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. OMG! Thanks so much, im at school right now and i was freaking out about what the f*** my nano was doing! i thought it was broken!!

    thanks again!!!

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  3. genius, brilliant, awsome….thanks a lot, started to freak out there but ill remember this from now on, cheers again matey!!

    Like

  5. hello i have tryed doing that to my ipod nano but it wont work. it is locked and i have tryed reseting it but it wont unlock..any help plz

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  6. Thanks … I was so scared i did something…. But My mom just googled and VOILA … THANKS SO MUCH…..

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  7. Thanks so much!!! Mine locked up today and I too was like OMG WTF did I do to my nano thats been pretty much pampered from purchase. Awesome !

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  8. Thanks so much! This is the first time my Nano has done this. Thanks to your wonderful advice, you’ve solved the problem! Thank you again!!!!

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  9. This is the 2nd time my nano froze and my ipod helper wouldnt come up and i couldnt remember how to fix it! so i asked jeeves and found this! thanx so much i love my ipod no one is allowed to touch it practically so THANX!!!

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  10. I echo the thanks you’ve received! I only got my nano a month ago, and figured it was a lemon. I’ll keep it for now, but I wonder if the fact that it locked up (And it resets when I hit Menu all the time) means I should exchange it anyway? Regardless, thanks for getting my nano working!!!

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  11. Thankyou soooooooooo much. I did not know what to do. I was so scared that my ipod was broken. then i found this and it changed my life forever. you will be in my prayers. amen. i love you!!]

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  12. Thankenyou soo muchly!! How on earth did you find that out though!! Will the problem still persist? Thanks anyways….*so happy*

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  17. Hey, thanks. I don’t have an iPod, but my friend IMed my and said his Nano had locked up. So I googled “ipod nano lock up” and found this. And it worked! Thanks!

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  19. I currenly have a 20 Gb ipod and I use it in my computer at home. I was given a ipod nano as a gift and I put some songs in my computer at work. When I got home I wated to add more music so i shared the itunes and added more, next week I wanted to add more music and the itunes said it didn’t reconize the ipod and eraise all my music, since then I have not been able to add any music to ipod nano… Please help I dodn’t know how to fix it..

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  20. my ipod nano is locked up!

    I have toggled the on/hold button, I have every button on this thing, and nothing has worked.

    Right now the screen displays the following info

    -hd info

    -model number:

    we-m-c45k-19d05lt5sska

    etc,etc

    pls help

    firmwar erev:

    Like

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