on this usb 2.0 card and my ipod worked fine on my older built in usb 1.0. All the software was installed correctly. so i went to the device manager and started figuring out which usb ports where what so i could figure out what the problem was.

i went to device manager, changed the view to "devices by connection" and navigated through the tree to find all my "usb host controller" entries, they where all in the same place but i'm sure thats different for everyones computer. anyway i plugged in a bunch of devices so you could see exactly which entree in device manager corresponded to what usb port and i found that for my pci to usb 2.0 card, there where two entries. if i plugged a camera into the card it showed up in the first entree, but if i plugged my ipod in it showed up in the second one and said it was unknown. so i disabled the second one. unplugged all the devices and reconnected the ipod to it. to my surprise, nothing happend. So.. i tried plugging in my webcam in the other port of my pci usb card(it has two ports) and with both of them connected it instantly recognized my ipod and installed it at that port. Now it works fine but sometimes takes a few seconds after being recognized as a "mass storage device" to being recognized as an "apple ipod" and being recognized in itunes.

SquidLips- you are my hero Thank you so so much! Works like a charm.

1. Keep IPOD plugged in
2. Uninstall "Unknown Device"
3. Disable "USB Root Hub" then enable the same device. Do that one by one until see a new "USB Mass Storage Device".


DELL Windows XP

IPOD_NJ...thanks for your help. i have been struggling with this problem forever and finally got the usb to recognize it as a "USB Mass Storage Device" -- but what do I do after that?

It is still not coming up in itunes, my computer or anything.

Any help would be amazing! Thanks so much

Unfortunately, mine is doing the same thing. It starting not turning on when I tried playing songs a few weeks ago. I had to fiddle around with the battery button and turn it on and off a few times to get it to play.

Then tonight, I updated the iTunes version and plugged in the iPod and windows will not recognize it in the USB. I troubleshot and checked the driver only to learn it says there is no driver for the device and the device is not recognized. I tried to update the driver and it says the driver currently installed is newer and will not allow me to install one. I am ready to smash the shufle against the wall!

Maybe related. I recent ran into a problem with ZoneAlarm and my IPOD. It just came up after a zone alarm update and stated the IPOD needed to be re-formatted. Then the system would not recognize the ipod over USB. After about 3 days of changing this and that I realized zonealarm is the root of the problem. Yet to figureout why. If you have zonealaram shut that down and try. Now if I can fugure out why after this my ipod freezes the interface randomly for 10-30 seconds.

-Matt

Same here. Hope they come up with a fix very soon!

Reformat it as FAT flash driver and load latest driver.