iPod (fat Nano) not recognized by computer

[KeithTalent]

Hello all,

My girfriend's iPod is, for some reason, no longer being recognized by her laptop. She updated to the latest iTunes release recently and I think that may be the cause of it, so I have a couple of quick questions since I know next to nothing about Macs or iPods.

1. Very important question: will she lose her music, most importantly her purchased music through the iTunes store, if I uninstall and reinstall iTunes? I have read conflicting things about this, but losing her music would be an absolute freaking disaster.

2. Is there a way to reset the iPod without connecting it to iTunes? I have seen conflicting information on this as well, but I was thinking it may be better to try and reset this thing to factory and try again that way.

I think those are the main questions I have, but if anyone has any questions or suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks for reading. 🙂

KT

 

[TheStu]

Uninstalling iTunes will not wipe out her music, not in the least. The worst that might happen is that she will lose her playlists and song ratings, but she will lose no data.

To restore the iPod to factory defaults, simply plug it into your computer. iTunes will pop up, and you can wipe it from there.

Past that, you may want to consider taking it to an apple store, there may be something wrong with the ipod itself, especially if your system doesn't recognize it.

 

[KeithTalent]

Thanks Stu, that is reassuring about the library, but

To restore the iPod to factory defaults, simply plug it into your computer. iTunes will pop up, and you can wipe it from there.

Is something I can't do as it is not being recognized, which is why I asked if there was another way to do it. iTunes is not popping up when I plug in the iPod and when I manually open iTunes after that, it is not showing the iPod on the left-hand side as it should be.

KT

 

[bigrash]

This is a common issue with 3rd gen nanos. I just bought a refurbished one and came across the same problem when I updated to itunes 8.1. Check my response at the end of this thread on what I did to fix it: link. There's other threads there on people with the same problem.

Also, I had tried uninstalling and re-installing itunes before and that didn't help.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: bigrash
This is a common issue with 3rd gen nanos. I just bought a refurbished one and came across the same problem when I updated to itunes 8.1. Check my response at the end of this thread on what I did to fix it: link. There's other threads there on people with the same problem.

Also, I had tried uninstalling and re-installing itunes before and that didn't help.

Hmm, well I'm on a Mac and she doesn't have any other computers around, so I'm not sure if that will help my situation. I'm heading over there after work to try out some stuff, but we'll see.

KT