iPod Shuffle 2nd Gen Won't Connect to Mac

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iPod Shuffle 2nd Gen Won't Connect to Mac

I have recently re-vitalized an iPod shuffle thought dead due to being thru a wash-cycle in our washing machine. I was able to plug it up to our mac and let it charge up, but it won't show up on iTunes (of which, we have one of the newest editions).

I tried "reseting" it and then plugging it back in. I tried turning it on while being plugged in (and off too). I also tried plugging it up to my windows machine, and it installed the driver and I could clearly browse the device and view the songs on it.

So it clearly works and plays songs when I plug some earphones into it, but for some silly reason it won't load on iTunes 11.0.2 (on our iMac running OSX 10.6.8). Can anyone offer some assistance? Thank you!

Posted on Sep 1, 2013 5:59 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 2, 2013 11:36 PM in response to MacOS-me

The latest iTunes hides the sidebar by default. From the iTunes menu bar, under View, select Show Sidebar.

With the sidebar visible on left side of the iTunes window, see if the shuffle appears in the sidebar under the heading DEVICES.

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Answer 2

MacOS-me Author

Level 1

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Sep 3, 2013 3:10 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Since I'm used to the older iTunes, by default I always have the sidebar on. It doesn't show up at all under the devices section.

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Answer 3

Sep 3, 2013 3:42 AM in response to MacOS-me

If you have other Apple devices, connect ONLY the shuffle, with iTunes running.

If it's the only Apple device connected, and the shuffle is really not being recognized by iTunes, the heading DEVICES should not be in the iTunes sidebar at all (since iTunes sees no devices connected). If you DO see DEVICES in the sidebar (with nothing listed below), the list of devices may be hidden. When you move your mouse pointer over DEVICES in the sidebar, you should see a Show or Hide "toggle" to the right. If that says Show, click it to show the list of devices.

If that does not help, since your shuffle is 2nd gen and you use a Mac, you can try running the iPod Reset Utility

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1238

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Answer 4

MacOS-me Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 3, 2013 3:30 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Well, I tried connecting it and it still would not show up. I'll try the iPod Reset Utility, but I wanted to try to save the songs on there. I can however, download the songs using my PC and then reset it. I guess I'll try that.

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Answer 5

MacOS-me Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 3, 2013 5:20 PM in response to MacOS-me

Okay. I tried. I tried using the reset software, but that wouldn't work because it doesn't even recognize the shuffle on my Mac. I tried even doing it on the PC, but now for some reason my Windows machine wouldn't even recognize it! It's like an iPod Shuffle plague!

I was able only to get it to connect to my Linux machine (and actually better than the others), which is dual-booted with my Windows machine. I was able to pull all the songs from it to back it up (although not any other info, just the music).

If it helps any, here are the OSs of my computers:

Windows 7 (64-bit)

Linux Mint 15 (Cinnomon, I believe 64-bit since it's dual-booted with Windows 7)

Mac OSX 10.6.8 (With iTunes 11.0.2)

Thanks for the help so far by the way!

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Answer 6

Sep 3, 2013 10:45 PM in response to MacOS-me

If you are running Linux, you can't run iTunes to do a Restore. But you seem to be able to see the shuffle as a USB storage device and off-load those song files.

After you confirm it is recognized with the Linux system, without touching anything, restart using your Windows 7 system. You said that's the same physical computer, correct?

I'm thinking either the shuffle or the USB docking cable has a connection point that is not 100% reliable, so it works sometimes and doesn't work sometimes. Since the shuffle went through the wash, it may be on the iPod side. If you start up into Windows immediately after it was recognized using Linux, without changing anything about the connection points, it should be seen with Windows.

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