Since updating to 12.2 cannot update Ipod Classic

OK, I have updated to 12.2.1 on my desktop as well as my two laptops. I see no real difference in the behavior, other than that iTunes is oblivious to my iPod when I plug it in to allow it to sync. This is probably because I did an update rather than a clean install, so I didn't remove the Apple Mobile Device Support and hence the user-mode iPod driver from the Windows driver framework, so it didn't have to reload it from scratch, that seems to have some kind of effect.

Before starting iTunes and before connecting my iPod, I tested to see whether the iPod Service was restartable from the Services console, and it was, as seen by the PID changing in the Task Manager display. I started iTunes, and tested restarting the iPod Service and it was still restartable.

I plugged in my iPod and I can see by watching the iPod Service in the Task Manager that it claims to be doing I/O Other, and if I stop iTunes activity (no music playing), iTunes seems to be doing I/O Other as well, somewhat in step with the iPod Service, but there is no evidence of activity on the iPod, nor is there any evidence that iTunes is aware that the iPod is present and should be sync-ed. For instance, all the "Device" options are greyed out under the "File" pull down menu.

I can see the iPod both as a Disk and as a Portable device in the device manager, and the disk shows up in "My Computer" but when I try to eject it, I get a warning that files are open on the device and it would be a bad idea to disconnect it. So perhaps the iPod Service is accessing the iPod, but other than that I don't see anything much happening.

Still badly broken. Let's hope Apple has noticed this conversation and is actively working on a fix.

1classicuser wrote:

Okay. May have found my problem. My desktop is Windows 7, my laptop is the newer (more messed up) version of Windows. With W7, it erased my ipod and wouldn't recognize it. It WILL work with newest version of W. Now I've gotta figure out how to safely transfer my library to the laptop (18,000+ songs). Do we wait for the next Windows??

See Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy. The same tool can be used to restore the backup to a new computer.

tt2

I've noticed as of yesterday that Apple reverted to version 12.1.1.4. Maybe they did take notice! 😉

I think they have issues with their system detection mechanism. I was seeing an older version at one point but it is back to 12.2.1(.16) now.

tt2

Update to this saga:

After Windows updates applied overnight I plugged in my ipod for gee whiz this morning and it told me “An ipod has been detected but it could not be identified propertly. Please disconnect and reconnect the ipod then try again. If the problem persists, uninstall iTunes then install Itunes again.” Was feeling hopeful but reconnecting gave the same error. I was using itunes 12.1.2.27 on a Windows 8.1 pc that I had tested a few days ago.

So I updated itunes to 12.2.1, restarted, and plugged in ipod but it wasn’t being recognized in windows nor in itunes despite connected status on ipod, similar to the other day. I restarted pc again, this time with ipod still plugged in and after restart, it now shows up as a “device with removeable storage” instead of a disk drive, and doesn’t ask me if I want to open it to view the files anymore. It also self-launched itunes and momentarily showed up as an icon in the itunes menu but then disappeared. I had a fleeting moment of hope!

On my Win 7 machine, which also applied major OS updates last night, I recreated the same behavior as on the Win 8 machine. So it would appear the issue is somewhat better but still not fully resolved, and it would appear that Windows is definitely part of the equation.

Later today I'm going to try to do a clean uninstall of itunes (again) and see if there is any change.

Which flavour of iTunes are you installing?

• 32-bit - iTunesSetup.exe
• All 64-bit - iTunes6464Setup.exe
• For older video cards -itunes64setup.exe

64-bit users with issues can try the for older video cards version as a possible workaround.

tt2

I have gone back as far as 11.4 which I am confident used to work, and it's still failing.

This is almost certainly a problem with one of the recent Microsoft patches, which just happened to show up en masse just about the same time that the new iTunes versions showed up. I am going to systematically remove the Microsoft patches one at a time until I figure out which one broke iTunes. I'm pretty sure at this point it's NOT an iTunes problem, other than that iTunes and sync to classic iPods is the victim.

Tom

Well, I thought this might be a Windows bug introduced by one of the recent updates (I've been bitten by Windows bugs introduced by updates in the past, like when my 7.1 sound card stopped working due to a Windows Media Center patch, or the time my networks backups started failing). So I set up one of my laptops with up-to-date Windows 7 SP1 64 bit as a test bed, using my old 120GB iPod Classic as the test victim (I did manage to reset it to factory settings ONE TIME, and then sync with current iTunes no problem), and slowly but surely removed EVERY recent Windows patch back through June (with the exception of the patches to Windows Update itself, and an Intel Microcode patch that updates microcode for some Intel CPUs, neither of these seemed at all likely to be the cause of iTunes problems, and except for one patch that simply won't go away no matter what you do, KB 2952664). Long story short, none of the patch removals made any difference in the behavior of iTunes with regard to my iPod Classic. So I went back even farther in iTunes history and found that, basically, iTunes appears to have been broken (at least with regard to the iPod Classic models I have available for testing) for a LONG TIME. I am going to write up what I found and post it as a new topic in this forum. The issues I've seen are mostly that the iPod gets automatically sync-ed and then is ejected before iTunes lets you do any management tasks with it, even if you tell iTunes to NEVER do automatic sync, and the only reason I sometimes can get to the iPod to manage it before it gets ejected is that I used to have a HUGE amount of data on it (over 100GB of music in over 10K files on my old 120GB iPod before I reset it) and it took iTunes long enough to read the status from the iPod for me to sometimes be able to interact with the iPod status screen. The iPod Service gets hung when the iPod gets ejected, and as far as I can tell, this has been happening (at least for this iPod Classic model) since at least iTunes 9. You can't restart the iPod Service, or if it looks like it restarted, you've got two copies running. This stuff is just not working correctly, and has been broken for a LONG time, but most of the time it seems to work. What I think may be new in iTunes 12.2.1 is that the error reporting when iTunes can't access the iPod Classic has improved. But that's just my impression. More to follow in a summary of the testing I did.

I am having the same problems....ipod classic with Windows 7. I have done the complete rip-out and reinstall to iTunes 12.2.2 and still will not sync....it also appears to have a conflict when Dropbox automaticly opens when I connect the Classic.....is an upgrade to Windows 10 the only solution?

I am having the same problems....ipod classic with Windows 7. I have done the complete rip-out and reinstall to iTunes 12.2.2 and still will not sync....it also appears to have a conflict when Dropbox automatically opens when I connect the Classic.....is an upgrade to Windows 10 the only solution

Do you have any Norton/Symantec products? If so temporarily disable and reboot to see if that allows the classic to sync. You might also want to uninstall and reinstall Dropbox.

tt2

Thanks for trying to help. I tried all your suggestions, no luck. I then spent over 3 hours in chat mode directly with Apple support and tried everything they suggests (on two computers no less), nothing worked.....The folks at Apple support implied that the day when iPod Classics and iTunes working together may be over! I have spent too much time trying to make these lovely, big storage devices work....I Just bought a iPod Nano instead....Can't fight programmed obsolesce forever....iPod Classic RIP

😟

tt2