When I try to sync my iPod shuffle 2gb all of my music can't be located. After I disconnect and reboot itunes it is all there. I have tried 2 shuffles. Both make my entire liberary dissapear once I click sync.
iPod shuffle, Windows XP
When the shuffle is connected, but before you click Sync, are all of your songs in iTunes still there? And are you able to play your songs in iTunes? And after you click Sync, the songs just disappear from your iTunes Music library listing?
Which shuffle model do you have? A 2GB iPod can be 2nd, 3rd, or 4th gen. This article about syncing music to shuffle shows the four types.
I am not sure what gen. they where purchased new this past christmas. All of the songs are on an external hard drive. I have to disconnect it and close itunes. When I bring it all back up everything works fine. I can play all songs. The moment i hit sync it all goes to ! cannot be located
They are 4th gen...
So, when the shuffle is connected, but before you click Sync, are all of your songs in iTunes still there, correct? At that point, you can still see and play all of your songs...?
All of the songs are on an external hard drive. I have to disconnect it and close itunes.
That may be a clue. Maybe there is something odd going on where starting the shuffle's sync causes Windows to eject the external drive where the songs are located. Are the external drive and shuffle both connected to one USB hub? If so, does it make a difference if you put them on two separate direct USB ports.
I have synced 3 different iPod touches/ Both 3rd and 4th gen. They sync fine. Music and photos. It is just these Shuffles. Only when I click sync. One of them is registered and the other is not. I tried it that way to see if that was the problem. I have tried it hooked to my network and disconnected. I am at a loss! I do appritiate your help!!
OK, but you should tell me these OTHER important details (like those three iPod touches that work with no problem)... 🙂 Also,
One of them is registered and the other is not.
what does that mean? One of the two shuffles DOES work properly, and other one does not? If they both do not work with the exact same problem, it is less likely to be a problem on the shuffle. If it's only one of them with this problem, that's a different story...
Since the iPod touches work with no problem, hopefully using the exact same USB connection, and maybe one of the shuffles also works with no problem, you may want to try doing a Restore on a shuffle. It seems like you can get it to appear in iTunes and there is no problem until you click the Sync button, so select the shuffle in the iTunes sidebar, under DEVICES, and go to the Summary tab to the right. Click the Restore button. This will erase the shuffle, re-install its software, and set it to default settings. Then, try setting up and doing a sync (maybe with a smaller number of songs as a test).
I'm not sure if the original poster ever got this issue resolved or not, but I'm having the exact same problem. My iPod shuffle is a 1Gig 2nd Generation, and I have all of my music library on an external hard drive. Before connecting my shuffle, I can play all the songs through iTunes perfectly fine, as well as sync them all to my 160GB iPod classic. As soon as I connect my shuffle, iTunes can no longer find or play any of my music, or sync any of it to the shuffle. In fact, it seems to make the external drive disappear from the computer entirely. When I right click My Computer->Explore, the external drive is still there, but no files are shown on it. After disconnecting the shuffle and rebooting the computer, the external drive is back to normal, until the shuffle is connected again.
For what its worth, this is a new problem, only started happening in the last couple months. I've had the shuffle for 2+ years now, and I have been syncing music to it from the external USB hard drive for just as long with no issues. Occasionally, I can sync 1-10 songs to it at a time before the external drive and all the music disappears, but for the last couple of days, the external drive seems to disappear as soon as the shuffle is connected.
Thanks for any help, I only use the shuffle for the gym/bike riding/snowboarding and I know they're fairly cheap to replace now, but I don't want to pay for a newer generation if I'll still have the same issue.
I think this may have something to do with Windows assigning "drive letters" to mountable volumes. Since the iPod's storage is a mountable volume, the system may cause a conflict with another mountable volume, such as your external drive volume that has your music files.
So, you can try changing the drive letter used by the iPod, as explained in this article.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1493
FYI - The best way to use this forum is for each user with a question to start their own topic. Your question is then more likely to be read by other users as a new topic with no existing replies, and you (as the topic creator) can mark replies as being useful toward answering your question.
If you continue to have this problem, you should go to the forum category page, in this case
https://discussions.apple.com/community/ipod/ipod_shuffle
and click start a discussion (under Actions) to create you own topic.
When I try to sync my iPod shuffle 2gb all of my music can't be located.
