iTunes doesn't like my iPod and corrupts it over and over again

For the last six months or so, plugging my iPod into my computer to add new music or podcasts has been a hassle. It freezes iTunes when it plugs in, I have to force quit, file a report, and then wait awhile before opening iTunes again, otherwise I get the error message that the iTunes folder is locked. For awhile, I would do this anywhere from three to six times and then I would get it to work. Finally, it stopped doing that. It said my iPod was corrupted, so even though it meant losing my play count, some playlists, and some podcasts that were no longer on my computer (video podcasts take up way too much hard drive space, so I delete them once they're on the iPod, since i always considered it a sort of bombproof storage device), I restored it and added all of my music again over a couple of days.

That was two or three months ago. The other day, it happened again, even though I've actually been using my iPod less to give it a break. So today I sucked it up and restored AGAIN and painstakingly started loading my music on it yet again and downloaded a million video podcasts again so that I could actually manage to watch them before my iPod screwed up again.

Ha. It's been maybe seven hours, and it started freezing before i was done loading all of my music into it. A few freezes and force quits later, and oh, it's corrupted again. So I have to restore, start loading my music again, and redownload my podcasts AGAIN. I don't want to. I want my iPod to work. I want to be able to add podcasts onto it regularly without always having to spend a million hours loading all of my music onto it as well. I do have a lot of music, but it's also a 120GB iPod, so it should be able to handle a large amount of it. I keep checking for iTunes updates and computer updates in general, and everything is up to date.

There is nothing useful about an iPod that doesn't have stuff on it, that can only get stuff on it if it's restored, but then freezes and needs to be restored when it gets stuff on it. Honestly, Apple products are like abusive boyfriends--they keep telling you they'll be better, you invest a lot of love and time and energy into them, and then they keep screwing you over. I know they're great products, but it also means they screw up more spectacularly than others. I don't understand why they all seem to be built with preordained dates of implosion.

#endranting

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