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iPod Nano 7th Generation Constantly Pauses

I just bought a brand spanking new iPod nano. It's not a week old and it has a problem where it will pause/stop playing all on its own ALL the time. It's the connection because it happens with several different connectors I have in my car and with headphones. The software is up to date and the connection is secure. Possibly a fluke/faulty iPod? I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem or if I should just exchange it. Thanks!

iPod nano (7th generation), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Oct 15, 2012 9:45 AM

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86 replies

Oct 15, 2012 3:25 PM in response to McFlyFarm

From a different post:


f you are finding that the nano pauses when the screen goes dark, it is because your headset has not been detected.


So the discussion needs to be about what would keep your headset from being detected. There are a few options:


  1. Your headset is not inserted all the way. This solves the problem for most folks who experience it. If you see ANY silver of the headset jack when it is inserted, it is NOT fully inserted.
  2. You have debris in your headset jack. This is the second most common problem when folks experience this. At least that seems to be the case for the folks who post what solved their problem. Look into your headset jack. The thing that senses if your headset is fully seated is at the bottom of the jack. You can have a small piece of paper in there that lets you fully insert the headset but still prevents the headset from being detected because it blocks the connection. You end up with the nano pausing when the screen goes dark. How you are going to clean out your headset jack is up to you. Some folks here have reported they had to use cotton and alcohol others have said just plowing into the jack got the stuff out. One of my sons got the little round piece of paper from a hole punch stuck in his headset jack and it caused this.
  3. Your headset jack or plug are broken. Finally, if your headset jack or the plug are faulty, then this could happen.

Nov 8, 2012 3:13 PM in response to McFlyFarm

This is bookmarked because my ipod nano 7g is doing the same thing. Its rather annoying. Started after the latest firmware update.


It only happens with some of my headphones though, my regular ear buds work fine but the aux cable in my car seems to trigger the pauseing. I used ipod for a little under a month before i updated the firmware now it won't work in my car at all. It plays for a maximum of 4 seconds then stops.

Nov 20, 2012 9:55 PM in response to McFlyFarm

I believe it had to be an issue with me using alternative methods of loading music onto my device. I was using mediamonkey rather than itunes, when i reset the ipod and used itunes instead it worked fine. Although im not 100% positive that was the issue, because a week after my headphone jack went out and the people at the apple store replace my unit. Haven't had any issues with the new ipod nano yet.

Nov 21, 2012 12:35 PM in response to Trixiem

I have the same problem , called tech support, they were baffled, they thought it was my media files , but they play on my old players and old mp3 players , psp etc, and on itunes, but pause or skip on my 7gen nano. all i can suggest is , this seems to be a software issue. not an mp3 or hardware issue. we need to keep bugging apple till they fix the bug in the software. trixiem i do use itunes to tranfer my music onto my ipod. stil had the issue

Nov 21, 2012 1:46 PM in response to McFlyFarm

I have not been able to solve my problem. It NEVER happens if I'm using it at the gym but always in the car. And what will happen is it will pause, I will push play and then the song it paused on will start to skip and pause, skip and pause etc until I change the song. Originally I thought it was the pause button getting hit but it's definitely not.

Jan 9, 2013 7:33 AM in response to McFlyFarm

I have the same problem too, maybe worse? My Nano constantly pauses and plays songs without me even touching it, resulting with a drained battery unknowingly. I stopped the problem temporarily by shutting it down by holding the lock button but the problem returns when I'm using it.


Another issue is the voice over function. I have turned it off in both iTunes and iPod, but the voice is still there, sometimes speaking 3-4 times in one song, listing out title, artiste and playlists. How do I turn off this function permanently?


My Nano 7th gen is roughly 3 weeks old and is it updated to the latest software.

Jan 19, 2013 1:16 PM in response to McFlyFarm

I'm having the same problem. I've had my 7th Gen nano for about a week and on two separate occaisons the nano would shut down and reboot after playing a song for 3-5 seconds. No matter what I tried I could not get a song to play for longer than 3-5 seconds. I don't use the earbud that came with ipod, I use a set of earbuds (non apple) that also has a microphone. I'm not sure if it's related but both times that I ran into the problem I had just paused the ipod with the answer button on the earbuds. Luckily the problem seems to fix itself after I put down the unit for about an hour and then try again, but this is still a big inconveniece. I saw the earlier response from iSolve but I don't think it's a valid solution for me. The problem occurs after I've successfully been listening to music for some time, so I'm confident that the connector is seated correctly. Also, when having problems I tried playing music with no earbud connected; it exhibited the same behavior, the ipod would shut down (and reboot) after playing for a few seconds. When I try the same (no earbud) experiment when the unit is operating properly the ipod will continue to play for about 40 seconds. After the first 15 second the screen will dim (while still playing) and then 25 seconds later the screen goes dark and the ipod pauses.


I'd like to know if this is a hardware problem (replacement unit) or something that can be fixed in the firmware (wait for a firmware update).

iPod Nano 7th Generation Constantly Pauses

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