iPod nano Lockup Reset When Frozen

Nick Momrik765 Comments

My iPod nano locked up and I had no idea what to do. Holding down buttons wouldn’t turn it off. Toggling the hold switch didn’t do anything either. It was in a stuck state where hold was turned on and none of the buttons would respond.

If you own an iPod with the Click Wheel (iPod with video, nano, iPod photo, iPod, or mini) follow these steps to reset the iPod:

  1. Toggle hold switch on.
  2. Toggle hold switch off.
  3. Hold down the menu and middle button for a few seconds.
  4. You might need to repeat.

Both times my iPod nano has frozen up I was plugging the ipod into the USB cable while the the hold switch was toggled on. Make sure to hold switch is togged off when connecting your iPod with the USB cable.

To reset some of the earlier iPods including like the iPod, iPod (scroll wheel), iPod (touch wheel), and iPod (dock connector), follow these steps:

  1. Toggle hold on.
  2. Toggle hold off.
  3. Press and hold the Play/Pause and Menu buttons until the Apple/iPod logo appears, about 6 to 10 seconds.
  4. You might need to repeat.

To reset an iPod shuffle:

  1. Move the switch on the back of iPod shuffle to the off position (green stripe not visible).
  2. Wait 5 seconds.
  3. Move the switch on the back to the play in order or the shuffle position (green stripe visible).

Still having problems?

  1. Connect to a different USB or FireWire port on the computer.
  2. Install the latest Operating System upgrades.
  3. Restart the computer.
  4. Reinstall the iPod with iPod Updater
  5. Reinstall iTunes
  6. Restore your iPod using the latest iPod Updater.

    *Restoring an iPod will erase all songs and files from the iPod, restoring it to the original state. Backup all files from the iPod before restoring it. Once restoration is complete, you can transfer your music and files from the computer back to your iPod again.

iPod displays sad iPod icon

In most cases, the sad iPod icon indicates a hardware issue. If you are able to force iPod into Disk Mode, then it may not be a hardware issue, and you should try to restore your iPod with the latest software.

765 thoughts on “iPod nano Lockup Reset When Frozen”

  1. My new nano doesn`t work!! I tried to load some tunes and all seemed to be going well… It`s right out of the box! At first it was stuck in disk mode so I tried to reset it. I kind of worked, but now it`s stuck again and a reset seems impossible!! The apple just keeps flashing. It`s like the startup is looping. help me… please, please, please!!

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  2. Thank you! I just completely freaked out when it stopped working as the screen broke on my first nano and I am using the replacement, but now it works again. Thanks for saving me from a heart attack xx

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  3. Ditto the thx. The damn thing locked up after 10 minutes of use while I was pushing the FF button to skip tracks during playback. Good job PortalPlayer!!

    Apple gets credit for the marketing, but Apple engineering has pretty close to nothing to do with the iPod internals.

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  4. Oh my goodness, you save me!!! Thank you for this very, very helpful guide. It works! My ipod Nano suddenly froze for no apparent reason. When I plugged it into my computer, it didn’t even detect the Nano. The screen was on, however when I tried to turn it on/off, it would not respond.

    This is a very helpful tip you’ve got here. I went to the actual Apple Ipod website, which is garbage! It didn’t even have this kind of useful information.

    It worked for me, for others who might have encoutered this problem, I hope it also works for you.

    Thanks, one really relieved Nano user. =)

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  6. wow that worked cheers for that.Was so worried id have to go into comet or summit.SO big thx an all an big thumbs up

    pat

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  7. Thank you for the info, i found it as the first link when i typed “ipod nano reset” into google.

    cheers.

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  12. thank you so much i almost freaked out for a secound there cause i just bought it and i was like dam man

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  17. Thanks. My lock-up was a little weird, only the screen locked the music worked fine. Thanks again for the quick fix.

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  18. well i tried everything. everything is frozen. i press down on the buttons, etc. it’s just sitting there. what happens if i just leave it there? will something bad happen? i just got this today and something bad happen. it’s been a few hours and still no change at all.

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