Obscure Tech Stuff

I post this because I can’t be the only one to have ever had this issue — but I also can’t find any online reference to it. And if I can save just one iPod, it will all be worth it.

Problem was: iTunes wouldn’t let go of my beloved iPod Classic. After syncing, the iPod would go through its “Safe to Disconnect” routine… then reconnect and resync all over again. Clicking eject didn’t help. Switching “Disk Mode” on and off and back again didn’t help. Sometimes, I’d have to go through the disconnect procedure four or five times before iTunes would finally let go.

So I made an appointment at the Apple Store, and even though the nice tech couldn’t replicate the problem, she was happy to replace my iPod, no further questions asked.

Got home, uploaded 11,000 songs, and… the same problem.

I was getting angry. Apple Care wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.

(At one point, I became convinced that Steve Jobs had sabotaged the iPod Classic software, so he could stop making those old, “ugly” models and force everyone into switching to prettier Nanos and Touches. If my paranoia gets any worse, I’ll see my endocrinologist ahead of schedule and make sure my thyroid isn’t out of whack again.)

Next best guess was that something had gotten corrupted in iTunes. But rather than try to fix it, I just dealt with the issue for a few days. See, I’d messed up iTunes a couple years before, poking around where I shouldn’t have. And as a result, lost all my star ratings, play counts, smart play lists, brilliant play lists, etc. Pretty much everything got nuked except for the actual music and cover art.

And I really didn’t want to go through all that again. So I just planned my days around it taking a couple minutes, sometimes longer, to eject my iPod.

Last night, I was poking around the system, doing stuff I maybe shouldn’t, and noticed there was an iPod icon (a shortcut to the real deal) in the root directory of my Time Machine drive. I’d probably accidentally created it while dragging the desktop iPod icon to the Trash Can to eject it. But then for whatever reason stopped short right on top of the Time Machine icon and dropped an iPod shortcut there.

Deleted the shortcut. Problem solved. I think that shortcut was trying to link up with the actual device, and in the process was resyncing with iTunes. Over and over again.

Hey, wait — I did just save one iPod. So happy it was my own.