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!!! mine locked up in the exact same circumstances and this has saved me the effort of sending it back. Cheers.

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  4. Thanks a million, mate. Worked like a bomb when my new nano locked up while out of town this week 🙂

    Also locked while connecting to USB with hold on…

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  7. Thank you! I am just about to leave on a 6 hour road trip and I was freaking out just now. Now I can hit the road a happy man 🙂

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  10. Thanks for this, was in panic stations there for a while until I saw this… Mine also froze when connecting to USB while hold switch was on! Looks like Apple may need to update the software…

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  13. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!! I just got my wife a Nano for our 3 year anniversary. I’m loading music onto it, plugged it into the USB port for the 2nd time since opening it, and it locked up (Hold switch was OFF, not ON though) Anyway, I have another piece of technology (Treo 600) that frooze up once and caused me 3 days of grief… I panicked with the Nano, but found your post within 30 seconds and VIOLA! – NICE JOB!!

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  14. thanks so very much!!!!!!!! you are truly god. i had to wait for my ipod to run out o batteries before i could use it..ooohhh, and then wait while it recharged!!!!! the pain!!!!!! thanks again

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  17. This fix should be on Apple’s web site ……their reset didn’t work ….I’m glad I went looking to see if other people had the same problem…..Thanks

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