Erase Your iPod - The Super Fix for Most iPod Problems

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Erase Your iPod
The Super Fix for Most iPod Problems

Date Created: 05/12/2002

Last Updated: 06/15/2008

Authors: Staff

Is your iPod acting funny? There are a number of things that can be wrong with it, but this super fix solution will cure most problems. In order for this trick to work, your battery must be functioning normally. See our battery support questions for more information with those issues.

What we are going to do is ERASE your iPod and then re-install the iPod's software. If your iPod has a software problem, this will probably fix it:

WARNING: YOU WILL LOSE ALL MUSIC, CONTACTS AND EVENTS ON YOUR iPOD. IF POSSIBLE, YOU MAY WANT TO BACKUP THESE FILES.

1. To erase your iPod, do the following:

ERASE YOUR iPOD (MAC OSX)

If you have OSX, you can use Disk Utility (Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities). If you have a PC running Microsoft Windows, click here for more instructions or read the next paragraph.

Select your iPod in the Disk Utility window and press the Repair button

Then press the Erase button to erase the iPod's hard drive. Extended Journaled should answer your next question.

ERASE YOUR iPOD (WINDOWS XP)

Open "My Computer" on your Desktop

Select "IPOD". It should be listed next to your C drive.

Right click and chose "Format"

Select "FAT 32" and <Format>

Reboot Computer

ERASE YOUR iPOD (WINDOWS VISTA)

If these Vista instructions are wrong, please let us know. Vista was such a piece of crap we banned it from the office.

Right-click on My Computer

Select properties

Go to to hardware, then click on device manager.

Your iPod should be listed as a USB controller

Flip open the device and you will have access to the drivers.

2. After you erase your iPod, you need to run the Restore function before your iPod will work properly. To Restore your iPod, do the following:

Connect the iPod to your computer using the FireWire/USB cable that came with it.

Open iTunes. Make sure you are using the newest version of iTunes. You can download iTunes updates from http://www.itunes.com

iTunes may sense that the iPod is connected and prompt you to install any necessary software. If not, select your iPod from the Source column on the left side of your iTunes window. There will be several tabs along the top of the screen such as: Summary, Music, Photo, Contacts, etc. You should select the Summary tab.

Click Restore.

You may need to type in an Admin user's name and password. An alert box will ask you to confirm the restore process. Say yes.

When the factory settings have been restored, unplug the FireWire/USB cable from iPod.

When prompted by the iPod, reconnect the FireWire/USB cable. After the iPod has updated itself and restarted, you should see the message "Do not disconnect" flashing on the screen.

You may be prompted by iTunes to type in a name for your iPod. Feel free to get creative.

The "Automatically update my iPod" option is selected by default. Deselect this option if you wish and click Done. The iTunes main window appears, and the download status is displayed in the iTunes display.

Wait until the iTunes display says the update is complete.

Quit iTunes.

Disconnect the FireWire/USB cable from iPod. After a few moments, the Language display appears on the iPod screen.

Select a language. If you screw up this step click here. One time I accidentally selected Chinese for the language. That sucked.

If the iPod does not turn on at all, disconnect it from power and let it sit unconnected for approximately 24 hours. Then repeat this procedure.

If your iPod is still unresponsive, throw it away. Just kidding. If it is still under warranty, go to the AppleCare iPod Support Page to arrange for service http://depot.info.apple.com/iPod/. If your iPod is out of warranty, then use our VIP Repair Service to get it fixed.

Do these situations or problems sound familiar?

NEW iPOD WITH EXCLAIMATION MARK FOLDER

"Hi - this is a question about that folder with the exclamation mark. In short - 3 month-old, 40g iPhoto: about two weeks ago it froze, and just had a charging battery sign on it. I reset it, and it just showed the Apple logo, and then after several more attempts at resetting it or trying to put it into diagnostic mode (it wouldn't go), it showed the folder with the exclamation mark. If I plug it into my computer it doesn't recognize the ipod at all - not in itunes, not as a disk, and if I go to the updater it just asks me to plug in an ipod in order to update it. Whilst all this is going on, it shows the 'do not disconnect' sign - but not the large red-colored stop sign I am used to on the iphoto: instead it has an earlier-black and white version that looks like something off a c.1990 Apple Mac. It never stops telling me not to disconnect, so in order to recharge the thing I have just had to unplug it. NB I have installed new versions of iTunes (still doesn't recognize it at all). Any ideas?" ~tom

"I would like to thank you and give you mad props for this page: Erase Your iPod. It showed me how to fix my video ipod (5th Gen) by formatting it. The error 1418 help on apple tech support and other websites just wasted more than 4 hours of my time. Your method worked right away. Your site did not immediately come up based on my search criteria or wording. In short you can also advertise this fix for the error 1418 and ipod's with missing files and would not sync. I truly want to say thanks from the bottom of my heart." ~sfcericbdaniels

Congratulations, you did everything right when trying to troubleshoot this problem. One last thing, try hooking your iPod up to another computer. If you see the same problem, then you know the issue is definitely with your iPod and not your computer. If you are able to get a stable connection with a computer, then erase your iPod. Otherwise, it looks like you have a bad hard drive. It might have gotten dropped. Since this iPod is only 3 months old, it is still under warranty and you should have Apple repair it. You can find more info from http://depot.info.apple.com/iPod/. For future reference, If your iPod is out of warranty, then use our VIP Repair Service to get it fixed.

"The iPod erase super fix worked BRILLIANTLY!! A recent software update fritzed my husband's Classic 30 GB and it was stuck in eternal recovery mode. I tried everything Apple suggested and everything anyone suggested in the message boards. I even tried repairing the disk via the disk utility, but nothing worked. I finally googled "disk utility erase iPOD" just to see what it would do if I hit erase and came up with your page. It was quick and easy and the iPod is working perfectly! My only suggestion is to put more key words on the page so other people having this problem who don't know about disk utility can find it more easily." ~ cheekymonkey516

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