My 4-month old iPod 4G 40Gb just froze

First time this has happened. As someone else reported on Mactalk, my iPod has just frozen in between songs. The track details are showing, no backlight, and I can't reset it using the PLAY-MENU system. Bizarre. My iPod is about 95% full and four months old. Any new ideas welcome.

Unfortunately, this happened after I just traded-in my dud Griffin iTrip for a new Podfreq. Many thanks to Jonathan Wrigley at AppleCentre Moonee Ponds for his assistance in getting an in-car solution that is better than the iTrip. Jon let me road test the Podfreq for an hour before making a decision and then even took back my dud iTrip without the packaging. What a dude. You can find AppleCentre Moonee Ponds at 1 Puckle Street Moonee Ponds and you can find Jon's great moblog here. Jon - any ideas on how to fix my iPod now??? :-)

UPDATE: Hey, I got it working again, how about that. Instead of pressing the PLAY-MENU keys simultaneously (as suggest in MacTalk), I pressed the middle button and the menu key. You beauty. Still doesn't explain why it froze though. Good to see Apple products also suffer from BSOD!

UPDATE 11 MARCH 2005: Glad to see this post has helped so many other people. It just helped me as well! My iPod just froze up on me for the first time again since November. I totally forgot what the reset sequence was. Good thing I blogged it!

Comments

[Jonathan Wrigley]

The reset key sequence has been changed with the 4th Gen... which may explain the difference.

Thanks for the shout-out :)

J.

[elak]

This is a common problem found in the 4G iPods. In some severe cases, it doesn't even allow you to power-down or reboot and you're forced to just let the battery die down. I have heard of one solution - reinstall the original settings (and erase all your songs). But there's got to be a better way! There's just gotta!

[Dave Burke]

As someone who is enjoying his first week of being an iPod listener, I appreciated the tip! Glad you got your tunes back!

[John]

I have a 20GB iPod, and I just had exactly the same problem while out jogging. After trying Apple's instructions (which didn't work), I found your site, and your tip worked immediately. Kick ass.

[neokibo]

You beauty! Brand new 4G owner and first freeze-up. I Googled the problem, and here you are. Thanks for posting!

[joggerOfDaYear]

My new hp/apple ipod just froze while jogging,(which really sucks when your far away from home, you actually have to listen to yourslf breath ;), and thanks to your "middle button menu" combo I'm back on the streets!
Cheers to your blog!!

[rob]

Fantastic. I managed to freeze-up my wife's Ipod and I was pulling my hair out as the PLAY-MENU solution got me no-where.

You have my eternal gratitude!

[Yale]

This has happened twice in the past three days! First time, I just waited until it ran out of batteries. So glad I decided to get up and try to figure this out!!!

[Dave L]

Dude - your solution just saved me a lot of heartache! Thank you!!!

[Neil Martin]

I've had mine about 3 days, and I had the same problem. Your middle button-menu button trick worked perfectly. Thanks so much!!!

[Pete]

Wow man, saved me a load of time with this, it really shouldn't happen but this is a good fix for it

[Levi Jackson]

Worked Perfectly, but first I tried the whole charger deal, and when it didnt work I pulled the cord out, not realizing it has these ghey little grips on the side, now i have a loose piece jiggling around, what do i do?

[stephen]

thanks man was sitting at the bus stop flicking threw the songs and the i pod froz i use the mini i pod 4gb i crapped me self as it is my girlfriends lol thnk for the buttins man

[Aj]

the guy who worked this out is a genius! ha just spent the better part of my weekend trying to get the f*er to turn on,ur a top kid

[daniel]

please help me my 20gb ipod froze and its killing me having no music can you help me out it would be sweet

thanx ... daniel

[Greg Yardley]

You rock. Apple's instructions on this just didn't work.

yup, much appreciated...

[KELZ]

YOU ROCK MAN MINE FROZE AT A PARTY COZ I HOOKED IT UP TO A STEREO UR SOLUTION WAS AWESUM I LOVE U DUUDE I DUNNO WAT I WULDA DONE WITH OUT UR SOLUTION

[Dan]

i just had my first lock up as well and found your site through a goggle search. thanks for your tip, you saved me a lof of time!

[Amy]

THANKS!
was shitting meself just now...you saved me!

Thanks man my i pod just froze today and I went to search how to fix it just saying thanks:)

[stef]

omg!!! i thought i was going to have a heart attack when my ipod just froze all of a sudden! nothing would work..no buttons..nothing! luckily i was able to see ur post and it worked! ur awesome and thanx so much. now i wont freak out every time this happens!

[Anftrw]

THANKS A LOT! I thought I was going to have to wait until my battery dies out or buy a new one! Thanks again!

[aiko00]

yea dude that u helped bvig time..late

[Rohit]

Yup, worked for me too. Thanks dude...