ITunes won't update the songs on my iPod

I have a 20G iPod, purchased in Nov. 2004. For the last several months, the iTunes software has been slow to recognize the iPod and start automatically updating songs (it often took several minutes), but until recently it eventually recognized the iPod and went ahead with the update. Around October, the iPod started to freeze frequently when connected to iTunes, but I was able to solve the problem by resetting it. After resetting, the songs on the iPod would update successfully.
But when I tried to update the iPod after letting it sit unused from mid-December to mid-January, the real trouble started. I tried to do an automatic update and the iPod froze. I reset it and tried again, but the same thing happened. I downloaded the latest version of iTunes and updated the iPod software, but the problem didn't go away. So, I restored the iPod.
At first, this seemed to make things worse. The iPod wasn't recognized by Windows. I solved this problem, but I don't remember exactly how...I managed to get Windows to recognize the iPod somehow, then had to follow the instructions in the Apple website's article entitled "iPod appears in Windows Explorer but does not appear in iTunes" in order to get iTunes to recognize the iPod.
I thought this had solved the problem -- the iPod connected to iTunes and appeared to be updating normally. But when it said that it was finished updating, only a couple of Podcasts had been transferred to the iPod. None of my songs were there, and most of of the Podcasts weren't either. I tried updating again and noticed that although it said it was updating, the songs just went from being qued (with the little grey round waiting-to-be-transferred symbol to the left of the song title) straight to supposedly being on the iPod. None of the songs ever had the little orange round in-the-process-of-transferring symbol next to them.
I tried clearing all of the songs in iTunes and then adding them into the library again, but that didn't do anything. I don't know what else to try. I'm very, very frustrated at this point. Does anyone else have some experience with a problem like this?
IBM ThinkPad Windows XP
IBM ThinkPad Windows XP

Thank you both for the suggestions.
I plugged the iPod into my computer this afternoon and opened iTunes. iTunes gave me an error that I haven’t seen before – it said “iTunes cannot read the contents of the iPod “Kathleen’s”. Use the iPod software updater application to restore the iPod to factory settings.” I ignored the advice, closed iTunes, and tried the fix suggested in the page linked to by b noir (that is, reassigning the drive letter). I then opened iTunes again, and I got the same message. I then tried resetting the iPod, which was saying “Do Not Disconnect” continuously, unplugging it, and restarting the computer.
When the computer started up again, I plugged in the iPod, then opened iTunes. I then let it sit there and “think” for a few minutes. The iPod said “Do Not Disconnect”, and after a while iTunes came up with an error message. The window was called “Device Timeout”, and it said “The requested operation on \Device\Harddisk1\DR3 was not completed before the time-out period expired.” Cancel, try again, and continue were my options. I chose cancel. Then iTunes gave me the “iTunes cannot read the contents...restore the iPod” message again. So, I restored the iPod, figuring the combination of reassigning the drive letter and restoring the unit might do the trick. After restoration, iTunes recognized the iPod again (that is, it didn’t give me an error message), and started pretending to update the songs on it, but none of the songs actually went onto the unit (i.e., I had the same problem as before).
I’m not sure how to try Mary Beth’s suggested fix, as I haven’t got any playlists except the ones automatically generated by iTunes (90s music, Top 25 played, etc). Is there anything else I can try?
IBM ThinkPad Windows XP

Similar Messages

I added some songs to my itunes but now my itunes won't play the songs - it says it can't locate the song although the Itunes match is turned on and it says all of my songs are in the cloud - anyone have any thoughts

i added some songs to my itunes but now my itunes won't play the songs - it says it can't locate the song although the Itunes match is turned on and it says all of my songs are in the cloud - anyone have any thoughts

Did you delete the hard copy of the songs from your computer after you uploaded them?
If so just highlight the said songs and delete but do not check the box that says delete from iCloud and your songs should play fine.
This happens when the original file is moved from the location that itunes was looking for it at and if you did this because you uploaded it then it will still be in the cloud you just need itunes to read from cloud and not think it's supposed to be finding the original file

ITunes won't load the songs from purchased music CDs

When loading purchased music CDs, the CD loads but iTunes won't load the songs. Error message: "The current encoder settings for bit rate and sample rate are not valid for the file." I'm using an iMac PPC G4 with 768 MB RAM and OS 10.4.11 with iTunes 4.7.1. If I copy the songs into a folder I can push them into the iTunes library but these are huge AIFF files with no info and the machine can't (won't) transfer them into AAC files.

To what format are you trying to convert? What settings are you using? Has this just started or is this the first time trying this? I really don't know what the limitations are for iTunes 4.7. I thought I was being a luddite in sticking with 7.5....
Try an alternative ripper such as XLD or Max.
X Lossless Decoder: Lossless audio decoder for Mac OS X - http://tmkk.pv.land.to/xld/index_e.html
http://sbooth.org/Max/

My ipod mini won't update the songs anymore.

After updating the software per a prompt when I plugged in, my ipod won't transfer the songs over form itunes.
I have done a lot to try to fix this problem. What was happening is that when I connected the ipod (with the same USB that had always worked before) it suddenly decided not to add any of the new songs in my library.
Useful info:
*I had it automatically update all songs
*The library wasn't bigger than the space on the Ipod
*The ipod would say that it was updating, and in itunes I could see it saying coping 1 of XX, 2 of XX etc. After a few minutes, it said all songs transfered and I went and sure enough, nothing on the ipod.
Things I did to try to fix the problem:
*5 R's
*Reinstall ipod software and itunes
*change the drive name
*clear all songs out of library and update it so that no songs would exist and then try again (But all of the songs never cleared)
I would really appreciate anyone's help with this.
I have tried restoring, updating software, it's not the letter drive since the system recognizing it (it shows up in iturns) -- the real problem seems to be when I go to move songs over.
Now my entire ipod is empty and I can't get any songs to copy over.
thanks, Michelle
Dell D600 Windows XP

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
First off, is everything updated? (Did you restore with the latest updater?)
http://www.apple.com/ipod/download
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download
Also, with the iPod connected and showing in iTunes have you ever tried going to file-->update iPod?
Finally, with the iPod connected go to edit-->preferences and click the iPod tab. Be sure that automatically update is selected, otherwise iTunes may be waiting for you to do something.
btabz

I pre ordered the mmlp2 but itunes won't download the songs that are available

Like my title says i pre ordered the mmlp2 album, then itunes started to download the monster (single) and it stopped by that song it didnt download the other ones so i canceled my pre order re pre ordered it again and got the clean version (which i dont want but it went from my account) then i cancelled that and pre ordered again but thiis time the explicit version and itunes still wont download the other songs despite the monster please help me i almost used all my itunes money for nothing.

Same happened to me when trying to pre order MMLP2. Only took 5 minutes to figure out. On your itunes store at the top of the screen where it says your username, or email for apple ID. Click it and your account information will pop up. One of the options was saying "you have 18 songs ready for download". Click that and they will start downloading. Easy fix, though auto download the second the album is released would make more sense.

Newest version of iTunes won't order my songs on my iPod correctly

The newest iTunes update totally messes the way that I sorted my purchased playlist. I had them sorted by numbers of play descending, but when I sync my iPod, the songs aren't the way that I have sorted them on iTunes and it just started happening. Anyway I can fix this?

Its not sorting ANYTHING in descending (down arrow) order.

HELP ! Ipod froze while syncing so I unplugged. Now not showing any music on Ipod or in Itunes but will show the songs in my ipod control

So basicly I was trying to figure out on how to get all my album art back on my 160gb Ipod Classic. It showed in itunes but not on my ipod. My cover flow was full of Question marks. Having 140gb of music ir was fustrating manually putting it back on to each album. This happened a few months ago. So the 5 or 6gb of new music i put on since this happened is on my Ipod and show in my coverflow on my Ipod.
It came to a point where i had to leave my computer and noticed that my ipod was still in a synchnnizing stage and seemed like it was frozen. Having to leave the computer I had to unplug the ipod. By doing so, when i turned it on it said that i had no songs on my Ipod. When plugged into my itunes it also says no songs but at the bottom of the itunes screen it shows there is 140gb of "other Information" with 1.5 gb remaining but not music. I can see all the songs in my Edrive>al's Ipod> Ipod Control> Music folder. I have had a few different computers since this new ipod has music from ages ago from an old 30gb classic and have transfered over the years on multiple computers (so restoring or syncing to this computer is out of the question). Thus all the ratings and playlist are very dear to me. Hundreds of hours invested in this ipod OVER 6 Years. It seems like there is some file missing or needed to link everything together.
I have spent endless hours trying many diffferent aproches. Like one forum said go into AL'S IPOD>IPOD CONTROL>ITUNES.. when in there they said to look for a file called ITunesDB and another called ITunesD8.old and switch them and rename ITunesD8.old_mlpmp but i only have the ituned DB not the ItunesDB.old
I also tried
Also when i plug in my ipod a notice in windows says "DO YOU WANT TO SCAN AND FIX E>AL'S IPOD
                                                                                      There might be a problem with some files on this device or disc. This can happen if you
                                                                                       remove the device or disc before all files have been writen to it
                                                                                      SCAN AND FIX (RECOMMENDED)
                                                                        this will prevent future problems when copying files to this device or disc
                                                                                                           OR
                                                                                            CONTINUE WITHOUT SCANNING
So i figure the problem started when i went into my control panel and chose show all hidden files so i can look at my files in the Ipod_control and was fooling around with the preference area by selecting the read only icon and disabling the hidden icon. I tried reversing this before ejecting my ipod but it was stuck in the Synchronizing do not disconnect mode and would not eject. Everytime i did try to eject it said in itunes with a yellow triangle saying " files or folders are in use in another area and cannot eject" even tho everyting has been closed......
ANY IDEAS ON HOW TO FIX??????? THANKS FOR YOUR TIME

A bit confused by your statement
bcboarder wrote:
. I do not understand why the music is clearly on the Ipod but wont reconize it anywhere.
Are you seeing your music listed in the iPod screen, or in Win explorer as in your earlier post?
I can see all the songs in my Edrive>al's Ipod> Ipod Control> Music folder.
A corrupted iPod database, will report zero music used, and have your music size reported as others, so you wont see the music in the iPod screen. Sorry, I thought there was some hope for you with iPodAccess, in recovery of the corrupted iPod database with your ratings.
You can try to borrow and use the Mac Disk Utility ->First Aid ->Repair.
Of course, if your iPod Hardisk is in a bad state, from the Disk Diagnostic report, then all my suggestion are futile.

My library only shows barely half of the songs that are on my ipod. i had to do a recovery on my computer and reinstall itunes. 90% of the songs on my ipod were purchased through itunes. Now i cant load new songs without erasing all the ones on my ipod.

I downloaded new songs and now it wont let me put them on my ipod unless i erase all of the songs and just put the ones in my library. I think there are something like 140 or less songs in the library and there are almost 300 on my ipod. What gives?

Hook up your iPod, there should be a selection somewhere that allows you to sync the iTunes purchased content ONLY back into your iTunes from the iPod.
Non-iTunes purchased content needs a third party utility, look at iLounge or elsewhere for it.
As always maintan a backup of your content on external medium, cd/dvd/external drive as Apple will not redownload content.
You bought it, your responsible for it's preservation.

ITunes won't sync purchased songs to my iPod after Time Machine restore?

The hard drive on my MacBook Pro went bad. Lucky for me, I had made backups with Time Machine. I got a new hard drive and restored everything from the backup, via a migration.
I just went to sync and charge my iPod and it refused to sync every freaking song that I've ever bought from the iTunes Store. 77 of them. In fact, it erased them from my iPod. I'm really very unhappy about this, is there some way to fix it?

Choose Authorize Computer from the Store menu in iTunes or play a purchased song, supply your account information, and sync the iPod.
(29667)

ITunes won't recognize new songs on my iPod

I put some new songs on my iPod with another iTunes on another computer. When I opened iTunes and plugged my iPod in the first time after I had added the songs, iTunes recognized the iPod but didn't do anything about the new songs. My iPod also stayed on the "Do not disconnect" screen. I had to press the eject button to safely disconnect it. I thought that when there were songs on the iPod that weren't on iTunes, iTunes would question you about whether or not to add them to iTunes. I have it set to "Manually Manage Music". So,
1. Is it possible to get iTunes to recognize the new songs?
2. If so, how?
thanks
iPod Nano, First Generation Windows XP

I thought that when there were songs on the iPod that weren't on iTunes, iTunes would question you about whether or not to add them to iTunes.
This applies to music purchased from the iTunes store, when the computer you're using is authorized to play music from that iTunes store account. It does not apply to music obtained in other ways, or if the computer isn't authorized to play that music.
(20450)

My computer says that all my music files are iTunes compatible but iTunes won't play the songs; how do i get them to sync?

I formerly used Zune, which i find much more user friendly than iTunes. I bought most of my music through that program, but have since tried to import the files to iTunes so i can put them on my iPhone. All of the files have the iTunes icon & under properties say that the program that will automatically play it is iTunes, but when i click play iTunes opens up but nothing plays. They play just find on Zune & Windows Media Player so i know the track are fine. Why won't iTunes play them? i'm honestly so frustrated.

If they were songs you purchased from itunes, try redownloading them from your purchases...
if that doednt work, make sure the optuon to copy files to itunes media folder is checked in settings, then find and download from the net. and re-add them to your library

Help? iTunes won't update iPod

When I plug in my iPod, iTunes recognizes the iPod and lists it on the column on the left as "Todd's iPod" - but it won't update the songs I have in iTunes onto the iPod. Is there something I can do to manually to make it update?

iTunes 10.2.x requires Mac OS X 10.5.x or later. If you're still running 10.4.11 like you have listed in your profile then you need to upgrade before you can install the newer iTunes.
If you have 10.5.x or later then just uninstall your current version and download the new one from here: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

ITunes won't import a song

I had some songs stored in a folder in the My Music folder. When I added the folder to iTunes using the (rather obvious) "Add Folder to iTunes" command under the File menu it added all the songs in the folder except for one. I've tried over and over to get iTunes to import this song into my library but it won't work, and the last thing I'm going to do is use Windows Media Player to play one song because iTunes won't. The song is an MP3 file and its bit rate is 256KBps. I don't know if those last two bits will help but it can't hurt to include them.

Is there any possibility that this song is copy-protected? Did you import it yourself from a CD or did you buy it from an online source? If DRM is on the song--you'll have to burn it to an audio CD and import it that way.

My computer has been wiped but I still have the songs on my ipod how can i get them back into my newly downloaded itunes?

My computer has been wiped and I've lost everything including itunes. I have the songs on my ipod how do i get them back into my newly downloaded itunes?

Please see the Knowledge Base from turingtest2 below
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3991

ITunes won't pull up the songs on my iPod!!!!

Just updates to iTunes 7, and everytime I try to access the songs on my iPod, it gives me a list of utter garbage: Summary, Musci, Movies, TV Shows, etc. When I click on "Music", it asks me if I want to sync my iPod and my library, thereby erasing everything I already have on my iPod. This computer does not have any of the songs that are on my iPod, so I don't want to do this!! There seems to be no other options available to me other than this when I click on "music".
When I was using the previous verion of iTunes, I could click on my iPod and play my music through my computer. Why does iTunes 7 behave this way?? What can I do??

Hi LRBL!
First, since this thread is one that is already marked as "answered", people that try to help won't typically look at a thread that is already solved.
Go ahead and start out with your own thread in the appropriate forum (whichever type of iPod you have) in the iPod category. Once in the forum, click on "Post New Topic" in the upper-left area of your screen.
Also, could you clarify what your situation is? For example, can you transfer music from your iTunes library to your iPod? are you having difficulties with that, or not?
-Kylene

ITunes won't update the songs on my iPod

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for