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After Apple’s promise to “investigate” iPod Classic syncing problems we reported before Christmas, users had hoped the release of iTunes 9.0.3 would bring an end to their playlist problems and sluggish syncing. But we’ve heard that the issues are persisting, with your fellow Electricpig brethren telling us that the latest update hasn’t helped their woes in any way.

We asked you last week to tell us if iTunes 9.0.3 fixed the syncing nightmares we reported on last year, and have received a raft of complaints which suggest all is still not well with the latest version of Apple’s jukebox software.

Electricpig reader Daneta Clark said, “My 160GB iPod Classic will no longer sync with iTunes since uploading the latest version 9.0.3. Running a complete file scan has turned up nothing, resetting iPod doesn’t help either.”

It seems Clive Parrot has also had similar struggles, “Downloaded 9.0.3 and iTunes asked me to restore iPod. I did and then it told me iTunes was not authorised. All this on a Core i7 system which has worked perfectly since I built it. All in all very disappointed and frustrated, I have had 6 iPods so I am a loyal user. The issues with iTunes recently have tainted this.”


iTunes 9: iPod Classic syncing issues persist


Devlin said the update hadn’t fixed any of the niggles he’d been having with his iPod Classic. “This didn’t fix any of my problems,” he said. “iPod classic 160GB still syncs to some random song and stops. Error message “disc can’t be read from or written to.””

These don’t appear to be isolated cases either, with more of you telling us that iTunes simply wasn’t working after you’d installed the update. “After installing iTunes 9.0.3, account authorisation failed so that I could not play DRM protected music and videos inside iTunes,” says Hugo L. “Plus I could not copy the protected music to my iPod Mini (second generation) anymore. Went back to iTunes 9.0.2 and everything is fine now.”

Stewart Paske hopped onto Electricpig to say, “I sat at the desk watching my iPod resync from scratch. It’s putting all my tunes on again after returning it to factory settings, and it still continues to fail at putting my smart playlists onto my iTunes.” Apple said last week that iTunes 9.0.3, “…addresses problems with syncing some Smart Playlists.”

Septicstumpen said he was still having problems too, “No fix for me. I’ve got 2 iPod classics. One 80GB which connects but won’t sync, and another 80GB that will not connect . My iPod touch shows no connection, plus my brand new nano doesn’t work. All my iPods worked well before iTunes 9.”

And as before, plenty of you are saying you’re no longer keen on buying Apple products after this latest wobble. Gonzalo said, “Well, I tried the new update of iTunes 9 but it doesn’t work. Still having troubles when I sync my iPod Classic 120GB. This is the first time (and the last) I buy something from Apple.”

But it’s T Smith whose remarks are the most telling, “Just installed 9.0.3, as soon as i plug my iPod in it quits iTunes, so STILL cannot sync. Wish they put as much effort getting this resolved as they did into coming up with the iPad.” Let’s hope so, otherwise Cupertino is going to be facing some seriously disgruntled punters come April.

We need more evidence to find out if this is a widespread problem with iTunes 9.0.3, so make sure you get in touch now.

Tell us in the comments section about your struggles with iTunes 9.0.3. Make sure you give us as much detail as possible, including the year you bought it and what type of iPod it is.

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  • http://none Tim

    Smart playlist sycning when podcasts are involved is broken. More importantly, the recent update to itunes broke it. The playlist shows that it has been copied to the device but won’t show up on the playlist display. I’m using itunes 9.0.3 and os 3.1.3. Very frustrating bug that is making my brothers android look very attractive.

  • Kenny

    After my beloved 80g ipod classic pooped out a month ago, I’ve been mulling on buying a new ipod classic. With these recent rampant developments in the problems with itunes I am seriously considering other options. 250 USD just seems too hefty a price to pay for constant headaches with apple.

    • http://www.electricpig.co.uk Ben Sillis

      Don’t be afraid to try another flavour of fruit. Just get a MP3 player that will work with doubleTwist, and you won’t even miss iTunes.

      • kenny

        I think I’m going to end up getting a zune 120.

  • Jas

    Oh my God, this is so annoying. I upgraded on sunday 7th and all of a sudden iTunes just froze and wouldn’t sync!!!
    It won’t recognize my iPod now and I’ve done the 5 r’s on the apple website (what a load of old sh*t).
    I even followed all sorts of advice like changing the letter on letters and paths but that still won’t work and my computer freezes every time I try to reformat it. Now it says my iPod is corrupt!

    Corrupt?! WTF?! What’s it been doing now? Taking bribes from iPad?!

    Restoring it doesnt work and It looks like I’m screwed.

    Apple is EVIL.

    I’m starting up a rival company called Pear, who wants to join me?

    p.s. my iPod’s a 120gb classic and I got it for
    my b-day pn
    17th june 2009

  • Carol Clayton

    I just tried to update my iPod with some things I had recently downloaded, and it has completely crashed and failed. I’ve restored three times, have uncheckded sync all music and attempted to manual sync, but nothing. I paid quite a lot for this iPod and have had it for two years. Starting to get tired of Apple promising and not delivering. How do I go back to iTunes 8?

  • DaveW

    My classic iPod worked fine until I installed iTunes 9.0.3. Now iTunes says the iPod isn’t authorized, and when I try to authorize it the iTunes Store throws an internal error -42408. Mac OS 10.6.2. I haven’t started trying to troubleshoot yet – still searching forums for recommended approaches.

  • Stacy

    I’ve had pretty much the same problems everyone else is describing. As soon as I updated to Itunes 9, it told me my 160 gb iPod was corrupt and needed to be restored. When I did, it wouldn’t sync right. It’ll put about 500 songs on the iPod without any problems, but anything over that and it freezes up iTunes and won’t do anything. When it’s not plugged into a computer, my iPod works fine. I’ve done everything imaginable, including restoring, reformatting, trying disk mode. manually syncing small batches of songs, and using different computers. I want a new one, but don’t want to financially reward Apple for this apparent blunder.

  • C Richards

    No change for me when using 9.0.3 – can still only sync around 20 Gb at most on my Classic 120 Gb, symptoms the same as other users posting on the Apple discussion boards (exactly as described in comment above). Tried Apple tech Support yet again, but the agent claimed to know nothing about problems caused by iTunes 9 and suggested it was probably a hardware fault. Out of warranty (by about 3 months) and so I’m off to try taking it back to the retailer to complain, and if no joy, then it’s a Cowon I suppose.

  • Marieke

    I upgraded to Snow Leopard a few days ago and just discovered this massively irritating bug. iTunes doesn’t crash, my 80gb classic doesn’t either, but it’s not like there’s any action otherwise. My imac and itunes just seem to ignore my ipod completely.

  • Candice

    itunes is rubbish! I never cease to be amazed at just how awful it is. New software update doesn’t improve it in any way. According to my iphone, which was loaded up with everything I wanted after about 3 hours yesterday, is today saying that I need to remove my whole music collection from my iphone and reloaded – just so I can add one album. Amazing!

  • Peter Gray

    I have the same problem with iTunes 9.0.3, iPod touch 8Gb, Macbook pro 10.6. iPod comes up as requiring restore, then gets half way through, after that iTunes won’t respond. Same on another Mac. This is clearly going to need a very quick bug fix or Apple are in trouble! Very irritating especially as I didn’t really want an iTunes new version in the first place, and it was problematic to download through software update.

  • Shas

    My ipod touch is no longer recognized at all by my MacBook when I attach via the USB. It is however on another Mac I tested … a Mac running an older version of iTunes (My MacBook is running 9.0.3). When I plug it in nothing happens on the iPod screen at all. Can’t even tell if it’s charging.

  • http://www.stewartpaske.co.uk Stewart Paske

    Hey guys!

    First of all, thanks for including my first comments in the article. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

    As I am sure you can imagine, I am still suffering from the same problems as before Christmas. My iTunes still fails to upload any of my smart playlists with more than one rule. This is annoying as I have had to take my “300 Most Listened Tracks” and “300 Newest Tracks” playlists and make similar playlists that return everything from audiobooks to podcasts, where all I want are my tunes!

  • http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2010/02/09/itunes-9-0-3-ipod-classic-syncing-snags-continue/ Klaun

    I have a new 80GB ipod classic and it wont connect to itunes9.0.3. When i go to computer on the windows vista the ipod shows up but when i open itunes the ipod doesnt. Also when I first tried to connect all my songs were erased.

  • alicia

    I just tried to sync my iphone with itunes 9 and itunes wont even open when i plug in the usb cord. whats going on? i spent about 3 hours in the apple store last month restoring my phone, and a month later im having problems again?!?!?!? has anyone else had this problem?

  • Jerry

    I”m having the same problem. 9.0.3 did not help. Plus, my 80 gig ipod classic, which was working perfectly until the other day, is now corrupted and won’t even boot.

  • StephanieR

    Same problem. Attach 80gb classic ipod to macbook running 9.0.3 and think whole thing freezes. CPU peaks at 100 then crashes back to 0 and stops the sync completely. Utterly devastated. Have reset, restored, reformatted and still a totally useless ipod that was working seemlessly before.

    Please help!

  • Frances Shuttlewood

    I purchased my ipod classic 120 gb about 3 months ago and it and itunes worked perfectly. I manually sync my music as I did not want to store all of my cds on my computer. Everything was fine until the new version 9.03 and now if I upload a cd onto my computer it will not sync to my ipod. I can however purchase music from itunes and that will sync without any problem. Funny eh!!!

  • Geordie

    I got my ipod classic in 2008 and had no problems with it at all until I downloaded itunes 9. Since then it won’t recognise my ipod when I plug it into my laptop and itunes just freezes. I downloaded itunes 9.03 but the same thing still happens. Has anyone managed to fix this?

  • Kent Brown

    So I buy a new 160G IPod Classic and transferred a couple c.d.s over to it from Itunes and the pod is still syncing, it has been this way for an hour so far. My 120G I have to keep resetting it or reformatting it over and over again. When I try and put new music on it.

  • shawn

    wow i thought i was alone in this mess… never imagined it so many people were having the same issues… so now what we all sit and wait for apple to fix the problem… or go out and buy a new mp3 player something preferably NOT an apple product!!!!!! i am so frustrated, i have the 80 gb ipod classic and it is doing the same thing as EVERYONE else has described, my ipod is currently empty… i have tries every troubleshooting suggestion from itunes plus a million others i found posted here and there

  • Geoff

    I am so goddamn tired of Apple and iTunes and iPods. I’ve had at least 5 different high capacity iPod models and every one has failed at some point. If I hadn’t bought them a certain big box store with an excellent return policy, I’d be out close to $2000 by now. But that store’s return policy has recently changed, so now I’m stuck with a $300 brick that isn’t even usable with 3rd party software like Sharepod now, thanks to this iTunes 9 disaster. Same story as everyone else- upgraded, now I am in a constant loop of reformatting, resetting, iTunes stalling when trying to add music. The problem is, when everything is running smoothly, the intergrated podcasts, smart syncing, and smart playlist features of iTunes and the high storage capacity of the iPod Classic are tough to beat. But screw it, I’m done. I’m a Zune man from now on. I’ll sacrifice all that for something that doesn’t crap out on me every 13 months, 1 month after the warranty is up. I am naming this useless iPod “F— You Steve Jobs.”

  • Holly Jay Foster

    WARNING TO IPOD OWNERS:
    Do not update to the latest software iTunes 9.2, as it causes more problems with syncing and causes the ipod to 'screech' when connected. Looks like despite their claim that they were investigating the issues, it's still not their priority!

  • Knathan8948

    I've had no problems syncing music to my ipod, but ever since I updated to the newest version of Itunes I can no longer sync new music on my ipod. it lets me take music off, but it won't let me put any on. It'll basically go through the whole process of syncing, and then at the very end a box will pop up and say “could not sync, an unknown error has occured.” I don't know what to do!!

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