When connected to iTunes, my iPod 6th generation shows all the songs and playlists in it but with exclamation points. When disconnected, it is empty.

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Level 1

8 points

When connected to iTunes, my iPod 6th generation shows all the songs and playlists in it but with exclamation points. When disconnected, it is empty.

Hi there!

I bought an iPod touch 6th generation about a year ago and it was working perfectly until now. On Tuesday, I updated -manually- like six songs to my iPod and it appeared like it worked but when I disconnected it the songs weren't on my iPod. Since then I tried the same twice and it wasn't until today that I looked for the songs on the iPod while it was connected to iTunes. The songs were there, but they appeared as if the iPod was still trying to copy them, I deleted them and copy them again and it finally worked.

The problem was when I unplugged the iPod and open my music there... all my songs were missing except for those six ones I copy minutes before. I connected it back to iTunes and everything was right were it was supposed to be but my iPod still had the most recent songs. When I try to play the songs appearing on the iPod music on iTunes, an exclamation point appears beside them.

I read it is because it can't find where the music came from but I haven't found a way to let the iPod know the songs are still there. I would really appreciate your help because I don't want to lose my music and playlists.

iPod touch, iOS 8.1.3

Posted on Feb 20, 2015 11:48 AM

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Answer 1

lllaass

Level 10

210,417 points

Feb 20, 2015 1:07 PM in response to PamSal66

The ! means the actual music files can't be found.

If the ! is in iTunes on the computer the redownload/reimport the songs.

If on the iPod:

- Reset the iOS device. Nothing will be lost

Reset iOS device: Hold down the On/Off button and the Home button at the same time for at

least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.

- Unsync/delete all music and resync

To delete all music go to Settings>General>Usage>Storage>Manage Storage>Music>Tap edit in upper right and then tap the minus sign by All Music

- Reset all settings

Go to Settings > General > Reset and tap Reset All Settings.

All your preferences and settings are reset. Information (such as contacts and calendars) and media (such as songs and videos) aren’t affected.

- Restore from backup. See:

iOS: Back up and restore your iOS device with iCloud or iTunes

- Restore to factory settings/new iOS device

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Answer 2

Feb 21, 2015 9:29 AM in response to PamSal66

I had that same exact problem with my iPod touch 4th gen. It wiped off all my music when trying to copy one song, and even after restoring the device the problem occurred again a lot of times.

I believe this is connected to the last iTunes update, v 10.1.0.50. I'm running it on Yosemite on my Mac, and I've never had a similar problem before installing the update.

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Answer 3

Feb 22, 2015 12:03 PM in response to Oceansoul221

* wrong iTunes version: I wrote 10.1.0.50, but actually the faulty update is 12.1.0.50, the last one released

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Answer 4

PamSal66 Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 24, 2015 10:28 AM in response to Oceansoul221

I have the same iTunes version 12.1.0.50 and I also have Yosemite... and it's not working how it's supposed to work 😟

How did you solved the problem? Because I tried deleting a song with ( ! ) and copying again and it worked but when I tried it with a bunch of song all together... it did the same thing so I'm guessing what happened to you will happen to me.

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Answer 5

Feb 24, 2015 11:24 AM in response to PamSal66

Unfortunately I wasn't able to find a long-lasting solution to the problem... I mean, I am able to copy all the songs again, but when I try to add a new song, they all get deleted and I have to sync them all again.

At first I connect the iPod to iTunes, then I manually delete every song that was on my iPod.

Then disconnect the iPod and I start the device in safe mode (press the home button and the lock button at the same and keep pressing them for 10 seconds). When the iPod has turned on again, I connect it to my laptop and I copy all the songs on it, all at once. If I copy them one by one, or even album by album, they get deleted.

For avoiding to search for all the songs I want every time among my music library (I have a lot of songs, but I can't copy all of them on my iPod, because it's only a 8gb model), I have created a playlist of all the tracks I want to have on the mobile player, and I sync the whole playlist.

It's annoying because whenever I want to add a single song, it takes me up to an hour to copy all my library again... But it seems it's the only way.

I've read of many others users who are experiencing this same issue, so I think Apple knows of this bug and they are probably working to solve it... or at least I hope so.

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