ipod classic will not sync with my mac

Had almost the same problem. iPod mounted in the Finder but did not appear in iTunes.

Try this solution. Taken from this thread: Re: I have a ipod nano 5th generation that can not be found on itunes on Mac

It sounds like the iPod needs a Restore using iTunes. But you're saying iTunes does not see the iPod, even though Finder sees it, so if iTunes does not see it, you can't do aRestore. It definitely does not appear in the iTunes sidebar, under DEVICES, correct?

I just did the following with my 5th gen iPod nano and Mac (just to confirm it does no harm), so you can try it, if you want. This procedure will erase the nano, so I hope all the songs (and other content) on it now are all synced from your Mac's iTunes library. I have previously done this with older "hard drive" iPods before, but not a nano.

Put the nano into Disk Mode, as before (link in previous post).

With iTunes NOT running, run Disk Utility and connect the nano. The nano should appear in the Disk Utility sidebar. Select "Apple iPod Media" in the sidebar, NOT the iPod's "volume" that is indented under it (so the DEVICE should be selected, not the device's volume). Over to the right, go to the Erase tab.

Set Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). You can Name it whatever you want, or leave it "Untitled." Click Erase. This will erase (reformat) the iPod's flash storage. Because the DEVICE was selected in the sidebar, it will also re-partition it (to one partition). It should take less than one minute to complete, then Eject the iPod. It should say OK to Disconnect on nano's screen. But you don't need to disconnect it.

Use the Reset procedure (link in previous post) to take the nano out of Disk Mode. Run iTunes. Hopefully, iTunes will see the iPod (in "recovery mode"), and offer to Restore it. If you can then Restore it successfully, your nano should be working properly again.

NOTE: If there is a hardware problem with your nano, erasing it with Disk Utility may not work. And that will leave your nano non-functional.

I inadvertantly replied to a Windows user problem--here's what I did for my MacPro DT:

Ok I had the same problem with my iPOD classic; iPad and iPhone all connected and sync'd ok with iTunes 11.1.1. First thing I did was run disc utility on boot disk to verify everything ok; then I ran repair permissions--there were many permisions in iTunes that were not correct. I then re-opened iTunes and tried it again--no luck. I then downloaded a fresh copy of iTunes 11.1.1 and saved it to the DT. I then completely shut down the computer. Then I did a restart and after boot-up, ran the new 11.1.1 iTunes installer. I then did a restart. After restarting I plugged in my iPOD Classic; the new iTunes opened and found the iPOD, voila--all is now well. Try that and see if it works--did for me.

Dan

I have landed here because I have had the same issue. I had tried everything...but my ipod would only show up in finder, not in itunes. But when I read hnnilson's post I saw the sentence

"It definitely does not appear in the iTunes sidebar, under DEVICES, correct?"

I went onto my itunes again to double check and I realized that when I hover my cursor next to the word "DEVICES" on the iTunes sidebar (pic 1), a word "SHOW" appears (pic 2)..when I clicked on it my ipod appeared (pic 3). Basically I had not realized that accidentally the setting was such that devices would not show. I know it is silly, but I want to share this as I can imagine this might have happened to one, two people who might check this page here, too.

I hope this will help somebody! Thanks hnnilson for the inspiration!