How to fix the ‘iPod fails to be detected by iTunes’ Problem
iPod often complain that their PC/laptop fail to detect their iPod after they plug it in. Typically, this problem shows after around a year of usage and people conjecture that it is perhaps normal wear-and-tear. However, there might be several reasons as to why your iTunes/iPod Updater is failing to detect your iPod. What’s more – most of these reasons have nothing to do with normal wear-and-tear – and are solved easily. Some ways of solving this problem listed below.
- Your iPod might be connected via a low-power USB port. Such ports are not equipped to handle iPods, which require a USB 2.0 port that has to be high-power and/or a Firewire port.
- A simple cause might be that your iPod is locked. You can unlock it by resetting it. the method to do this depends on the type of iPod you own. For the iPod Mini or the latest, fourth generation iPod, hold down the Play and Select buttons together for about six seconds. For an older generation iPod, hold down the Menu and Play buttons.
- In case you use a Mac, try rebooting with the Shift key pressed down so that startup items are disabled. If your iPod is detected after this, then it needs restoring.
- Also, the problem might arise if you are using your iPod on a sequence of Firewire devices. [An iPod needs just about as much power a single Firewire port can provide. When you use a sequence of such devices, the iPod may not be getting enough power to start up.]
- Lastly, if none of the above methods work, try resetting it (explained in Method 3 above) and then force it to mount in the Disk mode. To do this you have to hold the Next and Previous buttons of the older iPods [or the Select and Play buttons in case of the fourth generation iPod or the Mini].If this works then it means that you have to restore your iPod.