Empty iPod, unable to snyc

Question

i've had my iPod for 7 months, a few weeks ago i updated it, only to find that there was no music on it at all. i then tried to update it again, with the same to happen again. i then went on to the apple help site, which told me to manually sncy my iPod, again nothing, still no music. so i went back to the apple help site and followed the RRRR method. yet again nothing, including updating to the latest iTunes libary. the message i always get when trying to sncy my iPod is;
"Songs on the iPod "***** iPod" cannot be synced because all of the playlists selected for syncing no longer exist"
it was not till after all of this that i was told my nosey comeputer safety freak of a next door neighbour had deleted a lot of things off of the computer. i think that this involved some things to do with my iPod, what can i do to get it working again?
please help A.S.A.P, i'm lost without my iPod!
iPod nano   Windows XP  

Answer 1

Hi 2-56,
It sounds like, before the problems occured, you were automatically syncing your iPod with at least a couple of playlists, possibly all of the playlists, in iTunes.
You are getting that message in iTunes when you now connect your iPod, because a playlist that your iPod used to be selected to sync with somehow got deleted.
As long as all of your music was backed up on your computer, this message is relatively easy to fix. While there could be a couple of different ways in solving this issue, I'm going to go ahead and pick one, which may not be the easiest way, but hopefully should work just as well.
Create a new playlist in iTunes (File > New Playlist). Name it whatever you want, but don't bother loading anything into that playlist, for now.
1 - Connect your iPod to your computer, and launch iTunes, if it isn't opened already.
2 - Click on your iPod's name in the Source List of iTunes (the left panel in iTunes).
3 - Go to the "Music" tab, and make sure that the "Sync" option is check-marked, with the "Sync Selected Playlists" setting selected, instead of "All songs and playlists".
4 - Now, deselect all playlists, except this new, empty playlist that you just created.
5 - Click the "Apply" button in the bottom-right corner of your iTunes screen, to save your changes.
Now, hopefully, your iPod will sync up again with iTunes, with nothing on the iPod.
From here, you can go back to the "Music" tab, and select the "Sync All songs and playlists" option. Again, click "Apply" to save your changes.
Again, your iPod should sync up with iTunes, and, hopefully, without any error messages or problems.
You can always create a new playlist(s), and go to the Music tab under your iPod's preferences, if you want to change what is selected to sync to your iPod.
-Kylene