How do I reconnect my iPod?

June 12, 2006 2:38 PM

How do I get my iPod to work again?

So, my iPod (30gb video) got unplugged while in the "Do not disconnect" phase. Now it is stuck in that phase and won't respond to any buttons. After realizing this, I tried plugging it back in, restarting iTunes, etc. Nothing works: iTunes won't detect it.

Is there any way to get this working again, other than letting the battery die? The backlight's not even on, nor can I make it come on, so I'm thinking it's going to take a long time to die.

(Running WinXP, by the way.)

posted by BradNelson to computers & internet (7 comments total)

I'm fairly certain that if you hold down the middle button and the Menu button at the same time for about 10 seconds (I think), it should reboot the device. I know I've had mine not power on at all and that fixes it.
posted by ninjew at 2:39 PM on June 12, 2006

Have you tried resetting the iPod? Hold the menu and center buttons until the screen goes black and the Apple logo comes up.

On preview, what ninjew said.
posted by sbrollins at 2:40 PM on June 12, 2006

On preview, what ninjew and sbrollins said.
posted by k8t at 2:41 PM on June 12, 2006

You might also need to flip the hold switch from off to on and back to off before doing the reset as described above. At least according to the official documentation. I've never noticed the need to do this however.
posted by Fezboy! at 2:48 PM on June 12, 2006

Sweet, that worked. Probably in the manual for the iPod, but I have no idea where that is. Thanks!
posted by BradNelson at 3:00 PM on June 12, 2006

This happened to me recently, too. Unfortunately, the only thing that worked in my case was to let the battery die. The good thing is that in this "Do Not Connect" state, the battery power management is lousy and it runs out of juice fairly quickly.

You may also try connecting the iPod to your computer and then powering off your computer. This has worked for me with other iPod problems, but not the one you described.
posted by galimatias at 3:00 PM on June 12, 2006

galimatias: I noticed this after powering the iPod back up, that the battery had already almost drained while in the "do not disconnect" state. It had only been without power for maybe 30 minutes and it was on an almost-dead battery.
posted by BradNelson at 9:51 PM on June 12, 2006