This iPod is broken

March 25, 2008 1:52 PM

My iPod done broke. It's a Nano I bought last year. The screen is frozen, and when I randomly mashed the buttons it began playing all songs in order. I'd like the screen to unfreeze so I can navigate again.

I can change the volume and forward to the next song or reverse to the last one, but that's it. The screen is also permanently on, so I assume it'll eventually run out of charge and that will boot it back to reality. But, for faster solutions--anyone had a similar problem and fixed it?

posted by pipti to technology (8 comments total)

Have you tried resetting it?

1. Toggle the Hold switch on and off. (Slide it to Hold, then turn it off again.)
2. Press and hold the Menu and Center (Select) buttons simultaneously until the Apple logo appears, about 6 to 8 seconds. You may need to repeat this step.
posted by roomwithaview at 1:54 PM on March 25, 2008

Holding Menu (up) and Select (center) for ~5 seconds will cause the Nano (or any iPod) to reboot.

Good luck!
posted by Xoder at 1:54 PM on March 25, 2008

Worked! Thank you!
posted by pipti at 1:58 PM on March 25, 2008

Remember this tip because you'll need to do it every couple months, in my experience.

I had mine about two days before it needed restarting. Took me about 20 minutes searching for this answer. I guess Apple buries it a little so as not to make their stuff seem trouble prone.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 2:26 PM on March 25, 2008

You can also reformat to factory default state from iTunes. Should fix anything short of hardware failure, but will nuke any music on the device.
posted by sophist at 2:33 PM on March 25, 2008

jeff-o-matic, Apple's "How to Reset iPod" page isn't exactly buried; it's the first hit on Google for "iPod Reset" and the same document appears in the iPod Help (in iTunes) for the same search.
posted by bcwinters at 3:10 PM on March 25, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

One note about the new Nanos: be sure when you plug it in to sync, that the hold button is off. In my experience, and confirmed by what I have read around the web, syncing while in hold mode increases your chances of a freeze.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 7:57 PM on March 25, 2008

I have the same problem with my Nano pretty regularly and usually am able to solve it by plugging the thing into my computer, fwiw.
posted by lxs at 7:18 PM on March 26, 2008