Fixing the iPod Nano Crash
Geeky April 21st, 2006
If you own an iPod nano you’ll know this crash well, if you plug it into a windows PC while it’s in sleep-mode it doesn’t wake up properly and crashes. None of the buttons work and it seems like it’s completely broken, but there is a away to do a hard reset on your ipod, in fact this should work for any newish ipod if it crashes:
- Check that hold switch is in the off position,
- Hold down both the menu and then the middle button (in that order), for about 10 secs, this should reboot the ipod.
- Once it starts up again its works like normal.
This doesn’t delete any of your music or settings either, its a completely safe way of resetting your ipod.
I believe that the newest firmware update (1.1.1) has fixed this bug as well, but its still very useful to know.
Entries
April 21st, 2006 at 12:44 pm
Nice fix, this happened once to me and a few times to my different friends, do you know why it does it? I can’t think why Apple wouldn’t have checked that before selling a few of them!
April 21st, 2006 at 12:52 pm
[...] Moved here: http://geeklimit.com/2006/04/21/fixing-the-ipod-nano-crash/ [...]
April 21st, 2006 at 1:06 pm
Go Here (http://www.command-tab.com/2006/03/30/hidden-ipod-commands/) to see the reset and diagnostic menu commands for all iPod models.
And in response to robert, I’ve never had a crash with my nano and OS X, so I’d imagine it to be a problem with the windows machine. (Or the way XP handles firewire devices.)
Of course it could just be that Apple don’t want people using iPods with PC’s
Caius.
April 21st, 2006 at 1:08 pm
Oh, and just a suggestion to the author(s) that they might want to spell check the posts before publishing them. Nothing makes the site seem less than 100% loved than the authors not caring (or noticing most probably) that a word is misspelled. Theres no excuse in todays world with spell checking built into the systems
April 21st, 2006 at 1:31 pm
Yeah, never with my Mac have I had a crash but when I was on Windows it happened once to me…
April 21st, 2006 at 1:44 pm
“they might want to spell check the posts before publishing them.”
I agree, but our spell checker is down at the moment – we had one, but it was too buggy. I’m looking for an integrated spell check/WYSIWYG editor right now. Misspells, at least here, aren’t a result of not caring, more likely a result of reading technically-rich content, as opposed to literary works. Each seems to suffer from a lack of each other.
Thanks for the suggestion, the problem is being worked on as we speak.
btw: spell-check is hyphenated
(See, we all suffer)
April 22nd, 2006 at 3:07 am
Heck, I tried to download a few songs of an iPod last friday and when I finally succeeded it crashed on me… Had to wait for the battery to run out and recharge it again before I could try again…
I’m now certain, I don’t like iPods…
May 16th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Thank you so much for this!!!!
You have no idea how much i sh*t myself, i thought it was broken for good!!
thank youi
May 28th, 2006 at 7:14 am
Good stuff. thanks.
August 8th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
I tried the “hard-boot” idea but I found that it didn’t work. Any Suggestions?
Bob
August 8th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
Have a look here for the 5-R’s to resetting your iPod.
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/
September 19th, 2006 at 2:32 am
cool fix, thanks!
September 21st, 2006 at 7:41 pm
i tryed 2 put an linux program on my nano a wile bak becaus e my friend said it would work “stupid me” now once its on it never passes the apple screen ive tryed everything am i screwed or what?
September 22nd, 2006 at 4:39 am
i’ve got the brand new ipod nano (blue) and the 1.01 software on it.
iTunes crashed today for no apparent reason, taking my iPod with it. Had to reboot the PC twice and couldn’t disconnect the iPod and it crashed, with the backlight on.
Tried this fix – worked!! Now back up and running! thanks
September 23rd, 2006 at 7:42 am
@leon: ouch. try having making friend fix it themselves. Other than that, you may have ‘bricked’ the ipod…
As a last resort, you could take it to an apple store and say it won’t boot up…and see if they’ll switch it out with you.
@missamoo: great!
September 25th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
this is a nice tip yo.
the link that taoski posted was the real hook-up: http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/
as the link suggests:
1. Toggle the Hold switch on and off. (Slide it to Hold, then turn it off again.)
2. Press and hold the Menu and Select buttons until the Apple logo appears, about 6 to 10 seconds. You may need to repeat this step.
kablammo! resurrection! and i thought she was a goner for sure.
thanks.
September 26th, 2006 at 6:37 pm
thx for ur help Peace
October 27th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
sharp… works for both win/mac
November 3rd, 2006 at 11:24 am
I just had my (two day old) iPod nano crash. The menu/middle button hold rebooted it just fine with no settings or music loss. It is running 1.1.1, so that version doesn’t fix it. The crash happened either while I was unplugging the headphones or plugging it into a tape deck adapter and possibly resuming playback from powered off.
November 21st, 2006 at 12:27 am
Thank you thank you thank you! I was about to give up hope on my brand new nano!!
November 22nd, 2006 at 9:12 am
Thanks a lot. This bug had me gnashing my teeth in frustration. Now I’m a happy camper again.
November 28th, 2006 at 11:13 am
Thanx for the help. Works on both windows and Mac.
December 1st, 2006 at 10:43 am
i have an old i pod nano and when i put it in the charger up comes a sad face it is completely deid
please help
December 7th, 2006 at 4:38 pm
I would also like to add my thanks for this procedure. I plugged my Nano into my car charger this afternoon and it simply hung in the middle of a song. I had no idea how to recover and began to get pretty irritated.
You’ve bailed me out in a big way!
December 13th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
Thank you!!!
My nano simply crashed as I started to play a song in my car… and I’d almost flipped (not to mention an hour of having to listen to the radio instead)!!!
Googled this site and tried the reboot… worked like a charm!!
You’re a rock star!!!
December 19th, 2006 at 5:36 pm
Thank god for this website! I was playing on my brand new ipod today when it crashed for no apparent reason. I was so scared that I had broke it but luckily enough I found this saviour! Thank you so much!!
December 25th, 2006 at 8:03 am
Thanks for the tip. New iPod Nano user … and couldn’t believe it when it crashed! Your reset tip came in useful.
December 25th, 2006 at 11:58 am
wow thanks alot, silly apple.
December 26th, 2006 at 12:50 am
Thanks a lot, worked like a charm.
December 26th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
iloveu.iloveu.iloveu.iloveu.iloveu.iloveu.iloveu.iloveu.iloveu.
without u my life would be over….december 26th and i thought it was dead already thanks for bringing my beloved back to life that fix is amazing!!!!
December 27th, 2006 at 3:34 am
Thanks for that. I’m at work with my nano and the prospect of not having music for the next few hours would have been quite depressing.
I was getting so desperate that i was about to run out to the nearest apple shop for help, but you saved me the journey (and bus fare!)
Cheers
December 27th, 2006 at 4:12 am
Thank you so much, my nano was crashed due to a rather hasty file transfer and unplug of my significant other last night and hasn’t responded since. I only discovered it this morning at the bus stop and it brought a rather large panic – what would I do all day without music!
Thanks again!
December 28th, 2006 at 7:16 am
Thanks, i baught the iPOD few days ago for my daughter and was in (very) bad mood to see it completely crashed. the reset button is not a nice to have… thanks again.
December 29th, 2006 at 9:34 pm
Thanks, recieved an iPod 4 christmas, really frustrated that it just crashed during playback, tried the hard reset and worked perfectly…Thanks again.
December 30th, 2006 at 8:43 pm
Cheers for the info – got here via google, the onestopshop whenever an ipod does something that’s not in the item description.
With my old 20GB ipod, the best way to reset after it crashed was to plug it in – the new one wasn’t having any of this so wanted to check for a better solution.
FYI my ipod nano’s less than a week old and fully updated, so there’s not yet a cure for the whole crashing issue from Apple. Until then i shall put my faith in Google and GeekLimit!
January 6th, 2007 at 8:55 am
Nice 1 mate! d:o)
January 7th, 2007 at 8:46 am
thanku very much my ipod crashed and i couldn’t do any thing about it until i found this website i tried to charge it all night i was going to take it back so thank u very much
January 28th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
fricking great tip man! Thanks alot!
February 8th, 2007 at 1:22 am
Thanks man!
I don’t know why this is not included in the user guide. Seems like Apple didn’t think well about it.
March 4th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
hey, i did this step but there’s only a blank screen came on then nothing happen after that….omg….
March 5th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Make sure it’s plugged in / charged…? I think every one out of a few hundred crashed iPods may have more serious issue as well…
March 6th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Who cares about something happening to ipod. Plugging it into my win xp computer totally crashed/trashed computer: It scrambled BIOS settings. Wouldn’t boot. Destroyed USB, ethernet. Caused reinstall of xp and now all software. Only good fortune is Circuit City took the killer ipod back.
I guess Apple figured out how to beat Windows machines.
April 16th, 2007 at 12:07 am
Thanks for such great tweak, got me out of the trouble.
April 27th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
THANKS !!!!
MADE MY DAY!!!!
May 15th, 2007 at 4:35 am
Thank you! My 3-week Nano had crashed majorly and I was ready to take back it to the shop to have it replaced when I googled the problem as a last resort. The tip didn’t work straightaway, I then tried holding first the Menu Button for 10 and then the centre button for 10 and it finally worked. I guess deep down none of this is exact science….is it?
Thanks again for saving me a lot of hassle.
May 29th, 2007 at 7:44 am
works great, you legend *kudos*
May 31st, 2007 at 3:37 pm
s0o anyone find out how 2 un”brick” an ipod nano yet? or am i still screwed? lol
June 25th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
i have ipod nano in gym yesterday and the lock froze on me and could not undo it so i just left battery run out now trying to work it and it dead nothingt at allo itunes does not even see it when i connect please help
June 28th, 2007 at 11:26 am
wow… just when i thought all hope was gone!!!
July 4th, 2007 at 1:18 am
Thanks!
July 19th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
I too would like to thank the proprietors of the site, as my nano froze as it was loading a song.
July 19th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
my ipod wont download songs at all its a old nano HELP
July 22nd, 2007 at 4:37 am
Thank you so much for this! it worked a treat, read the instructions and then when I did what you mentioned and re-boot the I-pod, the thought of “has it deleted all my songs?!!!” then I read on to the end of the post….. Thank you, very much appreciated.
Quinton.
August 3rd, 2007 at 5:24 am
Thanks for posting this!
August 4th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
THANKYOU SO MUCH!
I was listening to mine and flicking through songs and it crashed. I’m just glad it works again now!
October 5th, 2007 at 5:44 am
Great tip. My ipod nano (4GB)crashed while browsing the songs,the trick made it in sleep mode (afterwards the reboot button worked)
October 8th, 2007 at 2:54 am
Great tip,
saved my video’s I was watching
October 10th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Thanks so much. works like a charm!
October 20th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Thanks a lot!
I was about to stress out so bad until I found this!
May all your future iPods never crash again =)
Cheers
October 31st, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Free Software Downloads…
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…
November 11th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
My iPod nano 2 GB constantly crashes when I try to put my songlist on it. I’ve gone to the Apple store and exchanged it three times now and the problem is the same on EVERY iPod they give me. I also do the disk mode/reset thing and that doesn’t prevent the same problem from happening again.
It’s not a virus condition on my computer or anything since I run a security suite and recently completely reformatted my hard drive.
Any advice on a solution?
November 12th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Well, the IT support person within me says that if the fault has occurred on 3 different iPods and even after you have reformatted your PC – then it either has to be a corrupt MP3 file or a dodgy playlist.
Add one track at a time and see which one breaks it!
November 20th, 2007 at 9:08 am
thank you so much this saved me from charging up to curry’s!
December 21st, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Excellent, you made my day
December 26th, 2007 at 10:24 am
You are THE best!!! I love you!! Everything is still there!! Thx!
January 16th, 2008 at 4:49 am
Fanx!
July 13th, 2008 at 8:06 am
yes this works, brilliant, thank you so much!
July 14th, 2008 at 6:49 am
Thanks TONS for the post! Didn’t have a clue how I was going to remove the battery so you just saved my iPod
!
July 27th, 2008 at 6:05 am
Thank You VERY much. I ‘liberated’ my nano from work for the weekend and now i can replace it without anyone knowing.
July 30th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Thanks It Works Naw Woop
August 2nd, 2008 at 3:41 am
Thanks so much…what a great tip! Thank you for sharing your knowledge, it’s common problem with the nano.
August 15th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
TOP TIP! thanx
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:05 am
oh thanks so much i was about go on a trip with no music
5*
August 28th, 2008 at 11:19 am
omg i was panicking!!!
thanks so much!
September 7th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
thank you – i looove the internet!!!
September 8th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Wow, I never knew it had a reboot option…thank you so much. Cheers.
September 22nd, 2008 at 2:07 pm
ur a genius it saved me from an ass kickin from my dad
October 2nd, 2008 at 11:13 am
my ipod has crashed and says that its on hold when it isnt what should i do
October 6th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Nice one mate i panicked for a bit i thort even this might not work but when it rebooted put a smile on my face
October 9th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
cheers mate. it does work
October 27th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Thanks, it also works on the new Nano Chromatic
November 3rd, 2008 at 7:46 pm
OMG I did it just now and it works perfectly now. I’m such a happy camper now. I didn’t do the menu and the middle button seperately though, I did it at the same time. But hey, what works, works
GOD BLESS THE PERSON WHO GOT THE IDEA!!! <3
November 5th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Thanks
:)
Was gonna cry till i found this
:)
November 13th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
This bugish behaviour is also found i version 1.1.3 (nano 3rd gen). The fix works like a charm. Thx.
November 17th, 2008 at 1:06 am
thankyou thankyou thankyou what a great trick , bless u
November 17th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Lovely…. you guys are the best
November 18th, 2008 at 3:00 am
thankyou for the tip. i was on a 6hr drive and my ipod 08 edition totally crashed for last 2hrs of drive. i was really freaking out. i followed your instructions and it worked like a charm.
November 20th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Brilliant! Thank you…My I pod Nana was gone completky but thanks to your advice it is sorted!
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Had this problem today using a windows pc. The fix worked :]
Think it just shows Apple are no better than Windows, they wouldnt make it act wierd with windows because a large amount of people use windows and wouldnt buy ipods other wise. Dont believe the apple lies people! Linux is the only way forwards!
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:26 pm
i cant believe that actually worked! thats so great
i never knew what to do when mine crashed, so i’d just leave it until the battery wore down and i had to recharge it again. thanks so much :]
December 16th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
my ipod crashed or whatever, and it didn’t turn on. then i plugged it into the computer so it could charge, then like two days later after charging, it turned on. thennn i listened to it till it was out of battery so i decied to plug it back in to charge and i charged it for like a week, and now it wont turn on. i tried resetting it by holding down the menu and select button, but it still wont turn on. anyhelp ?
December 26th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Jennie – having the same problem. Received it for Christmas last year. First problem I really had with it was today. While playing a game, the screen went blank. Won’t restart. The screen is dead. It is out of warranty (checked Apples website) but Apple will fix it for $144.40.
January 11th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Very nice! Thanks!
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Thanks for that!
February 5th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Wow thanks alot you dont know how much this helped
February 11th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Thanks so much. My dd’s 2-week-old Nano 4g crashed when I plugged into the Mac (OSX), and I couldn’t figure out how to reset it. All fixed now – and I know what to do for next time!
February 15th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Had my 8gb on pause while cabled to pc. Went back to play…nothing! Panic. Used the menu and centre button method. Worked a treat. Many thanks to the brains behind this solution!
March 22nd, 2009 at 7:32 am
Nice one, thanks alot. Works great.
March 25th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Worked and resolved the issue, many thanks my ipod lives !, and I was going to spend a whole lot of money on getting it repaired.
April 8th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
dude u r a ledgepants!!! i was about 2cry!!!! whoop whoop!
April 17th, 2009 at 7:49 am
thankyooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooou! was about to burst into girlie tears that my ipod (only purchased y’day) was broken forever as my mate told me to ‘bin it as it’s f**ked’ YAY!!!!! thankyooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuu!
May 8th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Wow. This is the way to go!
June 13th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I freaken luv you!!! (In a brotherly way)
June 15th, 2009 at 11:06 am
thankyou so much this fixed my mums ipod after my brother sat on it and it froze :/
June 20th, 2009 at 9:55 am
thanks alot i almost died wen myn went off 2 mins ago
June 30th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Thanks this really helped i had to keep it on overnight for the battery to run out.
July 6th, 2009 at 6:07 am
Thanks loads, it took me 3 seconds to find you after I googled Ipod nano crash and exactly 10 seconds to fix my problem. Thank you very much xx
July 13th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
thanks heaps, my ipods rather old and i definately thought it had passed its expiry date when it wouldnt turn on! thanks for saving me from buying a new one!!
July 20th, 2009 at 9:43 am
thanx so much this really helped me out
July 25th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Thanks I was freaking out but this really saved me. I would have had to listen to my parents music in the car
August 12th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
thanks soo much i did what it said and it did start over, i was looking online to find out who to send the ipod to at apple and it really did not have anyone apple sucks
September 3rd, 2009 at 7:00 am
Thought my ipod was done for, worked like a charm cheers!!
October 8th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
cheers mate, i forgot it, i kept pressing middle button and the play/pause button
December 16th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
cheers m8 worked for me so ur blog is very good well done!
December 17th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Hey, Wow thanks so much this happend to me i really started to think it was broke. would of got me in big trouble. your so amazing x
January 9th, 2010 at 11:08 pm
Thanks that was a good article!
January 11th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Thx mate. i literally only brought it two days ago and i was worried it was broken
January 20th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Thanks
March 2nd, 2010 at 8:04 am
Im I the only one who finds this article truly intresting. The fact of the matter is poeple have so many difrent outlooks on the subject it kind of hard to tell who is right or wrong.
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