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. Thanks a lot, this worked for me.

    (in my case, it appeared that the unit wasn’t reading the actual files – it only shows the entries as based on the DB. it just kept on cycling through all the songs without showing the album arts – that was the giveaway)

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  5. Hey man thanks alot my IPOD NANO was not recognize by my computer, it was appearing IPOD as malfunction device.

    But thanks alot to this link which helped me bringing it back to normal….

    You Rock Man 🙂

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  9. thank you, i broke my screen on my nano so i cant see shit and somtimes i cant turn it on and when i plugged it into teh computer it didnt turn the light on so i knew it wasnt turning on and then i had the ipod under my foot and i was about to jump on it and then i clicked this link and i tryed it and it worked

    thank you

    B-niggly

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  10. I love people like you posting helpful stuff on the ‘net. My nano lives to see another day…

    Thanks!

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  11. Thanks for the tip – mine froze whilst hold was on and plugging into the USB – Greatly Appreciated

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  14. wow i was so scared when i couldnt do anything to fix it! but then i tried this… and wow ! thank u sooo much!

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  15. My froze up while playing — just had the headset on and the device on hold — wasn’t plugged into the usb. But, the fix worked. Thanks so much!

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  17. Thank you! the apple site just says to hold down the menu bottom, not the middle, and it would not restart. Once I held both i was in the clear.

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  18. Thanks for the tip, nano features guide only had to toggle the reset button on and off and hold down the center button for 6 seconds but not as you suggested to hold down the center button and the menu button. This cleared up my nano.

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  19. no that didnt work- im am sick of ipod nanos, n mine is only new and it just froze wen i plugged it in- it wont even turn off

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  20. omg actually that did work- thanks sooooo much ,i wish the ipod support website was this helpful, but they r not

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