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. god damn thank you so much i did the exact same thing, plugged it in with hold on. at least now i know how to fix it.

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  2. You are a star!! This has just happened to mine! I bow to those who realised how to fix!! You have saved me a few stressful minutes!

    I tried to plug in USB an froze. Thanks!

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  3. dude thank you so so so much this shit has been happenin to my nano for a while n normarlly id wait till the battery ran out cheers dude

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  4. OMG thanks dude! soo freaking helpful. My iPod freeze and i start throwing it, almost break it then i found this site. AWESOME dude

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  5. I thought i broke mine. . . it wouldnt turn on at all. i did this even though it was off and it worked. . . i thought i was gonna have to spend 200 bucks on a new one! THANKS

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  6. THANK YOU i though my sister broke it but i saw this and tried it 3 times then it eventually worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it is swwwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeetttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

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  10. Thank you so much for giving this information! My iPod nano froze up on this funky thing and I didn’t know what happened! I thought I broke it! But thank you so much for this info! Keep it coming!

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  11. thank you but i have another problem with my old ipod nano. for some strange reason i turned it on and then the screen went blank but i could still use the wheel because i could here the noise. ive sent it back to apple and they said i have dropped it which is fucking joke because i havent and they wont replace it. so please please if you have any information on how to fix my belovid ipod nano please email me….

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  12. my ipod was working perfectly fine, then i plugged it into the computer to get more songs on, left it in for a little to charge, and now it wont shut off. whenever i hold down the play button for it to shut off, the lights go out, but once i take my finger off the button, the lights go back on again. i reset my ipod but its still not working.. any ideas?

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  17. my ipod is not being detected by the pc and the software iTunes what should i do please help i have the ipod nano

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  19. omg thankyou so much, i was so worried when my ipod froze i was like ‘what can i do i dont want to tell my mum because she will kill me!!’ so i searched on google…thankyou 😀

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