Friday, March 31st, 2006 at 11:46 PM
I’ve seen a number of questions on the web related to frozen iPods which either get stuck on or off. Holding the Hard Reset buttons indicated in the previous post will — if the iPod is accepting any input at all — force it to do a full reboot. In most cases, the freeze is a one-time issue, and this solution will get you out of the situation.
However, if the iPod reboots and gets stuck again, try resetting it yet again and holding the Disk Mode buttons to force the iPod to become a simple external hard drive. When connected via USB or FireWire, it can be Restored with Apple’s latest iPod Updater software. Sometimes a Restore is the best way to get your iPod working again, as it wipes the device clean and reloads all the factory settings. The Restore function is so deep that it will even fix an iPod hard drive which has been completely written over with zeroes!
If the iPod is still locking up, it may be the result of a more serious problem that can be determined by thoroughly testing the hard drive. Stay tuned for more iPod fixing tips in the very near future.
This entry was posted on Friday, March 31st, 2006 at 11:46 pm and is filed under iPod. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
My 3rd gen iPod froze a coupple of days ago and reset wouldn’t work. Then I toggled the hold button and toggled it off again, and the iPod started working, I was so relieved!
If anyone else is in the same situation, give it a try.
My 3rd gen iPod isn’t accepting any input at all, as if the touch sensitivity no longer works. Can’t reboot or anything else. It charges, and is still working (it keeps displaying callender reminders). Would an update fix this?
If the iPod is no longer accepting input, try plugging it into a computer and running iPod Updater. If it refuses to communicate with the host computer, let it sit and just drain completely. Then plug it in or charge it and see what happens.
If you’re adventurous, you can open the iPod and unplug the battery connector to force it to go off and shorten that long drain period.
When the iPod is OFF (very important, hard drive must not be spinning) put the hold switch on and give the ipod a few firm whacks on a covered surface. (I put a towel over a table). Hit is a couple times on each side (not front or back) and then plug it into power. That usually clears it up.
One is forgetting that the regular iPod is a hard-drive based device. They get knocked around pretty good while you jog/walk/ride and of course they go faulty all the time anyway. YES its a good idea to restore the iPod, but if the HD has bad blocks, once you start filling it up with songs again, once it gets to the area with the bad blocks it will just start freezing.
Best way to check is to get a utility that can scan for bad blocks like TechTool Pro, and run it on the iPod when in disk mode. (PS I dont work for them)
If it has bad blocks, that’s why it was freezing!
If your iPod turns on, but is unresponsive, hold the iPod up to your ear. If you hear a clicking sound from the hard drive (aka the “Click of Death”), try one more thing after checking for bad blocks:
Smack it around!
Bang it against your knee a bunch of times, trying different angles. Be careful not to hurt your knee.
Sometimes the HD arm gets stuck, and a few jolts will unstick it.
No joke–I just fixed a friend’s 3rd-Gen iPod with this “technique” last weekend.
Obviously, if this method works you’ll want to back up your iPod contents and so forth.
Heh. I suppose I could’ve read the other comments first. It’ll be worth the embarrassment if somebody finds this by googling for ‘”click of death” ipod’…
The “technique” works! Just fixed it…was afraid to so but then went back to place.
Hi!
My ipod shows a battery sign and warning triangle.
I kinda worked before i removed the battery and plugged it back in. Did alot of things i should’nt have.
When plugged to chager apple logo appears and thats all.
There is no connection or response to the computer.
There is no clicking sound. Tried smacking it around as well.
What to do?
I just wanted to say thank you for posting this online. The internet is a wonderful place when people get creative and helpful. Thanks again!
Advice #6 is excellent, it works. Had sad ipod icon with exclamation point in triangle, apple logo without reboot, and battery icon with lighting bolt all in succession. Toggled hold, Pressed reboot buttons, disk mode buttons nothing. Tried restore wouldn’t even register. Whacked it on my knee three times and voila hard drive arm got unstuck and I was able to reboot. Awesome tip!!!
yea..thanks fr the tip for the “click of death” mine jsut did that yesterday and it is not responding to the wall charger or pc. it will start to turn on click and start to spin but come up with the folder icon after a few mintues. I’ll try beating on it, and if htat doesnt work, get a bigger hammer i guess.
I’m amazed that the “smack the iPod” technique actually works and has had some positive results. Logically, one would think that beating on it would only risk damaging it further than it may already be, as a hard drive read/write head shouldn’t get “stuck” without some sort of jolt. However, sometimes things just need to be hit. At work we have a rubber mallet labeled “Plan B,” for just such an occasion.
could someone help me?
My Ipod is on, and it says the hold button is on, which its not, its not making any noises, wont respond to plugging it in, and is completely forzen, ive tried absouletly everything on the internet! if you can help please! tell me your advice!
Usually, when the iPod says the hold switch is on 24/7, the little connector that connects to the audio jack and hold switch is unhooked. I know from experience that, after unplugging it, the iPod believes that the hold switch is on. If you’re comfortable working inside the iPod, you could take a look and see.
Holy cow! My ipod was spinning it’s disk and I freaked! This is a replacement to a 4th Gen that had a hard disk that died. A couple hard resets and a whack to the knee, and it’s back up! Thanks response #6.
My 2nd gen gets stuck in it’s Disk Scan mode (icon of spinning disk with magnifying glass) when plugged into the Mac. It does this repeadidly. When it’s not plugged into the Mac, all of the playlists, songs, artists screens are blank, even though there are lots of songs on there. What gives? I want to restore it, but can’t get it out of this Disk Scanning.
OMG
PLAN B a.k.a “smack it around” works!
Just fixed my 4th Generation Monochrome iPod with it then.
Where can I buy the rubber mallet?
Thanks a lot
[...] How to reset your iPod: if your ipod is acting up and you want to reset it, you have to press a couple of buttons to do that–click on “hard reset” on that page to see the command for every type of iPod. This post on fixing a frozen iPod has a few more suggestions for a recidivist iPod. [...]
Thanks for the great advice as per point #6. My wifes 4th Gen Click wheel locked up and me in my innocence assured her that I would fix it, no problems! The disc was spinning and clicking but was failing to initiate. After half a dozen or so spin and clicks it would put me through to the unhappy ipod screen and that was it. Resetting did nothing. After a couple of hours searching on the web and trawling through the Apple site I was getting a bit desperate which is when I happened upon this site.
I quite enjoyed giving the ipod a sharp wallop after all the sh*t it put me through, and it fixed it! Huzzah!
OMG My ipod is clicking and is stuck in the apple logo screen too!! im scared to hit it cause i dont want to ruin it any more. It wont do anything and resetting it doesnt work. My computer cant detect it also. Well im hitting it right now hoping it will work
Yup. My 4G 20GB ipod has just been bought back to life by smacking it on a mousemat a couple of times :)
OMG. Thank you so much!
Quality tip #6, and agreed…well satisfying :D
[...] Here is an page which has a nice javascript which helps you find out the set of hidden keys for your iPod. Its for all the iPod’s until the fifth generation. You might wanna bookmark this page. Also check out the following page which describes how to fix a frozen iPod. [...]
Hey I have a question about my 2GB Ipod Nano:
I’m pretty sure that it’s frozen. It’s frozen on one screen and I can’t get off it of it. The Lock is not on I’ve already checked. It won’t shut off, I can’t go back, and obviously I can’t scroll. So I need some help please
You have GOT to be kidding me! I laughed when I first read #4 and #6, but after two trips to the Apple store hearing them tell me my hard drive was gone and about 6 hours of tinkering on my own I figured, what the hell? Right after I banged the edges on my mouse pad, I connected the iPod to my computer and it instantly recognized it for the first time in days. Now after updating all 4463 songs, I am rocking again. I’ll be spreading the word on this tip. Thanks again!!!!!
first here is the rundown, similar to most of you
4th gen ipod, 40 G had for 17 months.
for the last few months the click wheel has been a bit unmanagable but I have dealt with it and everything else worked fine. I have never dropped or been abusive with my ipod and even keep it in a case.
It froze yesterday, displaying the current song and I could not restart, turn off or reset it with any of the buttons that I know how to do.
SO I left it. Finally it shut off and when I got home I figured I would just put it in the cradle or plug it into the computer and all would be happy again.
NOpe, the apple logo would appear and then a sad face. There was no little beep either once put in the cradle. So I went to plug it in the computer USB style. Nothing……..just apple logo, sad face and then half a recharge sign. It was not showing up on the computer so there was no way to reinstall, wipe clean or do any of the other things various sites suggest.
So there is an apple sign, then sad, then half a recharge bar but it is not connected to the computer.
that is where it stands now. I am pretty much convinced it is toast unless I shell out big bucks to get it fixed. I have read various posts about cracking it open but I am not really big on that idea.
any suggestions?
So I tried the smack around thing and for the first time, the USB kicked in and made the beep I was so happy to hear. It did the dont disconnect screeen! YAY
but it ended in about 5 seconds and I am back to where I was.
am I close?? am I one good smack from getting it going?
The smacking worked great thanks!
I just found this, having had my 60Gb drive go wonky again. I can also confirm it works. Precision engineering, 0, brute force 1.
This is just silly!
My 4th gen photo 60gb iPod stopped working mid-walk! While I was listening to a really good rise against song :(
I searched the whole day till I arrived here:
advice 4# 6# and 24# works!!!
I knocked the corners of my ipod on the edge of my table and BAM the backlight came back on after the logo!
MY IPOD IS FIXED! thanks a lot
I have a third generation ipod. I bought a logic3 usb 2.0 and firewire for it. Now when i attach the USB to my computer it says that it has malfunctioned, sometimes it doesn’t say that and the ipod appears in itunes, when i try to transfer songs though in the middle of the transfere the ipod shuts off…can someone help.
What a great solution. I was tearing my hair out when I got the sad ipod face. I was expecting to have to replace my Ipod. Thanks a million you are a saviour.
I tried all the suggestions on this page to fix my frozen iPod w/ video - even the smacking! - and nothing worked. I found another webpage that said to hold the Menu button and the center button. So I tried it and it worked great! Within a few seconds, my iPod rebooted and was fine. Just thought I’d share this tip with everyone who is still having problems unfreezing their iPods, even with all the great suggestions found here.
Remember, Menu + Center Button.
The Ipod made the dreaded ‘ click of death ‘, So I googled that and found this site. Thank you person who told me to whack the ipod. I was skeptical at first but it did the trick. Thank you sincerely.
Victor
I can’t believe that friggin’ worked! My iPod was stuck in the locked position and I was in a full on painic. Thanks so much for the suggestion to knock it against your knee! I really can’t believe that worked…
I need help…my ipod is completely frozen and i’ve tried everything that i’ve been told except opening it up…i need this ipod for my trip im leaving tomorrow could someone please tell me how to safely open my ipod or any other suggestions that you might have would be greatly appreciated
My ipod completely frozzee when I tried to update it! Do not disconnect is on da screen, da locked symbol even when I unlock it, and computer won’t read it. HELP!
I had given up on the freakin ipod but thank god I accidentaly saw this website. The smash it hard technique worked like a F”$% miracle!!! ———i had the folder and exclamation icon on the screen. My computer didnt recognize the ipod as well. Then I smashed it against my computer desk like a monkey and voila! Got my Ipod back and I feel lucky like a kid in a candy store.
thanks.
wow about after to weeks of beating the crap out of my mini it finally worked… i figured it might before i read this… i took all my frustration out on it and it really worked…and for everyone out dont get someone to throw it to you down the stairs…
The banging on the knee technique worked for my 5th gen IPod as well. Recommend it.
Please can some1 help me i have tried everything to help reset my ipod. i have tried holding down the resetting buttons and it wont work the hold isnt on it just gets to the screen with the apple logo on it and dousnt do anything else it wont respond to smaking or from me trying to click somethin on the wheel pls can some1 help me with this issue?? its and ipod mini 4GB
I read a question extremely similar to mine, however the response didn’t help me at all. My ipod is frozen, and the lock in the corner representing that its on hold is showing, but ITS NOT ON HOLD! I’ve done absolutely everything. I’ve held all the buttons, i’ve tried playing with the hold switch, its frozen solid! Everyone else says reset it, what they don’t understand is… My ipod thinks its on hold! The help to the first girl posting this problem said to look inside the ipod if i’m comfortable. well what if i’m not? I know nothing about the inside of an ipod or what goes on there, so please someone help me out with another solution!!!
Tried turning on my ipod Nano and the screen displayed a big check mark which read “Okay to Disconnect” and it was in in disk mode. (I’ve only had it a month and didn’t even know what the heck “disk mode” was!) I was starting to get a little upset when the usual troubleshooting tips weren’t working and I was getting ready to reinstall the software when I found the tips on this website. Whacking didn’t work, but I tried suggestion #31 …
Menu + Center Button
It worked!!! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!
For all those who think that it will hurt your iPod to knock it around on your knee… It wont hurt. My iPod was giving me its version of flipping me off with the “sad face”, and i went to the apple store. They said it was $250 bucks to send it in, and $50 shipping. But I was leaving for Europe in 4 days…. So they ran one more test in the back, and I went online at the store and found this website. They came back out and said they would have to send it no matter what. So I asked to see it one more time, and beat it on my knee 3 times on each side (not front and back, but the thin sides) and sure enough, all my music was there, all my photos… Everything. The guy said that that could have ended my warranty, but i figured it was over in 1 month anyways, and now i know how to fix it! IT WORKS
FYI, the “smack the iPod on your knee” trick won’t work on any of the flash-based iPods like the nano. In theory, it shouldn’t work at all on any iPods. The sheer volume of success stories posted is amazing, though.
[...] Read Fixing a Frozen iPod. If you’re fairly familiar with hardware, you really don’t have to read what’s noted on the article; its what noted on the comments: (#4) When the iPod is OFF (very important, hard drive must not be spinning) put the hold switch on and give the ipod a few firm whacks on a covered surface. I’ve been having issues with my 40G 4G iPod skipping songs, not being recognized by the PC, and I was bordering on desperation already on fixing the darned thing. The comments on the article related so many success stories, I just had to try it. AND IT EFFING WORKED. Tags [...]
I’ve got a 30GB Photo iPod and the ‘Click of death’ thing has been happening on mine. My warranty has run out and after being recommended to this site thanks to the success stories I thought I’d check it out. I tried the idea of smacking it on my knee but it still doesn’t work! So is there anything I can do before I open it up?
my 30g ipod video got submerged in flood waters for 4 hours
now it does not turn on, when you plug it the screen comes on blank. how do i fix it? is there schematic diagram for this?
ok so.. my ipod nano, not even one year old, froze while it was off. i tried resetting it, toggling the hold button, i even smacked it around, and nothing. it wont take any input what-so-ever.
PLEASE HELP!!
My iPod died after being left behind a sofa for a week (hey its easilly done when drunk). Good hard whack to the knee and its fine again (for now). Half the trick is to hit it harder than you think; hell if its out of warantee no good gonna come of being gentle to it.
Mind you the other two iPods this didnt work for…
My ipod has been freezing constantly over the past week. It was displaying the sad ipod icon and it would freeze any time i connected it to a computer. Never thought that banging it around the place would do the job! Thanks a mil.
I agree with almost everyone here. Who would have thought a few forceful love-nudges would fix the problem. Thanks a lot!
My 20gb ipod won’t shut of and and the backlight is on as well…I tried the hold menu+select and I tried the toggle hold then menu+select and I also tried the toggle hold then menu+play/pause…oh yeah and the banging didn’t do anything…what do I do..this is the first time it’s frozen like this.?
My nano is unlocked but now the screen is just blank white and when i touch the click wheel i hear it click.any help on whats wrong and what to do?
My 30G iPod w/video froze after I played a video snipet. I banged it around based on several suggestions, but this is the one that worked:
Menu + Center Button
Thank you Ashley! (Suggestion #31)
This is my second 30g ipod in as many days and the same thing happen with both ipods, after charging it up, then downloading the music into it, It diconnected by it’s self from itunes, and now it’s frozen with the apple logo blinking. I can’t reset it or turn it off. Hope you can help me tonight I’m leaving tomarrow morning.
Now it will not show up on my computer, can you please help.
help!i have a thirty gig video ipod broken.it boots up connects to the puter and itunes…stores music/video its all there…..but the click wheel does nothing,after updating and reformating it is now on the choose langauge screen cant scroll up or down or even select the langauge it is currently on….it hard resets i have gotten it into diagnostic mode where it gives me two options “menu:manual previous:auto or something and i understand at this mode the click wheel is disabled but pushing previous or menu does nothing…can some one help….please….im pulling hairs out..thanx
OMG THANKYOU IT WORKED. I was so scared that I would have to get another ipod fixed. The click of death shall bug me no more! I owe u 1!~^_^
Oh and to answer some of the questions. I had the problem of the frozen iPod that thought it was on hold. Sorry, dude. You r screwed. (no pun intended)That happened to me and I had to get it fixed 4 like two months. Just send it in if that happens. They have 2 open it up and like replace the hard drive or something. warning- wicked expensive. So look. of the click wheen is screwed, u r too, it’s broken and it needs some serious repair. sry
My 2G ipod nano is being a bitch. seriously.
it fell from my computer table onto the fllor a few days ago, but it was working fine. Then the battery died, and when i plugged it into my pc to charge and update my song list, the damn thing lit up like…vibrant white, then went off. It continued to do this, and still is. When ituns reconizes it is plugged in, the locked sign appears, even though the device is not locked. It makes a clicking sound when i press any of the buttons, like it does when it’s functioning and the clicker option is turned to speaker. Is there any way i can fix this without having to replace something? Please help. :[
i have a ipod mini 4gb when push a button it turn on with a apple sign flickering every 3-4 second when i connect it to charge it has the batterie sign and returns to apple sign
I have a 4gb mini that froze today and of course was freaking out that I’d have to buy a new one! I tried hitting is a few times and then read down to suggestion #31
and it worked!!!Try that first before bruising your knee with your i-pod. Saves me a trip to the Geek Squad at Best Buy (thank god!!)
my ipod had frozen for the past few days and after worrying about having to shell out on a new one, i thought what the hell, i’ll follow the advice given by a few people on this website and just smash it around for a bit. i didnt get any response for a while until, after one almighty smack against the kitchen wall, the light came on and it was good as new - cheers for the help! x
YESSSSSSSSS hell yea! i had a frozen i pod and i was goin crazy tryin to fix it. I just wanna thatnk who ever left comment 32 u fixed all my problems, thanks a million bro.
HEEEEEEEEEELP!!!!
my 3Og ipod video stpooed working this morning for no reason. I plugged it into my computer and it didn’t show up on my itunes. now it’s stuck on the apple screen, periodically lighting up, and making the evil click of death. I don’t want to lose my music because a lot of it isn’t backed up, and i’d have to re-download all of my videos and all that crap I don’t want to do. I gave it a few whacks on my knee and on the table and it still looks the same. That solution worked to fix my other mp3 player, but mine is stuck. please please help.
Yeah … this happened to me while I was updating my iPod this morning … blank screen which came again after I tried to reset the iPod. Finally I gave up and decided to restore my iPod to factory settings, even though it meant losing my songs. However … when my iPod came back to life … it had not earased the songs and is now working fine.
Reseting to factory settings:
Hold down Menu and Select buttons
When the iPod goes blank press play/pause button as well
Take your finger off the Menu button
Take your fingers off the the Select and play/pause buttons
Connect to your computer … and … well it worked for me
Wow!! the holding menu button and the cnter button worked great… I have been trying all suggestions and that definatly helped. It saved me from damaging my knee and the Ipod. It was definatly awesome. Thankz
I have the same problem as comment #45 except it was not for 4 hours. I kept it with me while at “Cave of the winds” in Niagara falls. Now it just doesn’t turn on. My computer does not recognize it anymore and I see the screen blinking with a buzzing sound. Please help.
So glad I found this site!!! My 4th gen iPod was frozen and had the “click of death”. I’ve gone through 5 other iPods with similar problems. I read through the posts and just knocked mine around a bit….it actually works now!
Thanks!!
Hi I have a 4 gig ipod mini — heres the deal after reading ALL of these entries — NADA— ok my problem is that the click wheel got stuck in menu pos- so I smacked it on my palm and un stuck it so alls good then I go to start it up on buttons respond and all it shows is the apple — after 50 HD resets smacking it and smacking it a sec after reset thinking that when something is spinning maybe it will be better– but noting — then I tried to connect to comp — no connect - but once it showed that the batt was charging then I unplugged it and by holding play to shut it off –it went off then I tried to turn back on and the apple came up again– and here I am back to step one — nothing — what do you reccomend — I have tried my knee– now I need a prostetic– tried wood and marble— maybe I was too light ?? where should I hit — and any other suggs???? aqhhhhhhhhhhhhh….thanks…
I just have to say that I thought the comment about whacking the ipod on a hard surface was a joke–but I was so frusterated because I had tried everything else in the world that I tried it. It actually worked! I’m amazed becuase for a month I had been trying to fix it and reading online help websites. Anyways if your ipod is stuck on the visit apple.com/support screen and you’ve tried everything hitting it actually might help.
i have and iPod nano, and i went for a bike ride and the next time i looked at it it had a white screen that would light up when ever a comand was hit, it would restart, show up on the computer and everything, but it wouldent play music at all. I’ve tryed every thing i could find but nothing is helping it….and im really sad cause its my baby and i dont want it to die….and i have no idea what to do.
my ipod is a 2gig and fairly new.
Hi, I have an ipod mini 4gb 2nd gen and was working ok, but suddenly started to slow down while hearing songs, reaching the point that some songs are stopped and another songs starts. I tried connecting it to my computer but it only slowed my computer too! i have to use ctrl+alt+supr to close itunes and work normally. I have ran the ipod updater and doesn’t get fixed, even when i play the songs on itunes (if it does not freeze my computer) the songs take a lot to play and start cut while playing. Can somebody help me please :’( ?
Thanks for this page!!! My Nano was stuck on check mark with “okay to disconnect” and wouldn’t budge. Your #31, hold menu + center button did the trick immediately. Great to have you guys helping us out. Love the web:-)
my ipod wont respond, the buttons dont even press,i can see the menu in the background, but thats it, it wont light up or anything, makes a noise when i pit it in the dock, but its unresponsive. is it broken?
i think its bricked, but i dont know how i did it, just pit my usb in to updte my vids and that happened, i dont want it to happen again when i get my new one (this is only 4 days old) how do i avoid bricking my ipod video? was it a virus?
i havent seen this ANYWHERE else and doesnt come up on google or msn when i type it in…ANY advice would be GREATLY appreciated…ok.
my ipod shows that its charging, even after its unplugged from the charger…off of the charger will work “charging” for about 15 min - 30 min. after that it will show the fully charged symbol…and about 10 seconds after that it will die. lol.
works when i plug it into my car with my fm transmitter and my computer detects it while its functioning, but if i plug it into my computer after its died then it does NOT detect it…any body know WHY this could be happening…again, ANY advice would be greatly appreciated! thank you!
As someone mentioned in an earlier post, in order to reset a Fifth generation (VIDEO IPOD), 30gb, just hold down on CENTER and MENU, and voila! problem solved! Because nothing else seemed to work! and the apple website sucks in helping! i love this website.
Ok, I played my iPod video and suddendly it stops playing as soon as its about to switch songs. The hold button is off but it says its on. There is no click of death. Plugging it into the comp or an outlet does absolutely nothing. Its like its not even on. Can someone PLEASE help me?
Just tried the “bang it on your knee” trick to reset my frozen first generation iPod after a restore - and it worked!! Many thanks for the suggestion.
my video ipod is frozen on the “do not disconnect” sign, does anyone know how to resolve this problem?
My 30BG ipod has frozen that backlight is stayin on, the battery is pretty much dead, and i have tried reseting, there is no respones to any buttons i press, please help as my little i-pod is gettin hotter!!!!!!
I’m desperate! I’m off traveling and have been for eight months, so my ipod is not backed up at all. Today it froze and I’ve tried everything on this site and no luck. It’s not responding to any of the resets- menu and hold, menu and select, nothing. I tried beating the crap out of it, nothing. It’s stuck on one song, says it playing (but its not), and the backlight is on. If I send it in, I’ll lose all my music AND I just spent like 80 bucks on itunes buying more songs. I’ve had this since December and this would be the second time i’ve had to get it replaced. any help would be much appreciated! thanks!
Those “Click of death” fixes work beautifully! I love all of you people and despise the cursed apple support staff.
(My sympathy to anyone who’s reading this and pissed off that it didn’t work for them. Keep reading cuz if apple can’t help you or wants money for repairs, chances are someone here knows the problem.) :)
thank you so much, worked like a charm
Hi, read most of the messages on the site, but none of them relate to my problem. I have the latest itunes installed on the Pc I can use my wifes 4gb ipod no problem. But for my 5g 60Gb Video every time i attach it to the pc it says “cannot read the contents, go to the summarey tab in Ipod prefrences and click restore to restore to factory settings. I cant do this i have whacked it slapped it reset it but still no luck.
PLease help me guys
We have a 30 gig video iPod which has froze a couple of times on us, after reading this page, we are glad that we didnt smack ipod around too much O_O… *pets it*
The “Menu + center” on the click wheel worked instantly!!
THANK YOU! ;D~
This is absolutel right
I banged the bottom left corner of the ipod, and it came to life!
I was amazed at this post and to find it works!
awesome.
thanks guys
So my ipod was frozen with the backlight on, (stupid update) and I tried the menu center button trick, it worked like a charm! Thanks so much to whoever found that!!
But just a note to anyone else, it didn’t work when I tried it through my case. I had to take it out, after that it worked on the first shot!
Nothing worked for me. Tried everything but #6. After a few laughter and banging, my iPod’s Apple showed up. Thank you for giving me the testimony for the technique and the bravery #6 hero for putting it up here.
- Nice day.
iPod 3G 20GB
as with alot of people, I was being a bit shy on the iPod bashing… but I got to comment #85 (after the bashing of a good 70-odd posts) and tried what I can only assume is correct for the insides of the 3G…
I gave it three sharp bangs on the bottom left corner, took it off lock, pressed a key and we-hey… iPod HDD starts spinning away.
needless to say, thank you everyone, especially #6 and #85
hey
my ipod nano (2 gb) is frozen on “do not disconnect” what do i do ?????
my iPod Video 30 G had a continuus beep and a frozen menu screen. Banged it around, which didn’t help. Thanks a lot for the tip to press the menu and center button. This worked immediately! Didn’t find this one on Apple’s support website.
i am having a lot of trouble with my ipod 4GB mini. tried the banging thing and it didnt work. i’ve tried basically everything… toggling with the hold key and trying to manually restarting my ipod. everything i could possibly find on the internet and nothing helps!
my problem is my ipod keeps blinking the apple screen it wont shut off or fully boot up it just keeps blinking the screen and it has been for about 2 hours now! i need help please!
thankyou thankyou thankyou! cannot tell you how much this has helped me cos it was my dads ipod and i thought it was gona for good! thanks again! most usefull site by far
yeah every1 with the 30GB ipod the menu + centre button works well good, lol dont bang it.
all u do is hold it for about 10 seconds sud reset and its all good then
I have a 5th Generation iPod, and I need to charge it. When I plug it into my computer, nothing happens. ITunes doesn’t come up, my iPod won’t come on, and when I go to iTunes and click on Preferences, iPod, then it just says, “No iPod Connected”. I’ve already tryed the “hold switch” trick, but that doesn’t work, and neither does holding down the Menu and Select buttons. I don’t want to reset my iPod, though, because I don’t want to lose all of my songs. I only have a couple of more hours until I have to go to a football game, and I want to have something to do while I’m there. Someone PLEASE help me!!!
*** The real time here is 5:03, by the way, not 2:00.
wow out of all these comment the only one that worked is
HOLD
menu + center button
and it worked again for being frozen for 2 hours =]
thanks!
My goodness! I love you people! Pushing the menu and center button solved my problem immediately! Now I wont’t have to quarantine my iPod in a soundproof Logitech case! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!
I was very excited to find this website and the hidden commands for Ipods, but I couldn’t get any of the commands to work. I have the Fourth Generation “Click Wheel”.
My hold switch was turned off and I followed these steps:
I did the hard restart first as the diagram shows and as soon as the Apple logo appeared I then moved one finger to the left button, as the figure shows on the Diagnostic diagram without moving my finger from the middle button. I held those buttons (as shown on the Diagnostic diagram) until the “sad Ipod icon” appeared with the following website listed below the icon http://www.apple.com/support/ipod.
So then I tried the using the Disk Mode steps:
I did the hard restart first as the diagram shows and as soon as the Apple logo appeared I then moved one finger to the bottom button, as the figure shows on the Disk Mode diagram without moving my finger from the middle button. I held those buttons (as shown on the Disk Mode diagram) until the “sad Ipod icon” appeared with the following website listed below the icon http://www.apple.com/support/ipod.
Do you have any suggestions as to what I should do now? I would really appreciate any info
I’m wondering if there’s any help out there for me.. My 3rd generation ipod was freezing and deleting my songs, so I called the local apple dealer, and i was told to do a restore with the newest ipod software. I did this and it worked fine for a little while, but about 2 weeks later, it just wouldnt turn on. I charged it forever and finally got it to show an “apple”, but thats all it would do. I put it in disk mode and plugged it into my powerbook, but it won’t show up in iTunes, just on the desktop. The apple dealer says its “clicking” and that the hard drive must have burned out. HAHA they are really stupid I guess, because it shows up just fine as an external drive. I’m really upset because I love my ipod and don’t want to throw it out. I think the problem was that I updated it with the newest software which is TOO new for my oldie, but goodie ipod! Is that possible? PLEASE HELP!!!
Hi, my ipod isn’t working banging won’t work and I’ve read this whole thing 5 times, any advice?
okay, i have a 5th generation 30gb ipod. i pulgged it into my computer, and the screen just froze. that happened like, 45 minutes ago, i’m sure the battery is dead by now. i can’t seem to find how to fix it.
4th gen ipod. Froze playing a song. The whacking didn’t fix so I held down Menu + center button. It worked!
5th gen, 80gb iPod. Had a lockup with the device on and the battery about half charged. Frozen on the song I was playing, then on the main content menu.
Tried the Apple reset procedure - no dice. Plugged into the computer and the device was recognized as usual, with normal access to all the tunes. Did a reset/update, which appeared successful. Device started normally with the screen on language choices. Still didn’t respond to control inputs. Tried the reset procedure and smacking it around a bit - no results.
I’ve only had the iPod for two days, so my first reaction is just to return the thing. I have no desire to open it up and monkey with the giblets.
Any suggestions?
Okay, I have 4gb ipod nano which i have had since march, actually scratch that, its already been replaced once before (after a spilt ice cream incident!) so ive only had it for about 4 months. I dropped it at work today and ever since then the HOLD button is locked on, it just wont switch off. Ive tried whacking it around more and more and tried resetting it. Im getting nothing but a very sore knee!! I dont want to travel 30 miles into the centre of london to get it replaced again, and i dont want to fork out more money to apple for a new one. Can anyone help????
P.S. I may cry very very soon!!!
ei, i have an 80 gb ipod video which my mom bought roughly 2 months ago. i just started using it 2 days ago. it was working fine til while i was copying some songs, it wouldn’t copy. later on my ipod could be read by my mac and its stuck on “do not disconnect’ screen. i tried all the methods shown on other sights like trying to reset and stuff like that. does any one have a useful remedy???
THANK YOU!!!
finally! My Ipod hasnt been working.. its been frozen on the “Do Not Disconnect” icon you get when you plug it in. I even unplugged it and it still had that icon.
I listened to Suggestion #31 and it worked! it went straight to the Apple Icon and than i plugged it back into the computer and its working again!!!!!
Just Hold the Menu button and the center button for a couple of seconds and it works!
THANKS!
i have the same prob as dafriend except i have a 4th gen. 60 gig
HELP! HELP! HELP!
3G 10GB iPod. ! with folder. I cannot get it into disk-mode from the > buttons. Apple symbol flashes and sticks on Apple symbol.
iPod goes into diagnostics ok, can copy backed-up files over to iPod without any problems in USB disk mode. Even if I don’t do this iTunes7 even recognises it.
Tried to restore from iTunes7, no luck as !folder appears after it restarts.
I’ve pulled it apart. I’ve let the battery drain etc etc. Banged it
Somehow I managed to get it into the diskmode after coming out of diagnostics once only. Have been trying to repeat with no luck
Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.
Had the frozen iPod for hours. On, light on, stuck in mid-song, banging didn’t work, only holding the center and menu buttons for like 2-3 minutes. Now it’s back to normal.
Thanks to the person who suggested holding the menu and center button to unfreeze the Ipod. I did try banging it around as everyone suggested but that didn’t work, so I tried the button suggestion and sure enough, my 30GB Ipod is working:) Thanks again!!
I have an ipod nano, it came up with 4 numbers and a spinning hourglass. How do I fix it?
I can’t freakin belive it. smacking it around actually worked! you just saved me 249.00 to buy a new ‘pod! thanks!!!!!
thank you!!!!!!!!!!!
IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!
I have a 2nd gen mini. Today the screen froze, and rebooting it brougth up the apple logo then the exclmation point/file icon, then off. It won’t mount, and I can’t restore it either. I ran the diagnostics on the iPod screen, everything checks out fine, but it gives “FAIL” on the hard drive screen. Am I screwed. Hitting it won’t help :)
thank you guys so much for the info!
Mini was stuck off. I read someone’s comment above to hold down the Menu and start button for a few seconds. Well, for me it was about 7 seconds, and it turned on…like a reboot. So, try holding down the MENU AND START BUTTON AT THE SAME TIME.
LOL, i would have to agree with a post that was made a while back :
“If your iPod turns on, but is unresponsive, hold the iPod up to your ear. If you hear a clicking sound from the hard drive (aka the “Click of Deathâ€?), try one more thing after checking for bad blocks:
Smack it around!
Bang it against your knee a bunch of times, trying different angles. Be careful not to hurt your knee.
Sometimes the HD arm gets stuck, and a few jolts will unstick it.
No joke–I just fixed a friend’s 3rd-Gen iPod with this “techniqueâ€? last weekend.
Obviously, if this method works you’ll want to back up your iPod contents and so forth. ”
I just did it on my 4th gen that was showing the sad ipod face and was clicking.
1.) Turned it off
2.) put “hold” on
3.) whacked it against my ironing board on all four sides
4.) plugged it in
5.) turned it on…
Works :D Thnx soo much
nano is stuck on apple icon blinking have tried everything on website to no avail…. it is 7 mths old..
Thanks! 2nd Gen Nano was stuck at high contrast apple symbol. Hard Reset was clearly doing someting, but wouldn’t get it off the apple symbol. But thanks to your instructions I tried doing the Hard Reset-Disk Mode combo…it worked! I was able to get the computer to recognize it finally. I then Restored the Ipod and for the moment I’m back to having it work again.
3rd gen ipod. dropped the dang thing and now the click wheel and buttons dont work. was able to do a full restore from the laptop, no luck. tried to reset it using menu/play, no luck. tried banging it around, no luck. I can play music from it using the remote control, so I know it still works. but how do I get the buttons to work again?
If the click wheel buttons aren’t working at all, but the wired remote ones do, then it sounds like the click wheel may have been jostled loose inside. Start by opening it and making sure it’s plugged in, then replace the clickwheel, then the motherboard. Right on down the line.
Hey,
I have an iPod nano that i just got for christmas and now every song i try to play it freezes and auto restarts. sometimes it even freezes and restards at the menu screen. Please help me!!!
Btw the banging around the iPod thing helped me sooooooooo much. my brother had an iPod that did that and after reading this i stopped him from throwing it away and fixed it right in fron of him!!!
If it’s a nano, there’s nearly nothing that can go wrong with it except a cracked LCD and a bad logic board. Plugging it in and doing a Restore in iTunes solves most problems with those models.
Er.
My 20GB Ipod was my brothers in the past, and he gave it to me on christmas. I tried to delete all of the songs, because he doesn’t have the same taste of music as I do, so i read on, and clicked on “Return Ipod to Factory State”. BIG MISTAKE. I don’t have an external outlet plug-in for charging my ipod. The only one i thought i really needed was just using the firewire. The problem i am having is with the screen. The only thing that shows is a little picture of a plug in reaching an outlit. I have tried the ‘banging’, and the ‘hold button’ method.. doesn’t work, the computer doesnt even read the Ipod anymore. it’s still just this little screen which i have no idea what to do with. Hopefully somebody can help me?
thanks
I have a 30gb 5.5 gen. Everytime i play a video it freezes, but i play songs it doesnt freeze
HELP PLEASE
well i tried that about 4 times but it doesnt help much. after about 15 minutes it does it again. ill take it in.
If anyone is having the issue where your lock button is stuck on and you can’t even reset your ipod I may have a fix. I dropped mine and after which it was stuck on lock. I was able to pop it open with a precision screw driver. Inside you will see a small system board (green) where the hold (lock) button is sitting. There is a copper cable with a black end on this board, this should connect to the main system board, mine had disconnected when I dropped it. I re-connected it and now it works fine.
My ipod was frozen displaying a CHECK MARK with the words OK TO DISCONNECT , and although the smacking around of my nano was quite fun, considering my aggravation…. what ultimately did the trick was pressing the MENU and CENTER buttons ! Thank you for the great advice. Now I can hit the gym in peace!
My ipod has been losing data repeatedly. A few months ago it froze during the transporting of songs and then when I took it off the computer all the songs were gone, but the data is still on there. So I move it to the computer and then reformat and then move it all back (losing about 20 songs each time I do this) Then it will happen again within a couple of weeks. I have moved all the music (through the file system) to the computer, reformatted, then back to the ipod about 4 times, and it has hapenned again. What is wrong? I will go through the process (which takes about a whole day) again, but want to know if there is anything I can do to make it actually work after reformatting.
… and oh yeah, 4th generation 40 gb is the model
Good call on the unplugged hold switch — that’s the most common problem with that board.
As for the iPod that’s losing songs, try just doing a Restore in iTunes and reloading the iPod software and songs.
I have restored the ipod and still get this error in disk utility even after updating the ipod with the ipod updater, “could not read boot block (input/output error)”
“The problem i am having is with the screen. The only thing that shows is a little picture of a plug in reaching an outlet”
I’m having the same problem, anyone know a solution to this one.
The only solution I know of for the power plug icon is to use an Apple AC adapter and plug it into the wall like it wants. Sadly, newer iPods don’t ship with them anymore.
I have a 30gb ipod video. It only works when i plug it into the charger and when its unplugged from the charger it is unresponsive and freezes ive tried the (play and menu) reset option. whatever is on the screen when i unplug it stays on there until the battery drains and i dont have the 2 generation cord and dock connecter to charge and sync at the same time. What should i do, Help.
Thanks for the excellent visual; I reset my Ipod with ease.
Does anyone know how to help my problem, My ipod only operates when its plug up to the charger. I have tried 5th generation ive tried everything. Reseting it and all. Also can any ipod usb cord serve as a charger for the newer ipods.
Hi everyone,I have tried all these ideas from smacking it to reseting ipod. I have a Video ipod 30gb. I even bought a new battery and a new screen. The ipod will come on but the screen will just be white(blank) then it turns off. When tried to plug in on computer wouldn’t even show up on Itunes. PLease Oh Please someone help me it has been broken for almost 5 months now and I really miss my ipod. Thamk-you to everyone for all the help.
My Ipod is frozen on the language select screen. The only thing that works is the hold button. The click wheel or the center button does nothing. It connects with my computer, but restoring and resetting do not work. Thank you.
I dont know if this question has been answered or not, there are to many entries to go through, but does anyone know how to fix a 5G 30GB IPOD when it is just a white screen.
2007-01-23 Tuesday
This is really important! Do *not* smack your iPod because it’s not necessary to fix the dead iPod/”click of death” problem that so many people on this board have noticed. The problem they’re encountering is probably that the ribbon connector between the hard drive and the logic board has come loose. When you smack your iPod you might get lucky and temporarily nudge the connector into place…or you can get unlucky and mess up a perfectly fine iPod hard drive.
How do I know this? Well, to begin with I read on another site that a technician suggested that disconnecting and reconnecting the iPod’s hard drive cable from both ends resolves dead iPods’ click of death problem. No smacking of the iPod/hard drive/read head necessary!
Why so sure? Well, he mentioned that in his experience traditional PC/Mac hard drives will sometimes have their hard drive connectors come loose and causes problems that are otherwise mysterious. He also realized that the iPod’s 1.8″ hard drive uses a ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) connector . I spoke with a bench technician and he confirmed that ZIF connectors are notorious for coming loose on their own in the small number of laptops that use them (and evidently in iPods as well). At this point I’m wondering how many other clicks of death on PCs and Macs are really just the side effect of loose connections rather than bad blocks or frozen hard drive read heads.
In any case I reseated the cable on both ends as instructed and it revived a “click of death” iPod without doing any smacking of $400 consumer electronics. I researched how to crack open the iPod’s case and how to disconnect the connector. Let me save you some serious Google time and trial and error and outline how to do it.
- get a tool that you can use to pry open the iPod’s case. ifixit.com sells plastic (nylon?) pry levers called spudgers
http://www.ifixit.com/cart/customer/product.php?p=PBF4500
They look nice, but I didn’t want to wait so I went ghetto and got a 1.5″ plastic putty knife ($1 at the local hard ware store) and a screw driver. I used the putty knife to pry open the seam along the side of the iPod then wedged thescrew driver into the crease and gently popped the top free from the tabs. You could just use a screwdriver but my guess is the average person is going to really scratch up their iPod doing that. Beyond using a plastic putty knife to get started, my technique basically came from reading the instructions below:
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPod/iPod-4th-Generation/Hard-Drive-Cable
The above link gives instructions on how to replace an iPod hard drive’s cable. Don’t actually replace the cable, but follow the instructions on how to crack the case and disconnect the hard drive’s cable. Don’t skip the part where he says “Use the tip of your finger or a spudger to carefully flip up the black connector securing the hard drive cable to the logic board.” I noticed that a bunch of people who ignored that step really had problems getting the cable free. After you successfully disconnect the cable reconnect it making sure it’s in there securely on both sides and remembering to put the tape back on top of it and the cable.
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPod/iPod-4th-Generation/Hard-Drive-Cable
Here’s the article where the tech discovered that re-seating the cable fixes the click of death problem.
http://www.macgeekery.com/hacks/hardware/fix_your_dead_ipod_for_free
Good luck.
I cant get my froze ipod nano to work. i smashed it on my mouse pad the corner on my desk and my knee HELP!
Im really worried, I saw someone post this on here just a little while ago, but it got no response.
I had my ipod plugged into my computer to charge the battery. Something happened to my computer and the computer reset itself.
When this happened, the ipod was on lock, and now its stuck on lock, even when you turn lock off. I really need help.
My computer wont even recognise that the ipod is connected to it now.
Please, I really need help…i tried hitting it on my knee, and on the computer desk. Ive toggled the switch and held the menu button but it really wont work.
OMG I have been stressing all night(i leave on the plane in the morning) searching website after website- and lolw and behold a few taps with my tv remote and ahhhhhh! Perfection! I could kiss whoever posted that!
WOW this actually works! my ipod would play certain songs but itunes kept freezing whenever i connected it. i finally got it to restore but it still had problems. it kept coming up with the folder with (!) icon. smacked ipod around a few times and now it works, haha! wish i had known this before i restored and erased all my songs.
thanks man!
i slammed it on my leg a couple times, cleared it right up. I dropped it at the gym too many times and i guess that is what happened, things got out of line or something
HELP! My ipod mini(4 Gb) has frozen. it froze in mid song, and then i did the select and menu button thing. then the ipod went to the apple logo and has been stuck that way all night. ive tried hitting it but it doesnt do anything. HELP!!!!!!!!!!
PS the computer doesnt respond when its plugged in either
Thanks, after about 6 hours of screwing around tryingto get it back a few wacks on a mouse pad and it is being recognized in Itunes again….Incredible…I can’t believe this is a troubleshooting technique ;-)
thats crazy, i thought it was BS but it really worked
thank you #6!!!!
i think i may have hit it a little too hard though, because there’s a slight dent in the back and it makes a really loud whirring sound(but it works!!) and gets warm
Help!!! My 3rd generation Ipod is frozen with the backlight turned on and the song name still showing.
I tried togged hold and off, even tried the menu and circle buttons. Nothing happens.
I too ran into the issue with an ipod mini being “stuck on hold”… the screen displayed the lock icon, regardless of what position the hold switch was in.
I tried everything: draining the batery, restoring the ipod, etc. Nothing worked.
After disassembling the ipod and playing around, I was able to identify the issue: a busted hold switch. I was able to “fix” the issue by soldering together two of the leads on the switch itself. While this permanently destroyed the “hold” functionality, it made a completely unusable (and locked) ipod 98% functioning. Besides, based on how tiny the hold switch is, most likely the only repair option available would be to replace the motherboard.
I don’t recommend anyone start soldering their ipod without at least some knowledge of what they are doing, because you can rally easily mess something up. But, if you think you have the skills to solder 2 leads together, then it’s easy - remove the sound card from the motherboard, unclip the battery (to give yourself some working space), unclip the display, and solder the 2 leads coming off the switch closest to the edge/sides of the ipod. (Be sure to test it before you solder!)
My ipod is frozen on a game and i tryed banging but it won’t work! Computer reads it but i can’t find anything to do. HELP!!!
Great now i’ve noticed that it doesn’t read it.
try this technique only if your ipod can’t respond to the computer and you can’t press anything because it froze. mine froze in the middle of a game and i waited till the batteries ran out. that makes the ipod shut down by itself. Then put it into a charger then wait a few seconds press the middle circle button a few times then wala! ipod unfrozen! (you’ll have to wait for your ipod to charge up again)
i went to update my ipod and when i took it out it had the same song i had been playing before i went to update it. its frozen and nothing will fix it. the light wont go off it wont restart and the hold button does nothing!! help!!!!