itunes sync music to ipod but music not visible in ipod once disconnected

[hatbrox]

Hi,

my ipod nano refuses to show any songs I've synchronized.
it all started last week, I connected the nano to charge the battery and change my music selection.
Itunes (v 8.1 (50)) told me something like it had to erase the ipod for some reasons. I didn't care, since all music is on itunes anyway so I did it.
Next, I click on the Ipod device in Itunes.
On the summary tab, I have the "sync only checked songs and videos" (and "manually manage music and videos" is unchecked)
I click the "apply" button
then I add some playlists (from the music tab), select a few playlists
I can see the sync happening, it tooks a few minutes and I saw all the audio files being copied over until I see "iPod sync is complete"
the capacity now shows 2 gb for audio
I disconnected the ipod and browse my music but the ipod says there is no music at all.

I reconnect the ipod to the imac, I browse the music from the device in itunes and I see that all music is greyed out.
In the summary tab of the ipod, I uncheck "sync only checked songs and videos" and check "manually manage music and videos" and click apply
songs are not greyed out anymore in itunes but when I disconnect the ipod I still can't see any music on the ipod.

I bet this has to do with the itunes update I installed a week ago.
I only use my ipod with my imac, no other computer and it was always working fine until last week.

What is going on? Can anyone help?
Thanks

[appleman_design]

i would format the ipod and start fresh.

[hatbrox]

Thanks for your reply and help.
I formatted the ipod with Disk Utility, started itunes, it asked me a few setup questions and then it started to sync my music.
Unfortunately, when I disconnect the ipod, it still say "no music".
The only items I successfully synced are the photos.
music and podcasts won't show up on the ipod. I don't know about video as I don't have any.
I also noticed that every time I connect the ipod, itunes syncs all songs again.

Has anyone another suggestion?
(one suggestion I heard was to setup itunes on a windows machine and see how the ipod behaves, but this takes a bit of time). Although this will not solve my problem, it will maybe tell whether the ipod or itunes/Mac OS is defective.

[engelluk]

Hi hatbrox,

I've exactly the same problem with my setup
iPod Classic / Mac OSX 10.4.11 / iTunes 8.1 (50)

It looks like an iTunes and not iPod problem because I'm still able to transfer music to the same iPod from a different Mac, but not from the origin one.

Did you made any progress with your problem?

Regards
Lukas

[derriere1111]

Any updates here? I have a Classic iPod 160GB. I had it filled with music and movies and after I upgraded to iTunes 8.1 everything was OK except that iTunes thought there was corrupted data on the iPod. No problem because I could still watch the movies and listen to the music.

At some point, I decided to reload my 160GB of music since much had changed over time. So I erased the iPod via disk utility and reloaded as much of the music as would fit by manually clicking and dragging "Music" to iPod. Took forever and I could see each individual track being copied across in the iTunes window.

When it finished, I ejected the iPod and found that, even though I only had a couple GB of space left, the iPod said there was no music.

Tried with Autofill and even though iTunes now sees some "audio" on the iPod and even gives me the names of tracks, the iPod still says "no music".

Any hints? Ideas? How can Apple allow this to exist?

I upgraded to 8.1.1 but no difference.

[powerless]

I have same problem. After having re-installed Mac OS X and updating to the latest version, plus having the latest iTunes and iPod software, this Ipod synchronizes fine but no music shows on the iPod after. When reconnecting to my MacBook Pro the music and everything else shows up in iTunes as "other". HAve reset the iPod a number of times . Nothing works.

Is this a Mac Forum? Does the company monitor and answer questions? WHy has no one addressed this issue since hatbrox posted in february?

Grateful for anything but silence...

/p

[derriere1111]

Here's an update...

I "restored" the iPod. So it is back to an empty iPod with the latest/last firmware for a 6th Generation iPod Classic 160GB. I left iTunes at the 8.1.1 level and copied just one albums worth of data. This showed up as "Audio" versus "Other". I could see the music on the iPod!!!

So I re-restored again and Autofilled.

All systems go.

This doesn't explain why it wouldn't work before but at least it is working.

Hope it all works out for you.

[derriere1111]

Thanks for your reply and help.
I formatted the ipod with Disk Utility, started itunes, it asked me a few setup questions and then it started to sync my music.
Unfortunately, when I disconnect the ipod, it still say "no music".
The only items I successfully synced are the photos.
music and podcasts won't show up on the ipod. I don't know about video as I don't have any.
I also noticed that every time I connect the ipod, itunes syncs all songs again.

Has anyone another suggestion?
(one suggestion I heard was to setup itunes on a windows machine and see how the ipod behaves, but this takes a bit of time). Although this will not solve my problem, it will maybe tell whether the ipod or itunes/Mac OS is defective.

I also did, at some stage, what you did - that is, using disk utility to erase the iPod. Use the "Restore" function instead. Then Autofill or Sync as usual. Give it a try.

Rob

[ipod anger]

Hi, I just updated my iTunes to 8.1.1. last night and at that point my iPod Nano 3rd generation deleted all of my music files. I reformatted it as it suggested, but it would update and then turn the blue Audio files to unrecognizable "OTHER" orange files. I thought it must be my iPod. But tried to reset it on my PC - VIsta iTunes and it works just fine - all the music shows just fine. The issue then must be with Mac iTunes 8.1.1. - and the way it updates the music files. I am also manually updating it. I tried to select and unselect all the options from using the Disk to not...no solution, no changes. My iPod still showing the space is taken up, but no songs on it. PLEASE HELP.

[ipod anger]

powerless - you said it in such a shorter message - we seem to have exactly the same issue - and I am also wondering why there are no replies to this issue.....

[derriere1111]

My problems have vanished. Stayed at iTunes 8.1.1. "Restore"d iPod and used Autofill to reload iPod. All works now!

Strange.

[ipod anger]

unfortunately, I have done all of that. I reset the ipod from the ipod menu, copied just one album, it copies, shows as music AUDIO(in blue bars) , and as soon as you disconnect it, it turns orange - OTHER.....

[derriere1111]

Did you "RESTORE" at the iTunes "devices" entry? This would force a re-install of the Classic iPod 1.1.2 firmware.

Then copy or autofill.

It frustrates me that there are so many weird things that happen in iTunes and iPod world that Apple doesn't seem to care about.

[zombiesfordinnr]

hi there
i got this problem with my ipod shuffle, i use to beable to select ablums and put them on my ipod, now it wont do it, it will only autofill.
any ideas how to fix it?
i did put it back to factory settings, and i have the latest itunes.
thanks.

[rajpoot]

I had this happen with my son's ipod classic whereby he went to sync it and apparently lost everything - thanks to this forum i thought it may be down to the itunes update so i used pacifist to install the previous release of itunes, deleted all off the update one, re-imported my library, restored the ipod and hey presto all is back fine and dandy - apple please don't go down the whole pc route of crap software and cynical practices. you are too good for that!

[Noidea]

Well it's quite funny that I have a quite same problem. Well it just won't download music from itunes to my ipod and I've got no clue what to do. So itunes has a serious problem. Maybe anyone can help because I don't want to empty my ipod because maybe I can't download music to it and I can't have a life without music..
Have a good day.

[derriere1111]

Try "restoring" it from iTunes and then use "Autofill". Worked for me.

[raymie]

I've had my iPod classic six months. It recently would not sync to my iTunes. It would appear that it was syncing, but when I detached the iPod, it would have no music or podcasts on it, nothing. After resetting and restoring several times, I tried syncing it with a PC, which worked. However, that wasn't a solution for me since all my music is on a Mac. So when I went back to my Mac, it still would not sync. I finally reinstalled iTunes 8.2 and my problem is solved. The iPod syncs. Hopefully this won't happen again.

[derriere1111]

There is weird stuff - inconsistent stuff - happening with iPods and iTunes. For every person who has problems with, say, Classic iPods and iTunes, there are hundreds, probably thousands of people who don't. And it isn't because of "user error". I have been an IT professional for 40+ years, and I know how to follow the manual.

So many times, trying things over and over finally resolves current issues. Re-installing iPod software and/or re-installing iTunes software, and in a certain sequence seems to fix problems that have no obvious cause.

Is it hard to build repeatability and consistency into cheap platforms such as iPods? I am a fan, but jeez, Apple makes it hard sometimes!

[jacobskis]

sorry to drag this on a few months after, but I have the same problem, if not a slight bit different.

I had the classic, and after putting all the artwork on it decided not to show it, so wanting my few hours of effort to have actually achieved something i 'restored' it.
now it WILL accept music onto it, but when I disconnect it, it's apparently empty.

apparently it's going to cost me a fair amount of money to fix, and I'm willing to pay this, eventually.

any more ideas appart from the ones that have been said?
'cause I've tried all those

[d7urban]

This has just started to happen with my iPod Touch, syncing with iTunes 9.0.2.25 on Windows Vista. If I sync without any playlists being added or removed, the iPod shows empty on all music, video and podcasts. Applications are still there though. If I add a new playlist or check the "fill empty space with music" and re-sync, everything show again. Same if I uncheck the the autofill box and sync. If I then click the Sync button, the iPod again says I have no music/videos etc, although the capacity bar says it is there.
This is very annoying!

[lovelyfasr]

This is a very big undertaking to do a website like that. I'm just saying that if you want to make something like this, work your way up. Start with simple websites and add functionality afterwards. This is not a 5 hour website.