"no content" ipod exclamation point

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Level 1

10 points

"no content" ipod exclamation point

I have been having problems with my iPod Touch (3gen, 64GB) after upgrading to ios6. I manually manage my music from my home computer and bring my Touch into work an listen to the music through my work desktop. I have had no problems for years. After updating my Touch to ios6 a few weeks ago I have had nothing but problems.

Summary: Now, while at work, iTunes will stop playing the music and all 8,000+ songs and podcasts will have exclaimation points. The content bar at the bottom will be empty (except photos and apps). If I look at the touch, it will say "No Content". I plug it back in to the office desktop and the music (with exclaimation points) will be there and not play. I go home and plug it into the home computer and the content bar magically becomes ful again and the podcasts sync normally.

1) I don't sync music. I manually manage

2) I have already removed all music from the Touch and then re-added them manually (a real pain).

3) This all started after updating to ios6

4) I have not restored the Touch from a backup.

It seems that this is a corrupt file in that my office iTunes cannot "find" the music that is clearly there.

Any advice?

Thanks,
Chris

Houston, TX

USA

iPod touch, iOS 6.0.1

Posted on Dec 28, 2012 12:24 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Stephen Downs

Level 1

96 points

Dec 28, 2012 12:43 PM in response to iGreeley

Hi Chris,

I too have been experiencing this issue and it is by far the very worst bug with iPod touch and iTunes there has ever been. I know. I am an avid day one iPod user.

At the heart of the problem, for those of us with iPod touch iOS 6 devices set to manually manage music, is the fact that some sort of undesired sync process is occurring. When I set the device to manually manage music, I expect it to be untouched, yet when I connect the iPod, a number of update steps occur using the 'sync' word.

iTunes is out of control. There are all sorts of undesired managing processes going on in the background. One example: with your iPod touch connected, select all the files in a particular playlist (it can just be the Music 'playlist') and drag them a distance of a few pixels, not actually moving them anywhere. Result: iTunes hangs with a spinning wait cursor for some time.

I have tried all sorts of solutions to the issue. Like you, I have repeatedly removed all music, then re-added it. I have also completely reset my iPod. Nothing works, since the problem soon occurs again.

Please send your feedback to Apple about this dreadful issue: http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipodtouch.html

Other users experiencing this issue:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread/4552318

http://discussions.apple.com/thread/4550525

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Answer 2

iGreeley Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 28, 2012 1:22 PM in response to Stephen Downs

Thanks, Stephen. What you described is EXACTLY the problem! iTunes starts to do things and my music disappears. I want to listen to my music at work, and now I need to listen with headphones because I can't connect my Touch to my desktop (as I have been doing for over 4 years)

I assumed I was not the only person that this impacted. I will send feedback.

Regards,

Chris

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Answer 3

iGreeley Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 28, 2012 8:00 PM in response to iGreeley

One solution is that I created a playlist in my home iTunes called "Touch" I put the songs I usually have on my Touch in it. Then when the Touch crashes again I atleast have the songs sorted. I still have to put them in the proper playlists on the Touch, but this is a big help.

I will also uninstall iTunes 11 and reinstall iTunes 10 on my office desktop. This will hopefully allow me to listen to my Touch at work though my desktop.

Chris

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Answer 4

iGreeley Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 30, 2012 6:39 PM in response to iGreeley

Just adding to the thread in case others have this problem. I have found old versions of iTunes online (search for "older versions of iTunes"). I installed v10.7 on my desktop and it worked fine. The problem was that the library created by v11 is not backwards compatable with v10. It did not matter to me as I had nothing on my desktop computer that I couldn't simply re-add. I re-created the iTunes library in a snap. This could be a problem on my home computer as the library has multiple playlists and is more complex.

Anyway, I hope that apple fixes this bug.

Peace,

Chris

Houston, TX

USA

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Answer 5

iGreeley Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 7, 2013 11:24 AM in response to iGreeley

This ultimately did not help. I would re-install all music on the Touch and be able to play the music through iTunes. Eventually, the Touch would begin getting the "syncing" arrows and all of the songs would get exclaimation points and iTunes would say "preparing to update", despite not having made any changes to the songs on iTunes or the Touch. Clearly there is a bug on the Touch and how it plays music. Very, very frustrating. I can no longer listen to my Touch at work.

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Answer 6

iGreeley Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 7, 2013 11:33 AM in response to iGreeley

I would unplug the Touch and re-connect. All of the music would appear on the Touch, but the bar at the bottom would indicate it was empty. There would be no exclaimation points and then when I try to play a song, the exlaimation point would appear. This would happen over and over again.

Real bummer.

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Answer 7

Jan 7, 2013 11:46 AM in response to iGreeley

Chris, please explain what you meant by "this ultimately did not help." Do you mean that rolling back to iTunes 10.x did not eleviate the issue?

As I put forth on other posts concerning this issue, my guess is that the issue involves both iTunes and iOS. It's extremely difficult to roll back versions of iOS, which makes us even more dependent upon Apple for a resolution of this issue. I've had the issue come up once or twice on my non-updated iOS 4.x iPad, but it's occurred about 30 times on my iOS 6.x iPod touch.

Each time the problem occurs (bi-weekly now), I post another feedback message to Apple at http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipodtouch.html

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Answer 8

iGreeley Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 7, 2013 12:34 PM in response to Stephen Downs

Stephen,

What I mean is that uninstalling iTunes 11 and reinstalling iTunes 10.7 did not stop the problem from occuring. When I play my Touch on my desktop at work (10.7) it will play and then suddenly (1-4 hours) is will "update" the files and then all the songs will get exclamation points. I will bring it back home and the desktop at home will have to re-place all of the songs again. I do not sync the music with either iTunes, but (after it happens) my home iTunes (that I do sync photos, apps...on) will show the songs, they will have exclamation points, and then it will automatically put the songs back on the Touch (n>8,500 songs). While the songs are being put back on it will say that it is syncing. It takes 3 hours or so to get all the music back on.

To me it is a bug in the ios. The iTunes version doesn't seem to make a difference. I used iTunes 10.x without any problems. Now 10.x or 11.x seems to mess up the Touch. I am going to look for alternate program to listen to my Touch through my desktop. All I want to do is listen to the Touch at work, and I can no longer do that without something corrupting the songs and making them all unplayable.

I have already put two bug reports in. I am happy to keep doing that, but I suspect that they make little difference.

Regards,

Chris

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Answer 9

iGreeley Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 8, 2013 4:16 PM in response to iGreeley

Final update:

I used Copytrans Manager (free software, google it). With this program (the free version) I can listen to music. Put songs in playlists, delete songs, edit songs...

It is what I needed. The interface is a little clunky, but...

Until iTunes gets its S@#$ together, I will be using this.

Chris

Houston, TX

USA

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Answer 10

Jan 9, 2013 5:04 PM in response to iGreeley

It's good you found a workaround using Copytrans Manager. It looks to be a Windows solution, and I don't see a provision to transfer data or manage apps with it, so I'll have to stick with iTunes.

Meanwhile in my world, iTunes decided to delete all the music from my iPod touch once again.

I wonder if Apple would be a little quicker to fix the issue if all apps were being deleted instead of music?

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Answer 11

iGreeley Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 15, 2013 5:46 PM in response to Stephen Downs

Final, Final Update:

Sorry to hear of your problems. My problems have recurred. I, once again, have to delete all of my music and have to re-install the songs. This really is sh@#%y. I'm gonna look into an alternate device to listen to music. I will continue to use my Nano for podcasts and running, but the Touch is dead to me.

Peace,

Chris

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Answer 12

Jan 15, 2013 10:08 PM in response to iGreeley

Thanks for the update Chris. Sad news, yes, but helpful information is a small but not insignificant way. The bug may be part of the iTunes+iOS ecosystem, but it's definitely an issue with iOS 6. It can crop up on an independent "unchained" iOS device without an iTunes sync.

I feel exactly the same way. I have shifted to using my computer and iPod nano and iPad for listening to music, but the iPod touch is no longer used. Then, after deciding that, on a whim I connected my iPod touch and watched in surprise as a majority [but not all] of my music synced back to the device, even though it is set to manually manage music. All set for failure once more.

I'm still on the case but will only post again if I find a suitable workaround.

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