Tip--iPod Reset to the Rescue

Yesterday, our iPod became totally unresponsive while selecting a song during a cross-country flight. Neither flipping the iPod's "Hold" switch nor plugging it into our TiBook with its FireWire cable worked. We had left it charging all night so we didn't think it was a dead battery. As frequent readers know we use the iPod as the backup drive to our TiBook while traveling as well as a music player so we were a bit concerned about this problem.

The only thing we could think of to try was a reset. We had never reset our iPod so we were concerned that we might lose the data stored on it. We were not concerned about losing our 50-60 MP3 files since they were on the TiBook and could be virtually instantly reloaded via iTunes 2. A reset was the only option so we plugged our iPod into the TiBook's FireWire port, made sure the "Hold" switch was off and simultaneously pressed the two menu and play/pause keys. We were relieved to see the title of the song that had become frozen in place on the iPod's screen replaced by the Apple logo and then the FireWire logo. The iPod's icon popped up on the TiBook's desktop and iTunes2 opened and stated our songs were synched. Our data was still on the drive so the reset is just like rebooting a computer. No big deal.