The iPod & iTunes Pocket Guide, Second Edition

The iPod & iTunes Pocket Guide198

Problems and Solutions

Unlike a computer, which can fail in seemingly

countless and creative ways, the iPod exhibits only a

few behaviors when it’s feeling poorly. Following are

the most common problems and (when available)

their solutions.

The missing iPod

When you plug your iPod into your Mac or PC, it

should make its presence known in short order—

appearing in iTunes. If you’ve confi gured your iPod

to mount as a disk drive, it will also materialize and

remain on the Mac’s Desktop or within Windows’ My

Computer window.

If your Macintosh-formatted iPod refuses to mount,

restart your Mac while holding down the Shift key.

This boots Macs running Mac OS X into Safe Mode.

iPods that do not mount otherwise have been known

to do so on Macs running in Safe Mode.

If that doesn’t do the trick—or if this trick isn’t appli-

cable because you’re using your iPod with a Windows

PC—fi rst reset the iPod. For an iPod shuffl e, this

entails simply switching the iPod off for 5 seconds.

If it’s a click-wheel iPod, hold down both the Center

and Menu buttons for 6 seconds. For a fi rst-, second-,

or third-generation (1G, 2G, or 3G) iPod, plug it into

a power outlet, and hold down the Play and Menu

buttons for 6 seconds.

If your non-shuffl e iPod still won’t mount, try forc-

ing it into Disk Mode, as follows: Repeat the reset