::grumble:: Mac won’t help me restart my iPod without paying them $60 so i’m hoping someone here might be able to help.
My iPod’s software thinks that it is on hold (even though the slider at the top says otherwise). It fell under this magical state in the first week of April. I web-searched and someone on the web said to let the battery die to nothingness. I did this. To no avail. Whenever i plug it back in to power, it’s still on hold.
There’s no way to do the restart via the three buttons because it’s on hold. Isn’t there a manual restart somehow? Like one where i can erase the whole disk and get it to restart?
I have to admit that i’m *really* cranky with Mac about this one. You’d think that a noticeable defect in the software (documented by others on the web) would mean that they’d support you in fixing it. I’m a bit resentful by being demanded to pay $60 to fix it when i was thinking of upgrading at the end of the summer. Now i’m just questioning whether or not it’s worth upgrading because my iPod has been broken for half the time that i’ve had it.
I’ve had the same problem with the hold-button stuck, after dropping the iPod on the floor (oops) from about a foot.
Grant’ suggestion above worked for me! I wedged a small screwdriver between the silver and white pastic cover, just above the display, when the iPod was lying normally on the table. I heard a loud click and now the hold-button works just as before!
Grant suggestion was to wedge on the left hand side, I did it in the center. I guess it depends a bit on how the hold button got stuck.
OK, I’m having a similar problem, but my ipod actually became stuck on “do not disconnect” after the hold button got stuck and I plugged into my computer. I’ve tried all these suggestions, but maybe it’s different if it’s stuck on that. Any other ideas?
My Ipod (40 gig click wheel 7 months old) Just stopped. I was in the car, turned it off, came upstairs and went to turn it back on and nothing happenned. When I put it on the dock it doesn’t turn on and my desktop doesn’t shpw any signs indicating that it’s even there. I tried all of the various thing posted here and nothing’s worked. Anyone have any ideas? I mean, it was fine 15 minutes before I tried t turn it on!
Heathers Trick worked. Heard the loud click and presto.. fixed IPOD very pumped. Now I can go about my day dammit!
Turn the ipod on its side and push on the silver side hard until you hear a click. That should unlock it…I know that sounds weird but it worked for me. posted by nicky works if u have tried everything i was so happy ipods are good but they a down side to them
I just fixed mine, which had the same hold switch problem. I pushed on the back very hard, then tapped it repeatedly. Thanks everyone for all of your help.
okay so i was just sitting here trying all this, what i did was grab the top right corner of my ipod color inbetween my thumb and index finger and squeeze it. the lock turned off! fricken cool
heather, you dog
i owe you my life
myPod was stuck in hold land and so i read your post and low and behold it worked
once again, thanks
Thanks for the information about the hold button on the top—that worked! You really are a lifesaver!
Diana
I’d like to say thanks to HEATHER as well… after getting all frantic about my locked iPod, and reading the horrible experiences with warranties and MAC, the simple holding the iPod on the side and pushing the button ’til it clicks, works… at least for me it did.
Heather for President!!! The solution worked for me, and this is my replacement IPOD as had the problem with my first one within the warranty and had it replaced. Apple sucks.
This happened to my wife’s iPod 60Gb. Tried everything on here (and the guy at the Genius bar tried tapping on the table). Nothing worked. Thankfully as the unit was only three months old, they replaced it with a new one 🙂
Heather, You ARE a genius! Mine was stuck in hold / lock after a small glancing fall frm my briefcase. After reading above I noted a miniscule offset of the white half from the silver. I ended up wedging something to put more pressure on the white part — there was no click, but the lock is off!
heather is god, i love you heather
I thought you guys with the “lay it on the side and push the white…blah, blah, blah” were full of crap. Then, much to my amazement, “click”! Lock symbol gone!
I shall worship Heather all the remaining days of my life…
alright people i am having the same damn prob with my ipod the i just bought like 3 days ago. i also bought an itrip and started having this prob right after so maybe its linked to that. also, isnt there a one year warrenty? how can they charge 60 bucks to fix that shit?
my ipod had the same problem…i was so upset since i cant lve without my music… the solution posted by nicky on january 10th worked for me… THANK U NICKY! you just lay the ipod on its side and press the hold switch on the silver side really hard to unlock it.. i just it just needed to pushed really really hard… dont worry ..you wont break it.. thanks nicky..
ali
holy crap! thank you heather! my 3G hasn’t been working all summer and i thought the battery was dead, but the hold switch was stuck. you are a goddess
none of your comments work, tried the pushing the silver thing but alas it did not work
my ipod mini wont work, today i was playing that music trivia game and i got a question correct and it jusst froze! any ideas?
I was running with my ipod yesterday and a torrential downpour ensued. Needless to say, no matter what i tried, the ipod got wet. Now it works perfectly, but the scrolling wheel does not react at all. Does anyone have any suggestions how I could fix this without paying tons of money in repairs?
J – let the battery die. This happened when I was on my way to school once… a 5 hour drive that had to end musicless mind you, but once the battery completely died, i recharged it and it worked fine.
THANK YOU HEATHER!! my ipod got stuck on hold even though i switched the button off and i was upset bc it didnt work and i love my ipod .. when i used ur trick it actually undid the hold button .. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! you dunno how much it means to me that its fixed .. thank u thank u thank u
Someone please help me! I have an iPod mini 4GB. I have had it for less than 3 months and I don’t have any idea what happend to it. My friend just told me yesterday that people’s iPod’s were freezing and breaking and they had to send them back. I thought that would never happen to mine and it did. I have tried almost evreything.It just won’t turn on. I am sooo mad! Nothing happens when I try to charge it. I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE HELP ME!!!!
OH MY GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH HEATHEr. Your trick completely worked–you just have to get the white part of the ipod to line up with the silver part. I am SOOO happy. I thought I’d have to buy a new one
can someone please explain to me in detail hot to do heathers ipod trick plz plz plz
can someone please explain how to do heathers trick plz plz plz
This is crazy, i tried the using force trick on my locked Ipod and it freaking worked! you guys rule thanks for all the suggestions!!!
I’ve been having this problem for a day- locked up hold button… I let the battery die, then recharged it to full health… the ipod still is on “hold” mode regardless of the hold button position. I have tried everything on this forum, and still, my ipod is on lock. None of my ipod buttons respond because it is stuck on hold mode, so telling me to hold certain buttons to restart it won’t help ;). Also, my ipod has worked fine for almosta year.. I got it last december, it is a 40g and has worked perfectly fine… however, two months I dropped it about 3 feet on black-top… it still worked perfectly fine until now. The frame of the ipod doesn’t seem to be out of place in any area more so than the others, I have tried banging against the desk… squeezing it, “putting on its side”, all kinds of things. I’m not sure what the problem is exactly, but I want to fix it! Can someone please give me as detailed explanation as possible because the other ones on here seem too vague, although I seem to be the only one with a broken ipod still.. Instant message me at SevenKButtons if you have AIM, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance.
I’ve been having this problem for a day- locked up hold button… I let the battery die, then recharged it to full health… the ipod still is on “hold” mode regardless of the hold button position. I have tried everything on this forum, and still, my ipod is on lock. None of my ipod buttons respond because it is stuck on hold mode, so telling me to hold certain buttons to restart it won’t help ;). Also, my ipod has worked fine for almosta year.. I got it last december, it is a 40g and has worked perfectly fine… however, two months I dropped it about 3 feet on black-top… it still worked perfectly fine until now. The frame of the ipod doesn’t seem to be out of place in any area more so than the others, I have tried banging against the desk… squeezing it, “putting on its side”, all kinds of things. I’m not sure what the problem is exactly, but I want to fix it! Can someone please give me as detailed explanation as possible because the other ones on here seem too vague, although I seem to be the only one with a broken ipod still.. Instant message me at SevenKButtons if you have AIM, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance.
I’ve been having this problem for a day- locked up hold button… I let the battery die, then recharged it to full health… the ipod still is on “hold” mode regardless of the hold button position. I have tried everything on this forum, and still, my ipod is on lock. None of my ipod buttons respond because it is stuck on hold mode, so telling me to hold certain buttons to restart it won’t help ;). Also, my ipod has worked fine for almosta year.. I got it last december, it is a 40g and has worked perfectly fine… however, two months I dropped it about 3 feet on black-top… it still worked perfectly fine until now. The frame of the ipod doesn’t seem to be out of place in any area more so than the others, I have tried banging against the desk… squeezing it, “putting on its side”, all kinds of things. I’m not sure what the problem is exactly, but I want to fix it! Can someone please give me as detailed explanation as possible because the other ones on here seem too vague, although I seem to be the only one with a broken ipod still.. Instant message me at SevenKButtons if you have AIM, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance.
Mine’s still stuck too.
When your ipods were stuck in the locked position, did the battery meter still function as normal or was it stuck too? The battery on mine doesn’t seem to be depleting.
Mine’s still stuck too.
When your ipods were stuck in the locked position, did the battery meter still function as normal or was it stuck too? The battery on mine doesn’t seem to be depleting.
well… if I push on the bottom of the white face (below the scroll-wheel) with my hand really hard it makes a clicking noise as if it is going back into place… I don’t know though. This is really starting to annoy me =/
My iPOD was stuck with the “hold” icon even when the bar was set to off. Tried all the “pressing the select and menu buttons”. Did not work.
-The following worked for me. Thanks Nicky!!
Posted by: Nicky at January 10, 2005 05:47 PM
“Turn the ipod on its side and push on the silver side hard until you hear a click. That should unlock it…I know that sounds weird but it worked for me.”
To unfreeze your iPod, try holding down the menu button simultaneously with the play/pause button for about 10 seconds (or a little longer). If that doesn’t work, try holding down the middle button simultaneously with the menu button for 10+ seconds. One of these methods should reset your iPod. The latter method did the trick for me! (BTW, I have a 20G iPod.) Good luck!!
My iPod is on hold mode, so it does not respond to button pressing…. meaning holding menu and play/pause or middle button + menu doesn’t work…
hopefully someone can help me this isnt’t about the hold switch but when i plug my ipod into my computer it just sits on charging i pluged it into 4 diffrent firewire outlits on 2 diffrent computers and i ve tried restarting my computer restarting my ipod Disk mode and just about everthing i have seen on the internet please help
Ok I think I dropped my pod one to many times and the Hold button was stuck…I have the headphone remote so I was using that to listen to music but I could no longer scroll to pick specific songs. Anyway I had been reading these forums and the soloution that worked best for me was to slide the hold button to the ‘Off’ side really really hard. It’s unlocked now…sigh good ‘ol Poddy. But now when ever it gets locked I have to do the same thing. I’m leaving it off hold permenately just to be safe. The hold button is the only piece of solid state technology on the ipod so it stands the Highest chance of Breaking.
my hold button is stuck (the hold button just shows orange), and i can’t get the button unstuck. can u please help me anyone. I’m not sure about how to do Heather’s trick and i’m not sure if it will even help. I have tried forcing the hold button back with my finger nails, but they broke. Someone please helP!!!
Hey,
I’m soo happy, I just bought an iPod from eBay with the hold problem, I was 90% sure I could fix it after reading this site. And All it needed was a sharp whack on my leg and everything is great. And the good thing is that I got it for less than half the price of a new iPod.:)
You guys rock
Hey,
I’m soo happy, I just bought an iPod from eBay with the hold problem, I was 90% sure I could fix it after reading this site. And All it needed was a sharp whack on my leg and everything is great. And the good thing is that I got it for less than half the price of a new iPod.:)
You guys rock
Awesome….just like everyone else I had the same problem…problem now fixed. hard to believe that this is the only site on the net discussion this issue…this tiny issue is driving a ton of people NUTS. Thanks for the solution.
never mind. i just put my ipod in the freezer for about 4 minutes, then forced the darn hold button over. Thanks anyway
Had the same prob after an ipod fall
Found this site and tried all the suggestions – no joy. Eventually opened the iPod up and noted that the connector cable from the top (hold switch and headphones) was slightly loose. Fiddled with it for a while and go it back in properly – all better now.
I would reckon that the “whack it off something” approach is achieving the same thing in a hit and miss manner. Try this way and you’ll solve it no prob
My ipod has the whole stuck hold button problem, and hitting it around hasn’t helped at all. I’ve had this problem for a month now and I haven’t gotten it fixed!
I have a 4th-gen click wheel ipod… and I haven’t been able to open it. I’ve used screwdrivers, guitar picks, my fingernails, etc… thin plastics and metals, and I can’t get the darn thing open!
Help would be greatly appreciated….
my ipod nano got stuck only 3 weeks after i’ve bought it…but now FIXED!!!
thanks to whoever suggested the method of “pressing the menu and the center play button simultaneously for 5 seconds”!!!!!
So, I was hopeful after reading the “stuck in hold” mode fix…but mine doesn’t display the lock icon, there is no “give” in the silver part (tried all versions of gentle trauma)…I really think my click wheel is just broken. It acts JUST like it is stuck on hold, but no lock icon. Have done full restore- no help. It has also been acting funny for months, but has previously responded to messing with the lock (sliding) button. HELP. PLEASE.
My Ipod is acting very strangely. Whenever I go to play a song, the songs just skip over one another and go to the next song. It does this continuously throughout the entire playlist or list of songs in my Ipod. it will just go from song 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 to 5, etc and wont even stop to play the songs!! please help me!!!
I’VE FIXED IT!
After trying the press ‘the side till it clicks’ tricki, (didn’t work… no click) I kept experimenting with various firm but gentle presses… on side, back, etc etc… In the end this is what I did to unlock it…
* Place “Locked in Hold” iPod on it’s edge.
* Glently but firmly press the side with the palm of my hand, squeezing the unit against a desk…
* and at the same time, stroke the touch wheel…
* When the backlight comes on the iPod starts to respond… and while still pressing, move the hold switch from On to off!
I recommend you avoid anything to do with screwdrivers