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Jul
12

What to do if your iPod will not power up

iPod Nano If you drain the battery on your iPod where it doesn’t have any amount of charge left in it, you may find it very difficult to power your iPod back on. Even if you plug in into it’s charger and leave it charging for days it still may not power up. Do not despair, you probably haven’t broken your iPod, you may just need to take a few extra steps to boot it out of the deep sleep mode.

The first thing you can try would be to try resetting your iPod by sliding the hold button to the locked position for 30 seconds and then switching it back to the unlocked position. The hold button is the small button on top of your iPod that can be slid to the left and right positions. If this does not work, plug your iPod into its charger and press the center button and menu button together at the same time. Resetting your iPod will not cause you to loose your music files, but you may have to reset some customized settings once it powers back up.

If this does not work, download the latest version of iTunes software and use the iTunes software to update your iPod. If iTunes does not register your iPod, and does not show that it’s connected then proceed to the next step.

If this also does not work, then the problem may be in the USB cord that you are using to charge your iPod and to connect to your computer. If you know of someone else that has an iPod you can borrow their cord to see if yours is faulty. If using a borrowed cord powers up your iPod, then you will need to replace your USB cord.

If you have access to a Windows computer, sometimes you can “shock” your iPod and cause it to come out of deep sleep mode by connecting it to another computer using the iPod’s USB cable. It has to be a computer running Windows. This step will not work on an Apple computer. To do this, plug your iPod into the separate system and wait for Windows to notice it as a new drive. When Windows picks up the iPod as a new drive, cancel the prompt to update or look for drivers and unplug your iPod. Only do this step under the direst of circumstances, because if you do not unplug your iPod immediately it could erase your files. Do not accept any attempt to changes that Windows will ask you to make to your iPod, just plug it in quickly, wait a moment and then unplug.

If the alternative Windows system recognizes your iPod, then when you try to power up your iPod, it should start now and be ready for normal use again. Once your iPod is powered back on, charge it for several hours until it’s fully charged again and try not to let your iPod battery get so low on charge again in the future.

If your system does not recognize your iPod once it’s fully recharged, then you will need to troubleshoot issues with your computer.

If none of the above steps work, then you will need to contact Apple support, your iPod may need to be serviced by a professional repairman or the battery may need to be replaced.

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BY: Brian Maroevich | 02:45 AM

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66 comments so far. (RSS)

  1. my ipod wont work becouse it froze on a song after that the buttons wont work the its been charging for 6 days and it still dosent work i dont now what is wrong with it

    ...added by isamil /// August 4th, 2007 at 18:20 PM

  2. my ipod will not connect to its charger or usb i have tryed all your tips and it will not turn on what shall i do

    ...added by Adam /// November 21st, 2007 at 17:44 PM

  3. i am have an ipod that will not come on it is broken i think but i am going try these steps one more time if they do not work what sould i do

    ...added by joshua /// December 17th, 2007 at 04:49 AM

  4. what do you do if you can’t get your I-pod to charge or turn on????????????????? please email me to tell me what to do step-by-step thanks alot,

    chelsey

    ...added by chelsey /// December 28th, 2007 at 00:09 AM

  5. I had an Ipod that would not charge. I tried the car charger and left it for 12 hours. Still no charge. So next I got online and find this site and try the hold button thing. I left it on hold and then slid it back. Then I did the menu and center button thing and it worked. I had to hold them down for 15 secs. Thnx Muncho.

    ...added by Jason From Houston /// January 13th, 2008 at 16:52 PM

  6. hey kool its too bad that you dont have enouph info that i was lookin for. but hey ya might get lucky and find somore info that i needed. if ya got any questoins contact me at yahoo.com my name is shortycmrn13@yahoo.com! im really lookin forward to talkin to ya and i could use the help! you do seem to know lot bout’ ipods so stick around and mai me! and if anyone else who wants my info mail me 2! i also know lots bout ipods! iv have 2 touch screens,3 shuffles,and 2 apple ipod shuffles so give me a buzz when yall; get the chance! live,breathe, and be happy! oh and ps: you didnt put much info for enouph people to read! so check my website out kk? buby

    ...added by ashley /// January 18th, 2008 at 03:42 AM

  7. my ipod wont switch on and when i plug it in it wont come up on itunes i cannot do anything with it now as it just stays on a screen with the apple icon on it.

    ...added by Lucy /// February 3rd, 2008 at 17:15 PM

  8. my ipod went blank BLACK / DEAD… i try using the car charger, it wont show anything, i tried plugging it into my computer with the USB PLUG, it wont show anything. i just left my ipod alone doing nothing for a good few hours, then i went back to plug it into my computer. it suddenly working, showing an “apple sign” and back to ” low battery symbol ”... i just left it connected to my computer for a good few hours, and it was charging. i think when your ipod goes blank, seems like it’s dead, it’s not!! it’s in a deep sleep because of a power surge or a shock surge, or it does that to prevent damages to the IPOD.

    ...added by Lee /// February 23rd, 2008 at 07:49 AM

  9. HELP!!! Soo here is my problem… I have an iPod Touch and it works great, except when charging. I baught a car charger that worked great, but one day it stopped working. I aslo tried a friends wall charger fo ir and that also didnt work, but it does charge off of my computer but no where else…Can ne1 help me, i cant seem to find nething about this type of issue…

    ...added by Corey /// April 3rd, 2008 at 22:44 PM

  10. my ipod is not coming on but when i connect it to my pc, i’m seeing the battery meter which means it is charging.

    is my ipod finished, can anything be done to eliminate this problem.

    ...added by Bertram /// April 14th, 2008 at 20:50 PM

  11. omg! thank you so much ! this worked for me; aahh ! i can’t thank you enough !

    ...added by Madison /// April 18th, 2008 at 04:02 AM

  12. Thanks this really helped alot i was so mad my ipod died suddenly for 3 days untill i was thinking of just giving up trying to fix it then i saw it here and it following the steps made it work

    ...added by Kevin /// April 21st, 2008 at 01:17 AM

  13. Glad I could help with this post :-)

    ...added by Brian Maroevich /// April 21st, 2008 at 18:32 PM

  14. THANKS U HELPED ME OUT ALOT :)

    ...added by tasha /// April 28th, 2008 at 14:55 PM

  15. Thanks for letting me know, I am glad we were able to help :-)

    ...added by Brian /// April 28th, 2008 at 18:19 PM

  16. Fantastic – thanks so much, I had almost given up all hope.

    ...added by wg /// May 1st, 2008 at 23:21 PM

  17. HOLT CENTER & MENU FOR 15 SECONDS!

    ...added by david /// May 5th, 2008 at 05:48 AM

  18. That center and menu thing didnt work!!!

    ...added by yamajasti /// May 8th, 2008 at 04:17 AM

  19. hi,That center and menu thing didnt work!!!
    All that comes up is what looks like a floder with an exclamation mark in a triangle and www.apple.com/support/ipod
    Any one have any ideas?
    Thanks
    Mick.

    ...added by mick /// May 27th, 2008 at 03:45 AM

  20. my ipod has been charching for 7 days and it won’t turn on,i have tried all the steps this site says but it still won’t work
    PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!

    ...added by maria /// June 25th, 2008 at 22:05 PM

  21. Another happy reader here – like others I thought my pod was dead but after reading these tips I was able to bring it back to life using the menu+center button. Thank you so much! I’m leaving for vacation in a few days and didn’t want to spend hours on a plane without my music. Thanks again, you saved my butt!!!

    ...added by jeff /// July 28th, 2008 at 21:39 PM

  22. I am thrilled to hear the positive results!
    Thanks…keep’m coming :-)

    ...added by Brian /// July 29th, 2008 at 02:21 AM

  23. Here is a tricky one that I just can’t figure out. It makes no sense. Here it goes…
    I have a 30gb video ipod that only charges with the firewire adapter(I get the animation and all). Now to the messed up part. No computer will recognize the ipod when plugged in the usb port. I have tried 5 different computers and get nothing, with Windows XP and Vista. Another thing is that when plugged to usb adapter to charge, it shows nothing animation-wise that it is charging, but yet when I completely drained the battery, I plugged the ipod in using the usb to wall adapter and it magically charged. It is not the usb cable, because it charges a ipod photo, and another video ipod. Anybond have any thoughts as to what the problem is? I have yet to find any other issue such as this on any web searches. One more thing, I put the ipod into the diagnostic mode and plugged in the firewire adapter, and it showed 1, when I plugged in the usb adapter it showed 0. I just don’t get it…

    ...added by Todd /// August 19th, 2008 at 02:41 AM

  24. thanx this really works wow very helpful so happy now i can listen to music

    ...added by rich /// August 29th, 2008 at 04:19 AM

  25. hey my ipod wont charge and i dont no what to do please help

    ...added by david /// September 14th, 2008 at 05:56 AM

  26. It happened to me yesterday. My iPod (4G) was left in the car all day as usual, sitting in the cradle. It would not power up no matter what I did, including all of the steps above. I opened it up (there are plenty of instructions on Youtube showing how) and removed the battery. Close inspection showed that he battery was bulging slightly, which I think may have been caused by the heat build up in the car. I happened to have a spare battery so I fitted that. As soon as I plugged in the charger I got the charging symbol and the iPod is working normally again.

    ...added by Ian /// September 23rd, 2008 at 22:24 PM

  27. hi, i’ve had my ipod for 1 year or 2 and always worked fine, i picked it up today, and it was saying the battery was flat, so i rtried to charge it at a friends house, he said i originaly lit up to say it was charging but when we took it of charge, the screen was blank, totally black, tried plugging it in on his pc, my charger, and my pc, but the screen just remains black, have to leave the country in 2 days time and thinking of buying a new 1 but really dont want to, any suggestions? thanks a lot, steve

    ...added by steveo /// October 6th, 2008 at 00:41 AM

  28. thank you very much guys! i thought my ipod is inching its way to the bin coz it was no longer charging. the comment of jason from houston helped me a lot. i felt so much relief after i found out that it’s working again.

    ...added by jimson /// November 30th, 2008 at 16:04 PM

  29. i have a 2gb ipod it does not turn on i’ve tried everything it says in this website and when i connect it to the computer it shows the battery mark and thats all and it does not show the ipod in itunes what do i do?

    ...added by jesse /// December 11th, 2008 at 07:00 AM

  30. thanks! this helped me.

    ...added by jme /// December 29th, 2008 at 07:16 AM

  31. thank you so much putting it into the usb port and holding the center button and menu button i guess woke it up many thanks

    ...added by brandon /// January 13th, 2009 at 05:15 AM

  32. Brian, my Son,
    You are a legend.
    Thank you

    ...added by Brett /// January 23rd, 2009 at 22:35 PM

  33. mine does not work and i let it charge for 2 days in a row and then unpluged it and it still dint work then i plug it into my ps2 it turned on and it would not charge but some how it was on.

    ...added by isaiah /// February 4th, 2009 at 16:20 PM

  34. it looks like your right thank you my friends say if you just hook your ipod up to a computer it will charge when its dead.

    ...added by isaiah /// February 4th, 2009 at 19:39 PM

  35. My family member’s ipod stopped charging. We tried plugging it into the wall through special adapters we bought, that didn’t work. We tried plugging it in regularly to each of the computers in the house, but that didn’t work either. We have reset it and everything(the batery is dead,so we can’t do anything with it). I have since tried to pug my ipod into the computer to see if it would work(mine is not dead yet) but the computer did not register its connection, neither did the ipod. I tried plugging it into the wall, it did not work. We have lots of usb cords, but none of them worked when we tried them.

    ...added by Fox /// February 18th, 2009 at 00:19 AM

  36. It worked!!! Thanks sooooo much!

    ...added by skillynduff /// February 25th, 2009 at 18:53 PM

  37. Great to hear all the success stories. Keep them coming :-)

    ...added by Brian /// February 25th, 2009 at 20:37 PM

  38. “plug your iPod into its charger and press the center button and menu button together at the same time”

    it worked

    thanks

    ...added by SUMIT /// February 27th, 2009 at 18:59 PM

  39. Wow. Some of the comments i have been reading. The best way to avoid these problems is getting the right iPod. The newer iPods seem to have more problems than the newer ones. I have an iPod Video 30GB equipped with Rockbox (www.rockbox.org), and i havent had a single problem with it whatsoever.

    ...added by Dillon /// March 6th, 2009 at 21:48 PM

  40. my last post, i said newer twice, i would like to revise that.
    The newer iPods seem to have more problems than the *bold*older ones

    ...added by Dillon /// March 6th, 2009 at 21:50 PM

  41. ahhh its hard to post on here! There should be a place to preview what you have posted.

    ...added by Dillon /// March 6th, 2009 at 21:50 PM

  42. thank you so much!!! i put my ipod touch in the dock, then i pressed the home and sleep button together and it worked! iwas sooooo worried. thanks a lot!!!

    ...added by moises /// March 10th, 2009 at 00:01 AM

  43. hello. my ipod has recently not been turning on. i have left it alone for about 5 days and still isnt wroking. we have updated my itunes and restored it. but, my screen will not turn on, and is making this beeping noise everytime i put it on the charger or plug it into my computer, i have no idea what i should do.

    ...added by Christina /// March 21st, 2009 at 20:12 PM

  44. May you be blessed with 72 virile children. I read your post just before burning my beloved gen4 ipod. It lives!

    ...added by tamas /// March 30th, 2009 at 01:34 AM

  45. I followed your advice of plugging the iPod into its charger and pressing the center button and menu button together at the same time for about 15 seconds. IT TOTALLY WORKED! Thank you so much!

    ...added by Paolo Palazzi-Xirinachs /// April 1st, 2009 at 16:56 PM

  46. I also followed your advice of plugging the iPod into its charger and pressing the center button and menu button together at the same time for about 15 seconds. It came back to life. Be sure the hold button is slid back off before you do this though. Thank you so much!

    ...added by Jay Geldermann /// April 22nd, 2009 at 20:19 PM

  47. hey u r a lifesaver my mom would have killed me if my ipod wouldn’t turn on …. but now i have none of my music,music videos or movies….. wat do i do now??...!!

    EMERGENCY

    ...added by claire&clayton /// April 29th, 2009 at 03:51 AM

  48. my ipod was working fine in the morning (fully charged) and then in the afternoon when i tried to turn it on, it wouldn’t and i did the ‘hold and press centre’ thing it wont work and i tried connecting it to itunes and there’s no response and it wont charge HELP!

    ...added by mandy /// May 7th, 2009 at 23:01 PM

  49. You are the man! Thanks.

    ...added by j /// May 14th, 2009 at 12:55 PM

  50. that did the trick!

    thanks i thought id have to get a new one!

    ...added by mikey /// May 20th, 2009 at 14:10 PM

  51. the one about pressing both the center button and menu button at the same time worked!
    just gotta hold it for 5+ seconds, then it comes on.

    thanks so much!!

    ...added by tomi /// May 23rd, 2009 at 12:58 PM

  52. mine does not work..
    it did yesturday when i last played it & i woke up in the morning and it wont turn on the screen in black!
    i only got it a few weeks ago, & i cant afford to have it repeard!!
    i dont no what to do:(

    ...added by Becky /// May 30th, 2009 at 11:49 AM

  53. YES thank you so much
    i fixed my ipod

    For the ppl who think they broke thier ipod i want to say to have hope

    ...added by kyu /// June 10th, 2009 at 04:02 AM

  54. I have tried all the tips and Ipod still will not power up

    ...added by msbrowneyes /// June 10th, 2009 at 22:36 PM

  55. I have a 80 gb classic gen 5 ipod. I have had it for about two years, and the problem is the battery will not fully charge. I plugged it into the computer for a night, check it in the morning and i had one bar, so i tried the wall charger and left it for the night, and the same thing happened it will only charged upto one bar. so i let it drain down until it shut off and pluged it in and still it will only recharge upto one bar. please help dont know what to do?

    ...added by Cody /// August 6th, 2009 at 15:14 PM

  56. HOW LONG I CHARGE MY IPOD IS HOW LONG IT WILL WORK
    AND WHEN IT TURNS OFF IT DOESNT SHOW A RED LIGHT IT JUST TURNS OFF….....I SHOULD GET A NEW ONE LIKE THE NANO

    ...added by CAROLINA /// September 25th, 2009 at 00:33 AM

  57. Hey thanks… It worked..!

    ...added by Riki /// October 20th, 2009 at 17:58 PM

  58. well i washed my ipod with all my clothes by accident and i saw it and took it it was wet and cold then i gave it to my friend so he could of fixed it so he did but the problems when he dryed it he put it to dry and then charged it it would turn on but when he un plug it it wouldnt turn on please help me give me advise and tell me some things i can do send me an email thanx i will be so happy and i will love to hear from you thanx thanx

    ...added by karina /// December 2nd, 2009 at 16:26 PM

  59. Hi i have a i pod it charges and everything but when i unplug it it turnes off and nothing has worked to make it turn on eny ideas idk if it has water damage or what my friend gived it to me

    ...added by shelene /// December 27th, 2009 at 06:54 AM

  60. I have an original First Gen IPOD mini and it has been great. It sits in the IHOME contantly and Ive had no problems until I recently unplugged the IHOME for a few weeks. Now my IPOD will not do anything. I did replace the battery a few years ago….any suggestions? Get a new battery? It’s dead?

    ...added by Tommy /// January 18th, 2010 at 16:55 PM

  61. You’re a genius! My i pod appeared to have died. Took your advice and held menu & center button for a few seconds while it was setting on my sound dock! Came back to life! Thank you.

    ...added by cb kay /// January 31st, 2010 at 01:01 AM

  62. Thanks so much! It worked! Glad I had a little iHome to use!

    ...added by Kate /// February 19th, 2010 at 16:15 PM

  63. My i pod is connected to my computer and plays music like that but if i unplug it it wont turn on or work the screen just stays blank even when it is connected to the computer on the ipod screen its not showing anything what do i do plz help

    ...added by Andy /// March 7th, 2010 at 22:49 PM

  64. hey guys. i was using my 4gb ipod until it died. i then tried charging it through the computer using a usb cord. the ipod screen turns on and the main menu apairs, but does not charge. the ipod then says connect to power and turns off and then starts up again and does this same process over and over.. i have tried all of the steps above and nothing has worked.. is there any one who can help me? please :)

    ...added by krystal /// April 29th, 2010 at 21:39 PM

  65. andy… try holding the menu and middle select button for 5+ seconds

    ...added by krystal /// April 29th, 2010 at 23:16 PM

  66. Thank you very much!!!!

    ...added by Drake /// May 12th, 2010 at 23:24 PM

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