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. just hold the on or off butten 20 sec then do again for another 20 sec

    hold menu butten with the midle buten 4 20 sec

    there u go

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  7. Thank you kindly! This is the 2nd freezeup it’s done, and Itunes won’t work then. First time I had to wait for the battery to die. This time your suggestions worked great. Many thanks 🙂

    – Kc

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  9. Thank you so much for the advice! I was freaking out for the last hour, and just did a search. Now I know what to do if this happens again.

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  11. I bought an apple ipod 80GB 5th generation in November 2006.

    I cannot switch it on, the screen is black, when I connect it to my computer it does not recognise. The toggle switch is not on hold.

    I assume the battery is full since I put it on charge thru an external logitech mm50 speaker cum charger can you help?

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  12. thank you sooooo much!

    at first i just thought it was locked while it was on until my password wouldnt work and i couldnt figure out for the life of me what was wrong. without you i probably would have pulled my hair out!

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  13. Bought my girlie a new nano, it locked up. Thanks to you it works again. Very helpful indeed. Keep up the good work.

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  14. You rock!!! You’re help saved me from chucking all technology from my home : ). Between our XBox melting down (twice) and my mac crashing then my nano locking up, I was beginning to wonder if the tech gods were out to get me : ). Thanks again!

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