9. Troubleshooting

I regret to report that—except for you, dear reader, and me—nothing is perfect. No, not even the iPod. Whereas it may tick happily along one day, the next day, its menu structure is a mess; it refuses to start up when you’re sure it has a full battery; or when it does start up, it displays an icon indicating that it’s feeling far from well. In this chapter, I look at the common maladies that afflict the iPod and what, if anything, you can do about them.

iPod Problems and Solutions

Unlike a computer, which can fail in seemingly countless and creative ways, the iPod exhibits only a few behaviors when it’s feeling poorly. Following are the most common problems and (when available) their solutions.

Failure to boot

There are ...

Get The iPod and iTunes Pocket Guide, Fifth Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.