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”

  3. I COULD NOT get my ipod working it was totaly frozen then i found this………..treid it it didnt work…….tried again iit worked i was soooo happy i screamed!!!

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  4. Great advice! Mines froze this morning and I was considering throwing it up against a wall…lol. Thank goodness I found your site…worked instantly! Thx!

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  5. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

    Seriously, I am so grateful. My nano is fairly knew and I was really worried I’d have to tell my parent’s, guess what I broke my ipod after only a month. This worked right off and I am really relieved.

    THANK YOU!

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  8. THANKS! Ur awesome – i was like freaking out majorly! I’m def telling everyone about ur site now lol. Cheers

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  9. THANKS A TON!

    I was trying to un-freeze my i-pod the whole day, looked at many websites and forums but got no clue. Your advice worked instantly and i was sooooo happy. THANKS!

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  10. Thanks very much! My IPod Nano got stuck in “fast forward” state, that is to say, it wasn’t fast-forwarding, it just stated that it was. Anyways, I follow your instructions and it worked. Thanks again

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  11. Thank you. My nano wouldn’t display anything in the “Now Playing” window – it was blank. This worked flawlessly and kept all my files on my iPod as well.

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  13. Yeah..it’s definitely not working for me. All these sites give the same solution, and no luck yet. I suppose my problem’s a bit different? In any case, it’s annoying the hell outta me.

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  14. Thank You, Thank You, I had the check mark on my ipod all day and couldn’t figure out how to get it to work. I did what you said and it finally works fine…thanks again…jmdd

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  16. My ipod nano has a padlock on the top left hand side of my screen and the padlock wont turn off , even if i toggle the hold switch it doesnt work . When i connect it to the computer it says the normal please do not disconnect but the padlock is still there and it wont let me pick a song , look at my pictures or have any activity with my ipod !! it also doesnt turn on ! we have tried a lot of solutions and none have worked !! PLEASE HELP !! if there is no answer to this problem can i have a phone number or address to send it to !!

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  17. man my ipod mini messed up it will not play it just shoes an little ipod with a sad face what to do people

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  18. worked like a charm. Hold the menu and center button. I don’t know why apple doesn’t more readily show this fix on their website or fix the error in their software update.

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  20. OK I had my ipod nano and it was workin fine then when I tried to delete some songs from the itunes all my songs were gone from my ipod there was nothing on there so the next day I went and got a new one and I did everything I did before except set up a account because I thought since you already had one why do you have to make a new one so I plugged in my ipod and it still didn’t work so I set up a new account and plugged it in and it still didn’t work now I don’t know what to do. Should I just go buy a new one and try over again or find some way to fix it and quick!

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