How to Fix a Frozen IPod Nano

iPod Nanos will sometimes freeze up, sticking on one screen or not even turning on at all. If your nano is locking up, there are a few things you can try to get it working again.

1. Turn off the hold button. First of all, make sure that that wasn’t the problem–don’t worry, we’ve all done dumber stuff.

2. Cold boot. Assuming that wasn’t the problem, flick the hold button on and off a few times, and then make sure it’s off. Hold down the Menu button and the middle button button for about 15 seconds; this should reset the iPod nano, which may fix the issue. Make sure that the iPod nano is fully charged before attempting this.

3. Recharge. If that didn’t work at all, try plugging the iPod nano into the USB port of a computer, using the adapter that came with it. Be sure to plug directly into the computer, and not through a USB hub. The USB needs to provide adequate power for the iPod nano to function, and it may be unable to do so through a hub. The iPod nano should be recognized by the computer; once it is, you simply need to safely disconnect it in iTunes, and it should be functional. If it doesn’t show up on the computer at all, give it about 20 minutes, leaving the iPod nano connected to the computer, as the nano may be under-charged, which requires a few minutes to re-charge. If it’s still not working, try plugging the iPod nano into a different computer.

4. Try again. If the Menu + Middle Button fix seemed to work, but just cycled the nano back to one of its starting screens (including the “do not disconnect” or the “loading Apple logo” screen), try that fix again. If it still doesn’t work, try to charge it for a while, and then try it once more.

This fix is essentially cold-booting the nano–if it were a computer, it’d be the same thing as just pressing the power button, essentially suddenly shutting off the nano without safely shutting down its basic operating system. You only want to try that fix when the nano’s completely unresponsive, and not use it if the nano’s just taking a while to respond (but the hard drive’s still spinning, indicating that the device is trying to function). Occasional use of the cold boot feature won’t damage your iPod nano, but repeated use might.

So what causes a nano to freeze up? Usually, the operating system can’t find a file, or doesn’t know where to go next, causing it to be unresponsive. If you unsafely disconnect the nano from your computer (by not ejecting it in iTunes first or using another method to eject it), you might see this error a lot. It can also indicate corruption in the nano, and in extreme cases you’ll have to send it in to Apple for a repair.

Do you have any tips for when an iPod nano is frozen? Post them in the comments section below.