iPod Eep!

March 20, 2006 4:14 PM

iPod issue for a friend.

My friend writes "So, everything's been great. I've been updating my iPod regularly. All of a sudden, over the weekend, it started acting funny when I was uploading info. Case in point, it was about 3 seconds between "Please wait. Uploading data" and "Upload complete." It didn't upload anything. Then, I put my podcasts into playlists. Then I tried to upload...and it apparently was uploading. A few minutes later, I tried to upload new music again with the above stated message.

"Yesterday I was attempting to use the iPod. The only thing on it is my podcasts in the Playlists. All the music, etc. was gone."

posted by crunchland to technology (7 comments total)

What were you uploading with? Was it a program like PodUtil or Senuti? While I use (and like) Senuti, I've heard of it "eating" music.
posted by rossination at 4:20 PM on March 20, 2006

Is the music on the friend's computer anymore, or deleting from there?
posted by visual mechanic at 4:26 PM on March 20, 2006

If the music was there, the simplest way to just 'start from scratch', would be to run the latest ipod updater utility, and restore the ipod.

It'll format the ipod, then when you start up itunes, it'll allow you name your ipod and will auto copy your songs onto it.
posted by filmgeek at 5:12 PM on March 20, 2006

update: My friend, who is monitoring this post, says "I was just attempting to upload new podcasts and a few new songs. Nothing out of the ordinary (that I know of). I have everything safely on my computer. It's just not moving to the iPod. And I'm using iTunes."
posted by crunchland at 6:26 PM on March 20, 2006

How does the disk space on the iPod look?

Does it look as if the music has actually gone, i.e. if you subtract the size of the files you can see from the total iPod size, do you get the size of the remaining space? Or is there a lot of space "missing"?
posted by AmbroseChapel at 6:52 PM on March 20, 2006

restore the ipod and try using it on another person's computer. that way you can know for sure whether the problem resides with the ipod or has to do with the computer (software, usb or firewire port, etc.). ideally you would use a different cable as well if possible.

it's all about isolating the issue.

also, it wouldn't hurt to see if you're still under warranty if the problem is in fact the ipod (right column, bottom 'About your support coverage'): http://www.apple.com/support
posted by whatitis at 6:35 AM on March 21, 2006

Ultimately, you have to say this is why the iPod is an external device connected to your computer, the "digital hub" where everything is backed up.

Why it happened you may never know. But it's very simple and relatively quick to reformat the iPod, update its software and put all the music back.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 1:43 PM on March 21, 2006