Where did my IPOD go?

[BigJohn]

Well, all of a sudden iTunes and "my computer" does not see or recognize my Ipod. After much searching to try and find a answer it may be related to my recent install of microsoft service pack 2. Apple says to either contact microsoft for a hotfix or wait unitl another update comes along to fix this.

Anyone else heard of this problem. I have tried changing the drive letter as was suggested by something I read somewhere. Anybody got a suggestion?

[jamesgoodchild]

Saw this come up last week for a client. On your system tray, you should see an icon called "unplug or eject hardware". With your iPod plugged in, right click on this icon and choose "unplug or eject hardware". Take a careful look at the hardware devices listed. If you see TWO mass storage devices, right click on the non-ipod device and choose "stop". See if iTunes now starts working and connects to the iPod. For my client, it was their USB printer that had the capability to work with memory cards that was causing the conflict. If this resolves the issue, then talk to the vendor of the USB storage device to see if they have a patch. If they don't, until MS issues something, you'll need to keep disabling your other USB device or leave it unplugged.

[meese]

Anybody got a suggestion?
http://www.macfriendly.com/images/apple_silver.jpg http://www.advrider.com/forums/images/smilies/lol8.gif

[BigJohn]

I only saw one mass storage device ( the iPod ). Played with it a little bit but no go. Looks like I may have to just wipe out my whole computer and start over. I sure will not install any updates from MS again

[BigJohn]

I read a post on a Tech site that suggested I buy a Firewire card and cord to hook to the IPOD. It says that USB connections sometimes conflict with each other and that the Firewire cord/card would bypass this and give a more reliable connection. This is the document I found:

I can’t get my PC to recognize my ‘Pod?
There are two ways to connect the iPod to your PC – USB and firewire.

Most folks try USB because, in the PC world, it is the most familiar. With the advent of USB 2.0 it’s even fast (USB 1.x is way too slow to use with ‘Pods although some folks have had limited success with it. Definitely Not Recommended). All PCs have USB, and nearly all new PCs have USB 2.0. Most PCs do not have firewire, although a large number of laptops do.

The iPod was designed from the ground up to work with firewire. Apple basically invented firewire, and so the ‘Pod works best with it. USB support was added as an afterthought, and often doesn’t work right. There are many, many, many issues with USB, not the least of which is that it was never designed as a full-time, always on interface (most USB ports time out after a very limited point in time, which either requires a restart or complete reboot of the device). There are also many device conflicts with USB, since it runs into another Microsoft problem where drives that are not connected switch drive letter assignments arbitrarily. Thus if you sometimes connect a digital camera to your PC via USB that camera may be assigned a drive letter that will be reassigned to the ‘Pod – your PC will then get very confused about what is where. This often results in a “cannot mount iPod” type message. You can sometimes fix this by reassigning drive letters using Disk Manager.

The best way to fix all connection issues is to simply buy a firewire card. If you have a desktop PC buying the Adaptec 4300 will nearly always solve all your problems now and forever. It is an Apple tested card (you should never buy anything but an Apple tested card) and is considered the Gold standard of iPod connectivity. Other firewire cards can and do work, but many do not because they use a much cheaper firewire chipset (which is almost always the case with onboard firewire on laptops as well – in that case the recommended firewire PCMCIA card is the Adaptec 1430 Fireconnect card). Do not get a combo card – USB/Firewire cards are often problematic.

If you get a recommended card the odds are extremely high you will then be just fine. If you buy it from a store like Best Buy you can return it for a full refund if it doesn’t work, but it will. Is it fair that Apple says it should work with USB and it doesn’t? No, but life isn’t fair. The real question is whether you want your iPod to work or not. If you do, get the firewire card.

That said, there does appear to be one thing you can try with USB that works for a lot of people. Here are the steps:

Step 1 : plug ipod into wall adaptor.

Step 2 : Turn ipod off. (press and hold the pause/play button for 6 to 7 seconds 'you should see a charging icon or charged'). Then turn it back on (press the pause/play button) **still connected to wall adaptor**

Step 3 : repeat step 2

Step 4 : turn off the ipod totaly by pressing and holding BOTH of the middle circular button and the menu button. **MAKE SURE IT IS CONNECT TO THE WALL ADAPTOR AND THE IPOD IS CURRENTLY OFF (charging or charged motion)**

Step 4 : turn off your computer totally and re boot it. Wait until all of the windows icons are loaded.

Step 5 : unplug the ipod from the power adaptor and plug it into the USB ports (make sure they are 2.0 because I was told 1.1 will not work as well and this problem will keep arising)

Step 6 : Assuming you have Itunes and the latest software (November 15th is the latest) on your ipod you should see "Mass Storage Device" load in the bottom right in your icon tray and Itunes should load right up and your Ipod should now be workable.

(Courtesy of Anthony Srdar)

SP2 also causes connection issues with a lot of folks – most IT professionals are not installing SP2 due to the many things it “breaks” so the recommended procedure is to remove it if you can.

Another problem is if you do not boot from the C: drive – the iPod will then be assigned this drive letter and will then not work properly (to fix reassign the iPod in Disk Manager to a higher letter).

[OlsonBW]

Note: The newest iPods don't have the FireWire circuitry in them. You'll need a forth generation iPod or older to be able to use a FireWire cable.

[BigJohn]

Well after exhausting every option I have come to the conclusion that something has happend to the formating on my 30 GB video iPod. Over this last weekend I researched and tried every fix on the apple support site as well as some suggestions by others.

Basically both iTunes and my Computer do not recognize it as a iPod. Every attempt to use the updater or to explore or open the iPod results in locking up my computer. It simply shows up as removable drive G:. The iPod plays as it should but I can no longer put anything on or take anything off the iPod.
Even installing iTunes on another computer and then hooking up the iPod via USB has the same result.

I am going to contact Best Buys geek squad but am sure it will have to be sent back to apple for repair.

I did download and install a program on the iPod called sharepod which allows you to send songs from the ipod back to another source. It worked fine for a several weeks. The only other thing could be that I possibly picked up a virus from a downloaded song. WHo Knows. Thanks for everybodys help. I guess the bright side to this is I have 2883 songs on the iPod so I do have music to listen to. Just miss the MOTo Gp OD podcast.