IPod Classic intermittent not recognised by iTunes, on Windows 10

Thanks for the suggestion Kenichi.

As you might guess, there is a 'but' coming, and it is this this...............

I have had the same PC set-up for over 2 years (with just the upgrade to Windows 10 in that time), and have always only had 4 USB devices attached to my PC. Three of these are essential to my day-to-day use of the PC - mouse, keyboard and internet wireless receiver - and so I cannot (and will not) diconnect those. The 4th connection is an external hard drive (which I use as the back-up location for data and my iTunes Library) and which is always switched OFF except when I am actually using it - so in effect, it is not connected for 99% of the time.

So there is nothing I can disconnect to carry out the test you suggest (I am not going to be without my internet connection for a few days while I see if the iPod still connects OK to iTunes) and, it appears to me, very little that is draining power off the PC.

Can I ask this - does the Reset (Restart) of the iPod (Menu and Center butons held, as you describe above) deleet any data from the iPod? If not, what does it do and what do I have to do next to proceed to using the iPod as normal?

Thanks.

OK, it was already set to Enable disk use and greyed out also so I could not change it if I had wanted to.

OK, I will try this - when I can. I really need to use my iPod today (Sunday) so, as I am scared of losing all my data, I will not try anything further until after I have used the data that is on there.

I also think it would make sense to try the USB test when I know I am having trouble with the iPod. As the fault is intermittent, just because I take a couple of USB devices out and the iPod works OK does not mean that is the fault. However, if I have just had a fault (e.g. iTunes cannot read the iPod), it seems to me that that is the best time to then power everything down, disconnect the 2 USB items and see what happens then when I power back up and reconnect the iPod.

By the way, 2 other small things:

1. I have just done the Reset trick and my iPod is showing No Music, but the settings show it has something on there because there is only 115 GB available memory left (and this is how much is shown as available when it is connected to iTunes).

2. I was playing the iPod in the car yesterday (connected via 30 pin/USB lead) and intermitently (and at random) it suddenly jumped track part-way through playing a track and started the next track, when there was still, say, 3 minutes (or whatever) of a track left. Very random, no pattern and intermittent. The iPod was on random play of the whole library at the time.

I am getting more and more worried about whether I will have a working iPod at all in the near future.......................................

Cheers!!

OK, this is now all getting VERY VERY silly indeed.

After my previous post and in particular item 1. of the '2 other things', I found I could not access anything on the iPod at all:

3 times I tried, using the 'new' 30 pin/USB lead into 3 different USB sockets and every time, first of all Windows said there was a problem with the drive, so I followed the Windows scan and repair links, and every time it did so and every time it said it had fixed it, the drive was now OK, 'no errors were found'. And still evey time, iTunes could not read the iPod at all, and said Eject of Repair (which is the wipe all the contents and reinstall software option).

So I just ejected the iPod via iTunes, waited till the iPod said OK to disconnect, disconnected and.............the iPod says there is no music on there - but 45GB of memory are being used.

So I thought, time to reboot the PC, and turn off completely the iPod, and see if that makes any difference. Whilst rebooting I removed the USB cable from the PC attached to the external hard drive (which was not switched on and has not been on for the last 3 days), but NOT the wireless internet receiver.

Opened iTunes, connected the iPod via the USB socket that the external hard drive had ben conncted to (after all, I knew that that USB socket had worked fine the last time I used that hard drive) - still zilch, still an error via Windows, still bnreadable by iTunes. Eject and disconnect properly. I know, I thought, let's try the 'old' (previous) 30 pin/USB cable and attach it to that hard drive USB socket.

And guess what - it worked. No Windows problem, iTiunes recognised the iPod, all the music seemed to be there. With heart in mouth, eject iPod via iTunes, wait for OK to disconnect, get back to main iPod menu on stand alone....... and, thankfully, all the music seems to be there.

So now, I am leaving well alone until I have used it for my essential matter this afternoon.

Conclusion? - it is a total lottery as to whether the iPod works properly with my Windows 10 or not. There is no rhyme or reason as to when it works or when it does not, which cable works, which USB socket works. The only technical thing I can see is that I do not appear to have an Apple Mobile Device USB Driver installed (see my original question post). Do I need this? Would that make the USB sockets work better with the iPOd? If so, how do I get it?

Otherwise, I suspect that the Ipod is just goosed (i.e. knackered) and I need to either get it repaired (probaly very expensive because Apple no longer regard these as current products?) or replaced?

Next steps please?

How do I know if I have the Ipod service on my PC and/or working properly?

To ru the Diagnostic tests outlined in your linked message, does the iPod have to be connected to the PC? If so, therein lies the rub, because most of the time I cannot get it successfully connected!!

Thanks.

OK, the iPod Service is at least present (not currently running because iPod not connected, will check to ensure it is running next time I am able to actually get the iPod connected).

Here are the results of my diagnostic test:

Retracts: 0

Reallocs: 936

Pending sectors: 144

Poweron Hours: 104

Start/Stops: 7287

Temp Current: 18

Temp min: 1

Temp max: 48

I suspect my hard drive is starting to fail, given the number of Reallocs and Pending Sectors?

Because I did a Reset after running the test (as suggested in your message), my iPod is now showing 'No music', altoiugh 45GB of memory are still being used. So, I am now back to square one after running the Diagnostic test, and will have to hope I can force the iPod to connect to iTunes and thus get ti give me access to all my music on there. Given my recent past experience, I am not very hopeful!!

Update to message timed on the system as 9:11 AM (actually it's 17:30 PM now here):

I have just tried to connect the iPod to the PC/iTunes:

- 1st attempt, using 'old' lead and USB socket 1, I got no Windows error message but iTunes said it could not read the iPod. So I ejected the iPod from iTunes.

- 2nd attempt, same 'old' lead, different USB socket (same one I usually used to use before problems started), got a Windows 'error with drive' message (I ignored this), then iPod and all contents show up on iTunes, all Playlists there etc. Yippee? Well, I then Eject iPod and disconnect when told it's OK to do so and the iPod display says....................No Music!!

As I said a couple of messages ago - it is a total lottery as to whether this device now works at all and/or I can connect it to iTunes (i.e. to upload more CDs, which is what I am wanting to do).

Instead, I suspect that this is just typical of the disposable society we live in and so, after about only 4 years of life, this product is now deemed worthless and irrepairable (unless you pay more than the thing cost in the first place to fill the over-bloated coffes of Apple) and, even worse, obsolete as far as Apple is concerned (presumably because they realised that they were selling a product don't actually work properly in the first place?).

Hi there

When you have the time, please could you unpick the words of your last post in to "smaller syallables" for me, a bear of only little brain!!? I am afraid I don't follow you when you say 'restoring in OS X and then again in Windows'. Why does it have to be restored twice? Or what is 'a quick format in Windows'?

Are both those things in the article you referred me to earlier? I cna't see them if they are. Sorry, but whilst I am usually reasonably adept, I do not understand all the 'techy' language being used here.

I can broadly understand the 'break up large tarnsfers' bit, although I don't understand why you have to keep editing the transfer data and changing the size. If it works as 10GB, why not just keep that and do it as many times as necessary to get all the music across onto the iPod (that woudl be 5 times for me)?

When I transferred before, I transferred my music album by album (becasue I always manually sync), but I did about 7 albums at a time and waited till they had copied across and then did the next lot. But I guess I could sync by playlists (I have about 10, so each one would only be about 0.5 GB?