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. hi,

    I bought my ipod a month ago and am very nice to it..

    but it hasn’t been that nice to me; unfortunately..

    last night I got my nano and when I turned it on

    the wheel was inactive, not because my hold button

    was on.. really I checked. And now when I put him on

    the wheel is inactive from the beginning and when I

    hold and de-hold my screen *flicks* off.. :S could

    somebody tell me if there is anything I could do or

    if i’m just a unfortunate girl with a bad, bad black nano

    4gb.. or just a silly girl who is overseeing the problem..

    thanks a buch, please e-mail or responde..

    Like

  3. Hey!!!!!

    A lot of thanks – I googled Nano reset and found this post! You really saved me a lot of time and troubleshooting! I too plugged it in while on Hold.

    Thanks again!

    Like

  4. Hi!

    Thanks for the tip. you saved me! i thought i was going to have to ring my computer whizz kid boyfriend and say that i have broke the present he gave me.

    cheers

    your a star!

    Like

  5. Thanks a ton. Your IPOD NANO LOCKUP or FREEZE solution worked Mine locked up just when plugging it into my USB port.

    I have also noticed my computer will lockup on reboot if my nano is plugged into the usb port. I have not found anything about this so figure its my usb bus.

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  6. Your computer might be locking up on reboot with the nano plugged in if your computer has the capability to boot from a USB device. What it is trying to do is boot off of the iPod nano instead of from your hard drive.

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  7. wow

    i bough my iPod a while ago, and heard some fishy things going on with them, but nothing like this. the ipod hadn’t been off for more then 24 hrs. and i got to charge it. bam, nothing happens. back light still on, and a frozen screen is what i get. draining my battery for a goot 10 minutes(and as you know, with a nano, thats a good chunk of batt. life)i finally went online for search and resQ. this was the first thing that came up, and i managed to see the “hold menu and center button to re-boot. that pretty much saved my ass.

    thanks a ton!

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  11. Thanks. I unplugged it when it said “don’t unplug”… someone had to do it.. lolz. it froze up. did the reset thing and works again fine.

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  17. I was packing up the Nano to go back to the Apple tree. Hubby hates Apple when it has to interface w/PC and I was afraid he was right . . . as usuall 😦 Being my hero is an understatement!! Hero is an understatement! Ditto on the many thanks you have received – and thank you for posting the info. I’ve added you to my “favorites” !!

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  18. Thank you thank you… My Nano froze up on a day when many other PC-related things are going wrong and it nearly made me burst into tears! 🙂 One thing fixed, at least…

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  19. Mine has frozen whilst on pause, the reset does not work – even really slowly, and my PC doesn’t “see” it at all, so I cannot do the full wipe – any other bright ideas folks?

    Like

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