itunes killed my ipod classic

See the iTunes installers section of Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates for advice on rolling back to the last build of iTunes that worked for you. A full tear down and reinstall of the current build may also help.

tt2

OK the fiend....

I call BS on "the fact is that software such as iTunes is very complex." Re-tasking a communications satellite requires complex software. Landing the space shuttle requires complex software. Writing code to play music is not complex. Perhaps I am wrong, but if so then Apple should get out of the business if it can't design, manufacture, and support small devices that play music. Here's a real fact that has been repeated many times on this thread. My iPod stopped working and iTunes killed it. It was working fine recharging from a wall charger. Now that I recently downloaded and installed the latest version of iTunes, then tried to sync it, my iPod is a paperweight. Absolutely nothing happens. I, and everyone else, pay good money for these products. I don't want excuses - I want to hear my music.

I am completely computer stupid and just bought my ipod classic on Thursday. I've had nothing but trouble. After reading your entry, think I'll take it back to the store and stick with my MP3 player.

This happened to me recently. I downloaded the latest version of iTunes. First all of my album artwork disappeared off iTunes and wouldn't get the artwork for me. I had to manually put the photos in but only when they were saved onto my computer, copying and pasting left me with a black box. I didn't plug my iPod classic in for a while because I was awaiting the shipment of my new USB cable. When I finally did plug it in, my iPod refused to sync and then said it needed to be restored. I tried restoring, it got stuck in disk mode for a while, then I got a red X and it told me I needed to restore with iTunes. After many tries I eventually got my iPod back to the normal mode but it keeps telling me that I need to reformatt F: drive and all those error messages but I can't get it to do anything. Now the home screen on my iPod where it shold said Music, Video, Settings, etc. is there but all the text is gone. Apple wants $150 to fix this iPod that I got a replacement for less than 2 years ago. I did nothing for my iPod to stop working!!

I think the newest version of iTunes was designed partially to increase our dependency on Apple and its products. I have used my Classic for years to listen to books from Audible. Abruptly in the past few weeks, my books no longer show up on my iPod. The iPod was several years old, so I figured it was old age. I actually bought a new Classic, and the same problem exists. I have books on my mac that I can't listen to on my iPod. I hope there is a solution that someone will share.

I bought an ipod classic 160 GB and am using it with Windows 7 and the latest version of itunes 10. It seems that itunes is designed for itouch and ipad and iphone. Ipod classic does not work properly. All of the music etc downloads and plays, when I eject it.. But when I connect the USB the itunes is frozen, cannot play anything and cannot make playlists. Not happy with Apple as they claim this product is compatible with Windows 7. But HOW COME it freezes then? So same kind of issue, no resolution yet.

By the way 160 GB is not enough. I have filled up 2, got one stolen, and so bought this new one. Filled up an ipod touch..just not enough memory. I would not buy the classic ipod except for the bigger memory, obviously it has been orphaned by apple. Unhappy with apple telephone service, worse voice recognition ever, and hours are gentlemen bankers hours of the 19th century. Hoping someone will wake up and send me response by email..not in 3 days as usual..is this pony extpress service.

rdf san francisco wrote:

My ipod shows that it is synchronizing when it is not (I had to set it to manual sync to avoid other errors).

No such thing as "manual sync"! You either use Sync to synchronize your iPod with iTunes (look up synhronize - or synchronise in a dictionary) or you manually manage. If you have somehow managed to manually sync, that's probably why you're having problems.

rdf san francisco wrote:

I eject the ipod. nothing happens. I have to physically disconnect the ipod without ejecting in itunes to get itunes to run.

That's definitely not a good idea. If you physically disconnect an iPod (or other storage media) from your computer while the computer is talking to it, you will probably cause corrupted files on the iPod.

The best way to recover from "iPod won't eject" is to turn off the computer, then physically disconnect the iPod. (Once the computer is turned off, you know that it cannot be talking to the iPod.

rdf san francisco wrote:

I use an old itunes version (8.0.2.20) because I prefer it to the newer versions that don't have the Genre Artist Album list categories along the top of itunes.

What?

That's simply not true!

Go (in iTunes) to and select View/Column Browser/Show Column Browser. If it is already showing or once you have it showing, go back into View/Column Browser and below the option to Hide Column Browser will be a menu for Artist, Album, Genre etc. Unfortunately, each one has to be selected one-at-a-time.

My advice to you is install the latest version of iTunes. Then try connecting your iPods to the new version and then get iTunes to check for and install the latest version of software (also known as the operating system or iOS) onto the iPod. Check each and every iPod. If iTunes tells you that the iPod needs a restore, make sure that's done with the latest iTunes.

If you are stuck at that point, post back into this thread again with precise information about what does or does not happen.

By the way - if you connect your iPod to a different iTunes, you run the risk of deleting everything off your iPod if you do not follow the prompts carefully. In addition, if that iTunes updates the operating system of the iPod, then almost certainly that iPod will no longer work with iTunes 8.

I am having the same problem. I plug in my 80gb ipod classic and itunes gets as far as prompting me on whether or not I want to transfer purchases. Then it freezes and I have to force quit. I would like to follow your advice about restoring my ipod but itunes won't stay unfrozen for long enough for me to do it while the ipod is connected.

I appreciate that Apple designs its software for its new line of products with ever-decreasing support for its older line, but that doesn't mean it's not duplicitous. I bought my iphone 3G with a three-year contract, foolishly believing that the product would at least work fully during the course of the contract, but lord help me if I want to use the built-in Maps app.

I hope itunes will issue an update that will make my ipod work again but I'm not confident it will.

Marc272,

I'm not convinced that your problem is the same as the original poster's (OP) problem, partly because the OP is using a very old version of iTunes and seems to have tried many different things - most of which have probably confused the situation rather than made things easier for him/her to solve.

I suggest you create a topic of your own - go to https://discussions.apple.com/community/ipod/ipod_classic and use the "Ask Your Question" box at the top of the page. State in your post whether iTunes freezes before you are able to, or after you select an option for transferring your purchases. That way, someone with experience of transferring purchases may be able to offer more help than I can. (I don't transfer purchases.) Don't mention your iPhone 3G in that post.

If you have a problem with your iPhone, create a topic (ask a question) about it in the iPhone forum. Once again, if you do that, then someone with iPhone experience can offer more help than me, or other users in this forum - particularly with the built in Maps app. (By the way, I have an iPod Classic and an iPod Touch. Note that there are separate forums for the Touch and the iPhone, with good reason too.)

Just so you know, although Apple do reduce and eventually stop support of older products, that does not mean that you cannot sort out a problem with a three year old iPhone. Usually, support for a product is reduced or stopped when the product is either so relaible that it doesn't need support or because hardly anyone is using the product because they have all bought newer products that do more than the old one. other manufacturers also follow that practice.

My point is that if you post a question about your iPhone and the app problem in the correct forum, you may well get a solution, possibly one that only requires a re-start of the iPhone. If there is a bug that requires an Apple update, they may be in the process of preparing an update for all we know. Apple do issue updates for known problems (bugs), but they often only know about the problem when they read posts about that problem. (Apple employees do not usually respond to posts - other users do - but employees do find out about some problems from those posts.)

Good luck.

i dont think i can help you but my sis had one of those old apple reseller 4g ipods,and when we updated itunes,it did not syncronise anymore,only windows media ever reconised it after that

Hmmmmm. I updated to iTunes 10 a couple of weeks ago and have had nothing but trouble with my 160 GB Classic ever since. It randomly stops playing (not sure if it's rebooting), especially on my Bose Sound Dock which I use to listen to audiobooks at night. The 160 Classic has worked just fine since I bought it 1-14-11, and now this. I'm ready to tear my hair out and the "5 Rs" have not helped. (My old 30 GB Classic I bought in 2005 works just fine, so I won't ever dare sync it again.)

Despite the posts by The Fiend and others, this problem is real and apparently related to the newest version of i-Tunes 12.3.2.35 for Win10 64 bit.(at least in my case. My dependable 160 GB will not sync despite repeated resets, etc.

My 3574 song library plays fine in i-Tunes, but any attempt to sync has led to various error messages such as "unknown error occurred (-124)".

Windows reads the disk fine and reports no errors on it. The iPod software has also been updated several times during this effort. I would like some help, as would others experiencing this problem we did not cause.

Please do not assume all users experiencing this did not RTFM or are otherwise morons.

I'd suggest checking the drive stats before ruling out any problems with the drive. See Re: Corrupt iPod classic for details. Of late Norton Anti-virus in particular has been causing problems for classic users, but there is the possibility that other software on your computer is causing a problem, or iTunes just isn't installed properly for you.

tt2

htcannon wrote:

Despite the posts by The Fiend and others, this problem is real and apparently related to the newest version of i-Tunes 12.3.2.35 for Win10 64 bit.

It might well be real now, but you knocking my assistance is not called for.

The original post - along with everything else that follows it is all from four years ago. Neither iTunes 12.3 nor Windows 10 were around then. What was relevant then probably isn't now.

htcannon wrote:

Please do not assume all users experiencing this did not RTFM or are otherwise morons.

I'm not the one doing the assuming...

However -

htcannon wrote:

The iPod software has also been updated several times during this effort.

... since this thread is in the iPod Classic discussions and was specifically mentioned, I do have to ask whether you are using an iPod Classic, because the Classic has had no updates to its software in a very long time.

Sorry if I misread the tone of your previous posts, Fiend. Apparently you are anything but a troll.

That said, if the problem were related to the iPod software being old, why did it work fine through the introduction of Win 10 for 3 months, and only fail when the iTunes update hit? One might expect an update to improve compatibility with WIn 10, not destroy it.

Turingtest2 suggests it may be yet another instance of the "Symantec Virus", a set of problems I have encountered repeatedly in the past. At one point Symantec even posted a notice on their website acknowledging a problem "being experienced by some Windows users" after I carefully screen-captured proof and uploaded those images to them. So I will follow that and a couple other suggestions about checking the hard disk, although I already checked using Win's tools and it looked fine to them.

And thanks all for any other help.