iPod issues...

[BuckeyeFlorida]

Has anyone received the following message while trying to sync their iPod?

"The iPod cannot be synched. The required file cannot be found."

Synching stops halfway through and the appropriate amount of memory (for a half-sync) is occupied on the iPod, but the songs are not accessible.

I've tried a restore through iTunes, but get the error message "This iPod could not be restored. An unknown error occured (1418)"... It's a 4th gen 20gb

 

[jlb1705]

You can try forcing your iPod into Disk Mode:

Putting iPod into Disk Mode

In Disk Mode, everything is managed manually including syncing your music, so maybe when it is not allowed to do that stuff automatically it will not get in the way of your attempts to restore.

 

[BuckeyeFlorida]

No dice, but thanks for the suggestion...

Put the iPod into disk mode and I did successfully reformat, but at the same halfway point of synching, I got the following message "Attempting to copy to the disk iPod failed. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable." Interestingly some of my podcasts were saved to the iPod but none of the music files are accessible as described previously. Sounds like it may be toast eh?

Any more ideas?

You can try forcing your iPod into Disk Mode:

Putting iPod into Disk Mode

In Disk Mode, everything is managed manually including syncing your music, so maybe when it is not allowed to do that stuff automatically it will not get in the way of your attempts to restore.

 

[jlb1705]

Well, I'm stumped.

BUT... There are a lot of people out there who are much smarter than I am when it comes to these kind of things. Heck, there's people installing Linux on iPods. My point is, before giving up and paying an arm and a leg for a new iPod or getting your current one serviced, I'd do some extensive Googling to see what you can find as far as simple DIY solutions go.

My "other" iPod is the same one you have. I was having problems with it a few months back - similar to a problem I had had service for when it was still under warranty. Long story short, after hours of searching, I found that the problem was likely that the arm that reads the HDD in the iPod was stuck, and that by turning it 90 degrees clockwise and then hitting it against my leg 2 or 3 times I was able to dislodge the arm and get the iPod working like normal again.

While it's entirely possible that it's kaput, I'd look around and make absolutely sure - unless you're looking for an excuse to buy a new 80 gig or something.

 

[Big Papa]

Have you tried setting it to do a manual sync and not automatically?

 

[Taosman]

Well, I'm stumped.

BUT... There are a lot of people out there who are much smarter than I am when it comes to these kind of things. Heck, there's people installing Linux on iPods. My point is, before giving up and paying an arm and a leg for a new iPod or getting your current one serviced, I'd do some extensive Googling to see what you can find as far as simple DIY solutions go.

My "other" iPod is the same one you have. I was having problems with it a few months back - similar to a problem I had had service for when it was still under warranty. Long story short, after hours of searching, I found that the problem was likely that the arm that reads the HDD in the iPod was stuck, and that by turning it 90 degrees clockwise and then hitting it against my leg 2 or 3 times I was able to dislodge the arm and get the iPod working like normal again.

While it's entirely possible that it's kaput, I'd look around and make absolutely sure - unless you're looking for an excuse to buy a new 80 gig or something.

Didn't leave it in the sun or hot car did ya?

 

[jlb1705]

Nope, don't leave my iPod in the car or anything like that. I think it's just a problem common to that model of (HP) iPod. My girlfriend uses that iPod now since I got my 80GB at the beginning of the year. She says she has to knock the arm loose every so often - so if anybody out there runs into this and you're still under warranty, it's probably still worth it to take it in. For the time being however, it's better to put up with the occasional problem than to buy another iPod or for her to go back to her 4GB iPod Mini.

 

[iambrutus]

throw it against something hard. if that doesn't fix it then nothing will

 

[wadc45]

Anyone ever get the "Delayed Write Fail" error?

I have search forums high and low for a definitive answer and can't seem to find one...I have an 80GB Classic and it will just freeze up in the middle of transferring songs over from my PC.

 

[Muck]

No dice, but thanks for the suggestion...

Put the iPod into disk mode and I did successfully reformat, but at the same halfway point of synching, I got the following message "Attempting to copy to the disk iPod failed. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable." Interestingly some of my podcasts were saved to the iPod but none of the music files are accessible as described previously. Sounds like it may be toast eh?

Any more ideas?

Did you reformat through Windows or iTunes?

If you did it through iTunes try to reformat the drive from disk manager.

As for the official Apple answer... LINK.

There used to be a webpage called "1418hell" that had various solutions for the iPod issues but it seems to be down now. I do remember that iTunes 7.02 was a major cause of issues so if that is the version you have installed it would definitely be a good idea to update to a newer version (or roll back to an earlier one).

FWIW I use rockbox insted of the factory apple software.

 

[OCBucksFan]

FWIW I use rockbox insted of the factory apple software.

Same, Rockbox is a nice replacement for the firmware.