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Since I'm getting tired of retyping the same suggestions over and over for people that are having difficulties with their iPod or iTunes, I've decided to put together a trouble shooting FAQ.  Please critique.  Once you guys are happy with it, I'll post it in DHH.  I'm sure it will then go through another round of edits.

If your iPod freezes frequently, skips songs or thinks there's no songs on it -
Wipe the drive completely and then do a regular iPod restore.  You must erase the drive using 'Disk Utility' in order to eliminate the corruption.  Corruption is thought to be primarily introduced by disconnecting the iPod when it says not to do so.  There is also appears to be some corruption introduced by frequent adjustments to the songs and playlists.  It is suggested to wipe the drive and restore about every six months.

If you cannot access the iTMS with iTunes or get errors and you're sure its not a networking problem -
Delete your iTunes preferences files on your computer's hard drive.  There are several with iTunes.plist names. Restart iTunes, recreate your settings and try again.  It is suggested to move these files to a CD-R or Zip disk for safe keeping just in case.

If you are having difficulty getting iTunes to see your iPod -
Delete your iPod preferences files on your computer's hard drive.  There are two named iPod.plist and iPod.pkg. Restart iTunes, recreate your settings and try again.  It is suggested to move these files to a CD-R or Zip disk for safe keeping just in case.

If you're still having difficulty perhaps your Mac may need a 'spring cleaning' -
Spring Cleaning Part 1 -  Insert your Panther or Jaguar installation disk number one.  Reboot your Mac from the installation disk by holding down the 'C' key during the boot sequence.  Keep holding down the 'C' key until its obvious you're booting from the CD and not your hard drive.  This might mean you're holding the 'C' key for as long as 2 minutes.  Once the boot sequence is complete you'll have the familiar splash screen saying welcome to Jaguar or Panther and do you want to install on screen.  Ignore it.  Under the file menu in the upper left, select 'Disk Utility'.  Once 'Disk Utility' finishes starting up, select your computer's hard drive (highlight by clicking on it once) in the list along the left side.  Then click on 'repair disk' in the lower right.
Spring Cleaning Part 2 -
Boot your computer from its internal hard drive.  Start up 'Disk Utility'.  Its in the utilities folder on your hard drive.  Once 'Disk Utility' finishes starting up, select your iPod's hard drive (highlight by clicking on it once) in the list along the left side.  Then click on 'repair disk' in the lower right.
Spring Cleaning Part 3 -
Boot your computer from its internal hard drive.  Start up 'Disk Utility'.  Its in the utilities folder on your hard drive.  Once 'Disk Utility' finishes starting up, select your computer's hard drive (highlight by clicking on it once) in the list along the left side.  Then click on 'repair permission' in the lower left.
Spring Cleaning Part 4 -
Boot your computer from its internal hard drive.  Start up 'Disk Utility'.  Its in the utilities folder on your hard drive.  Once 'Disk Utility' finishes starting up, select your iPod's hard drive (highlight by clicking on it once) in the list along the left side.  Then click on 'repair permission' in the lower left.

If these software tweaks aren't fixing things -
Consider that you may have a bad cable, Firewire or USB port or even a <gasp> bad iPod.  Try different cables, different Firewire or USB ports and a buddy's computer.

Last edited by NAG (2007-09-10 7:32 pm)