Syncing iPod freezes iTunes

I've had my 80GB iPod classic for almost a year. In that time it has blanked itself of all music upwards of 10 times, been restored to it factory settings the same amount of times and totally refused to load video and games. All this I could deal with. It was annoying as ****, but I could deal with it.
However most recently my iPod has taken to freezing my iTunes in the middle of a sync. In the past hour, it has done this 4 times. My computer is now telling me that "Your iPod needs to be reformatted for use with Windows."
Now, this may not seem like that big of a deal, but I have over 12GB of music and reloading all of it onto my iPod, while praying that it will actually work, is time consuming and a royal pain in the ***.
Has anyone else encountered any of these problems? If so, how do I make it stop?

I have a potential solution for you:
I have a 5G iPod video that was freezing in the middle of a sync. I tried restoring, which worked fine--but the same issue came up when I went to sync again.
I eventually tried this, and it worked for me:
1) Plug in the iPod (your computer should recognize it. If it doesn't, I can't help.)
2) Go into OS X's disk Utility, choose the iPod's disk, and select "Erase". (Note: If the iPod doesn't show up, you may need to Enable Disk Use for it in iTunes).
3) After erasing, go into iTunes and restore. These steps fixed the problems for me.

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I have the 3rd generation IPod and I thought it happened when I dropped it, but after thinking about it it did happen the same time I switched to itunes v7.
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Connecting iPod freezes iTunes

When I connect my iPod, first the computer has the camera/data thing pop-up, but after, iTunes doesn't reconize there is an iPod and then when I manually click "sync (iPod name)" iTunes freezes up. What is wrong? I've ran the diagnostic tests and it says everything is working. What can be done?

Welcome to the discussions,
see this article about how to disable the camera notification: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1857
and make sure Apple Mobile Device Service is still installed and active to help iTunes recognize your ipod: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1567

I scraped my old computer disc and lost all my data including my itunes library backup. I recreated a new itune library on my new computer but it only contains my purchased music,apps,books and movies. I Can I reverse a sync Ipod to Itunes?

How can I rebuild my itunes library on my new computer that will include all my downloaded CD's. My new library only contains my purchased music,apps.books and movies, (My library on my old computer is scraped)
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Browse the app store. You will need a special purpose app to help you.

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I had the Itunes store do this to one song out of three I downloaded. I went back to the Itunes store and reclicked on the song to download it again. It ran the download again and got the complete song this second time. Then I just resynced with my Itunes and all is fixed.

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If the iPod database gets corrupted, it will add files to "Other" instead of where they really belong.
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And if I do this, won't I just have the same issue when my iPod is re-updated to the most recent version again?
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Ipod freezes itunes and won't sync

My ipod is driving me crazy. It started before I left for Iraq. It begin to sync to itunes only to freeze once it got about 3 gb's in. I would then unplug it only to find nothing on it. I sent it to my brother in the hopes he might be able to repair it. In a fit of drunken wisdom, he managed to inadvertently restore the factory settings and he sent it back to me with all sorts of movies and songs on it. I jammed out for a while only to find that slowly, the songs I used to be able to play would no longer work despite the fact they were listed on the ipod screen. I finally tried re-synching it only to have it freeze itunes three gb's in like it did before I left. I have restored it with itunes and done the restore thing with just the ipod with no results. If you have any suggestions, please help.

Have you tried doing a reset on the iPod? That may help if its the ipod directly... It may have something where it's not breaking to do the SYNC with the computer
Here's a link to help you with the reset, what ever you do just don't do the "restore" setp.. As this link does the whole 5 r's to help resovle issues...
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/classic/

IPod freezes iTunes, content on ipod disappeared, how to restore?

I synced my 120gb ipod classic today (newest itunes, windows 7) and i might have pulled out the cable too quickly or something, because now my itunes says "no music" and "no movies", even though it only has 389mb free, so all my data is on there but it wont recognize it. So i tried syncing it again, but when i plugged it in itunes froze and the ipod did not appear in itunes. It does recognize it, but freezes. I tried going to my computer and it shows up. when trying to access it, explorer freezes too. i disconnected and tried explorer one more time and was able to access the folder, but it was very slow.
I am able to right click it in "my computer" and choose format. Is this safe or is there another way? i dont even want to try to reinstall itunes incase i lose all my ratings and all that stuff (15000 songs) and i dont think itunes is the problem.
When i disconnect my ipod, itunes starts responding again at once, and it shows the ipod sync screen showing that 111gb is used but all in the "OTHER" category. It says it cant sync because the necessary/required folder was not found.
I've tried different usb ports, disk mode and another vista pc but it freezes itunes there too...
And if i should format in my computer what settings to choose (exFAT, 256kb, quick format etc all that stuff)?
I'm going on vacation soon and i need it:s:S

UPDATE: i think i know what caused it: i synced my ipod touch today before i did the classic. The touch (2g, 16gb) synced fine, but when i connected the classic it froze. I had not synced the touch for months so that has to be what caused it. Any ideas what to do? How to format without itunes?

Ipod freezing itunes, the last problem in a long list

So ill start from the beginning with the problems ive had with my ipod...
The first problem i had started maybe 6 months ago. My ipod would just stop playing when it played certain songs. Everything else worked fine, it would just stop sometimes. Then in the last few months it stopped being able to connected to a computer. Whenever i would hook it up it would just automatically eject itself. I tried hooking it up to a freinds computer and for some reason when it was hooked up to his computer it worked fine. I decided to just do a restore at the point hoping to end all my problems. The restore went fine. I started putting music back on it and i started getting error messages. The computer said that my ipod was missing the file that would allow me to sync with the computer or something like that. I tried to restore it again and it didnt change anything. In the last couple days i tried to put music on the ipod again and now it wont show at all in itunes. The ipod says its connected but when plugged in itunes just freezes.
I dont know if it makes any difference but my computer is a mac, and the computer i was able to do the restore on runs vista.
Im totally out of ideas and im not sure what my options are from here. Any and all help would be awesome.
Thanks in advance everybody!

I get exactly what your describing and I noticed we are using the same laptop!!
I did not notice originally as I've got an old 40gb click wheel, about 3/4 years old. The battery is not great so assumed it may have been that but even fully charged I'm getting no luck.
I also followed the 5 r's and all the other suggestions for Ipod in My compute but not in itunes but nothing has worked. I cannot get my laptop to recognised my ipod via Itunes but it see's it fine via My Computer.
Both the Ipod and Itunes work fine without each other, Ipod plays songs fine etc and Itunes downloads music from cd etc and still performs all the usual functions but nothing else works.
I'm desperate for help as I run every day and buy a new cd each week and at this rate I'm going to have to dig out my old CD player!
Also just a point of note I looked the price to get my Ipod serviced as I figured this may help but the price quoted from apple was £160+...you can get a new 30gb for less...talk about customer explotation!!

IPod freezes iTunes when connected to computer

Whenever I connect my iPod to my Dell laptop iTunes freezes. When this happens, iTunes does not crash, it only freezes. During this time, iTunes will finish the song that it is playing (if doing so), but after the song finishes no further media will play. Also, the iPod does not show up on the sidebar of iTunes at this time (iTunes appears exactly as it was before connecting the iPod).
I am unable to eject the iPod safely at this point as the computer tells me that the system is using the iPod. If I remove the iPod from the computer, the error message: "Unable to sync iPod" comes up in iTunes. At the same time the iPod shows up on the sidebar of the iTunes, but it disappears as soon as I click "Ok" on the error message. At this point, iTunes returns to normal and is no longer frozen, even without restarting.
I have tried using a different computer and the same thing happens. I have also tried a different cable and the same exact thing happens.
Most recently, I have tried putting the iPod into disk mode, but still the same thing happens when I connect it to the computer.
If I go into My Computer (the same thing occurs in or out of disk mode) and click on the iPod, it will take me to the iPod folder, but My Computer will begin to Not Respond and then the only way to close it is to force close the window (ctrl, alt, del). If I right click the iPod, the drop down menu to access properties or to format the iPod comes up, but once again My Computer begins to not respond and I must force close it.
My iPod is an iPod Classic, 120 GB.
My computer is a Dell Laptop, Studio 1558
I have also tried on a Dell Desktop

OK, lets check out the iPod's hard drive...
*Check your iPod with Diagnostics Mode*
It's possible that your iPod's hard drive has started to fail. Take your iPod and place your right thumb on the centre SELECT button and your left on the top MENU button. Press down both thumbs for about 6 seconds until your iPod reboots. Immediately move your left thumb around to the rewind button |<< on the left and hold this down together with SELECT for a further 6 seconds. Your iPod should now switch into Diagnostic Boot mode. Press MENU for *Manual Test*, then select *IO > HardDrive > HDSMARTData* to reveal your stats. For comparison here are mine for my 2 year old 6th Generation Classic:
Retracts: 889
Reallocs: 12
Pending Sectors: 0
PowerOn Hours: 2202
Start/Stops: 894
Temp: Current 24c
Temp: Min 10c
Temp: Max 50c
Take a note of your results. When finished press *SELECT & MENU* for 6 seconds to reset the iPod again.
With modern disc drives sectors are no longer marked bad by a disc scan, if the SMART firmware detects a sector it has trouble accessing it will attempt to invisibly reallocate it to a spare area of the disc.
Note that I've only 12 remapped sectors and none pending. To help explain what the numbers mean here is an extract from the Wikipedia S.M.A.R.T. article:
*Reallocated Sectors Count*
Count of reallocated sectors. When the hard drive finds a read/write/verification error, it marks this sector as "reallocated" and transfers data to a special reserved area (spare area). This process is also known as remapping, and "reallocated" sectors are called remaps. This is why, on modern hard disks, "bad blocks" cannot be found while testing the surface – all bad blocks are hidden in reallocated sectors. However, as the number of reallocated sectors increases, the read/write speed tends to decrease. The raw value normally represents a count of the number of bad sectors that have been found and remapped. Thus, the higher the attribute value, the more sectors the drive has had to reallocate.
*Pending sector count*
Number of "unstable" sectors (waiting to be remapped, because of read errors). If an unstable sector is subsequently written or read successfully, this value is decreased and the sector is not remapped. Read errors on a sector will not remap the sector (since it might be readable later); instead, the drive firmware remembers that the sector needs to be remapped, and remaps it the next time it's written.
Large numbers of Reallocs or Pending Sectors would suggest your drive is failing and that you may need to repair or replace your iPod. Check your stats after another attempt to update your iPod. If the numbers increase that again points to hard drive failure. While it won't be good news at least you'll know it isn't some random software problem and you can decide what to do next.
tt2

HT1386 iPod Freezes iTunes

I'm trying to sync my iPod Classic, but it keeps freezing iTunes.
I've tried restoring it to factory settings. I've tried turning off anti virus & firewall. No joy. There are lots of other devices in my household, which use the same PC and all work fine...iPod shuffle/Nano/iPhone/Touch.
So I assume the problem must be with my iPod. If restoring it to factory settings didn't work, do I assume it it dead??

ya i ha the same problem.What u can do is that un-install itunes and then reinstall it again.This vastly helps.also restart ur system once u uninstall itunes.It should/must solve it.
This happens coz of one small coprrupted fime.song etc in itunes library.if still such happens try installing the itunes in a diff drive(d/e/f etc)

Song transfers from iTunes 7 to iPod freezes iTunes/iPod

I upgraded to 7 and things went fairly smoothly - I even opted for the album artwork downloads and no glitches at first...
First little glitch (and may be a clue to the big glitch below) is when I opted for the album artwork option for my 3G iPod. It provides artwork for only a tiny portion of my library, unlike what it did for my library on my mac. But whatever...
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iBook G4, iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.5) 250 G iomega external HD, iSight, Airport Extreme Base Station, Airport Express

I have the 3rd-g 40G iPod. Until 7.0 I've had absolutely no problems with either iPod or iTunes (Mac is a G4, OSX) I've encountered a similar situation as yours. When trying to sync up the songs, it freezes and won't respond to force quit. I installed the 7.0.1 patch hoping the freezing would stop - nope.
I contacted an Apple Customer this morning and was told that since my iPod is 2 years old with an expired warranty, he couldn't talk me through a possible solution that may not even work. Basically the iPod is obsolete and I'd have to pay Apple Support $50 to somehow make the update work - or just go back to my original install cd (v3.1). For loyal Mac folks, this is not cool - it's a penalty for staying with the older model. Looking into going back to 6.5, but it's a sort-of bandaid, isn't it?

IPOD Freezes Itunes and Memory is full of "Other"

I have an 80g Ipod classic and i recently updated my itunes to version 10.6.1 (7). After my latest sync, my ipod now has no music but 1/2 the memory is full with "other". I have reset my ipod several times but the music fails to appear. I cannot restore my Ipod because when I connect it to itunes, the program freezes up. The application stops responding and I have to close Itunes all together. All of my music is saved in my itunes library and I dont want to lose any of it. Someone please help!!!
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I have a similar problem with my 120gb classic, my ipod shows no music or any data but states that memory is full of other, I've tried everything I can think of, rebooting does nothing, connecting to pc freezes itunes and I am unable to access in disk mode either, it shows in my computer but just hangs when trying to access it, so a reformat or restore is not an option, diagnostics shows an error when checking harddrive with HDSMARTdata. I'm sorry to say that I have a feeling that our hard drives are buggered cos surely if you cant access it you can fix it. Very dissapointed with apples service as mine was an under warranty replacent which was resseting itself randomly exessively often, sometimes up to 6 times a day from when I received it, I sent it back within two days stating it had a fault only to have it sent back the next day being told its fine! It is obvious that apple have sent me a replacement ipod with a recycled hard drive which was obviously faulty from day one and now its given up the ghost, I very much regret not holding my ground and demanding a fully working replacement at the time as now I have to fork out for yet another ipod!

Corrupt iPod freezes iTunes

Basically I have this problem:
"I have a 160 GB iPod classic, that was completely full of music (about 20,000 tracks). Something happened today, and suddenly the iPod appears to be empty... there are no tracks listed in any of the menus or in the library. The ipod reads, however, as if it is full, with only 800 MB of space left. So the music is still there... it just seems to have become invisible to the iPod."
I read that only restoring the ipod can solve the issue, but it said that you have to go to iTunes and do it, but I cannot restore it because when I plug my iPod in it freezes iTunes and i have to end the task.
Is there another way to restore the iPod?

Run a file system check/recovery:
- Windows: Run a scandisk on it with "Automatically fix system errors".
- Linux: run fsck and let it do the business.
- Mac: fsck or whatever equiv is.
Now if it finds and fixes any errors iTunes should be able to pick up on it. If the iTunesDB got corrupted during this then you have two options. If that last program you used to sync with it made a backup of iTunesDB before modifying (like Winamp does) then it should be on the iPod somewhere. Otherwise iTunes restore and start resync from scratch.

Connecting iPod freezes iTunes + Firefox

Problem started this morning. every time i connect my ipod, my itunes freezes immediately as does my firefox. if i leave my ipod plugged in for more than a minute, my computer crashes and restarts.
I've tried reformatting my ipod, uninstalling itunes, reinstalling itunes, restarting my ipod; just about everything i can think of. i plugged in my newer ipod shuffle and my computer recognizes it immediately and i'm able to sync music.
I would appreciate any help, so that i might use my ipod instead of wanting to throw it in the oven.

Welcome to the discussions,
see this article about how to disable the camera notification: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1857
and make sure Apple Mobile Device Service is still installed and active to help iTunes recognize your ipod: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1567

Syncing iPod freezes iTunes

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