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. Oh, I’m hugging you through the screen! Shuffled around in Apple’s iPod site with no luck…then googled the problem. And wahlah! You rock, dude!

    Like

  2. Thank you very much the instructions are flawed it does tell the user to also hold down the menu button. your method worked to bad i did not find it 2 hours ago.

    Like

  6. Thank you thank you thank you!!!

    After reading through three Blogs of people complaining about their ipods in an attempt to find just such a page as yours, I started to hyperventilate!

    Thank you so much. Let’s hope that little trick ALWAYS works!

    Johnna

    Like

  9. dude… i cant believe that worked. i almost called apple and would have gotten charged a shit load. thats why thier support section on thier site sucks so bad, so ppl have to call and get charged, bastards

    Like

  11. I got a new nano (my second one) and it froze up on me again..

    I’m beginning to think that my dad, who has not been converted to the apple-faith, is right.. But! I’ve tried the hold-on, hold-off and than middle button and Menu, which didn’t work on my first Nano and now it did!

    Thank you guys so much!

    Like

  15. Mine wasn’t totally freezing, but wouldn’t allow me to turn it off. This fixed that problem too. Thanks!

    Like

  16. thanks =) i almost broke my nano because nothing worked. it wouldn’t shut off for like 2 days. what a lifesaver. heh

    Like

  18. mines didnt freeze it just wouldnt turn on….i did this lil thing here, and im back to listenin to music……now i know the trick for next time

    Like

Comments are closed.