Erase your iPod

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Erase your iPod

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 (in the Applications/Utilities folder). 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 (WIN 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

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 accidently selected Chineese 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 VIP Repair Service to get it fixed.

Top