iPod Classic 160 and song/playlist names

G

gulmatan

Registered
Hello all,

For the last five weeks I’ve been All but pulling my hair out in trying to remedy why my iPod Classic 160 (not the 120) randomly hard resets during normal iPod functionality—menu browsing, playlist browsing, settings customisation, etc. But, no matter what, and which operation, the iPod will, on its own, hard reset itself.

Now, mind you, I’ve made various trips to the local Apple Store. Three of which have served to exchange the Classic 160 for a brand spankin’ new one. After each new one, the random reset fiasco began all over again. On my latest trip to the Apple Store, I brought my PowerBook G4, running OS/X 10.4.11 with me. The ‘Genius’ told me that my iPod resets may probably vanish if I rename my playlists and/or songs/artists without the special characters.

So, if this is the case/solution, just what are the acceptable characters and which are not allowed in my names for songs, artists, playlists, folders/subfolders?

Thanks
 
I would think sticking to alphanumerics and simple underscores and hyphens would be the best bet.

Can you provide an example of some of the characters you believe may be causing the trouble? Are they as simple as !, @, #, $, %, ^, &, *, (, ), or are they accented characters? Dots? Are they all simple English, or do they require special keypresses to enter them?
 
Here are some examples of my playlist names:

&#8776;&#8776;<<Cool &#8217;09--Breezy & Covered>>&#8776;&#8776;

Cover Girls (and Boys)--**]]//Going Undercover\\[[**

««&#8220;Young Divas&#8221;»»EXPANDED SET

»»(Ø) Moving In Stereo
(the Ø tells me this is a preliminary playlist that I wish to leave off of my Sync list)

and a playlist folder example: &#9674;&#305;&#9674;&#305;&#9674;&#305;&#9674;&#305;&#9674;Heavenly Voices&#9674;&#305;&#9674;&#305;&#9674;&#305;&#9674;&#305;&#9674;
 
Yikes. Why?

gulmatan said:
Here are some examples of my playlist names:

&#8776;&#8776;<<Cool &#8217;09--Breezy & Covered>>&#8776;&#8776;

Cover Girls (and Boys)--**]]//Going Undercover\\[[**

««&#8220;Young Divas&#8221;»»EXPANDED SET

and a playlist folder example: &#9674;&#305;&#9674;&#305;&#9674;&#305;&#9674;&#305;&#9674;Heavenly Voices&#9674;&#305;&#9674;&#305;&#9674;&#305;&#9674;&#305;&#9674;
Click to expand...

I see no problem with number two. All of the characters used are easily inputted without complex keystrokes (i.e., they're all "standard" characters that would be used in most sentences, methinks).

I see potential problems with all the others. Whether or not they're the root cause of the reboots, I haven't the foggiest. Apple is pretty good about supporting all manner of weird characters, but I would have to say that it's worth a try renaming them to more "sane" names, like:

Cool 2009 - Breezy & Covered
Cover Girls (and Boys) - Going Undercover
Young Divas [Expanded Set]
Heavenly Voices

If you want to get creative, using asterisks, brackets and slashes to make one playlist visually different from another wouldn't be out of the question. Do the reboots happen on one, particular playlist, or is it truly random?

I realize it may look "cool," but what purpose, other than identifiability, do those characters serve? I hate to even ask what the song names are titled... ;)
 
I had issues in the past with BAD MP3 files... Everytime I played a specific (corrupted) music, it would reset my iPod. All the musics you have, I'm sure you created yourself - right? You didn't download from non-secure places, right? Please, check the quality of the files, sometimes that also makes the iPod reset.
Cheers,
 
To answer the operational question: the hard resets are truly random and occur during normal menu, playlist browsing or even 'Settings' screen operations.

Honestly, and I'm not going to get into it but, this is ME! This naming convention reflects my ingenuity, creativity and my identity and who I am. And by the way, the song names are conventional--nothing awkward, nothing peculiar, nothing outlandish:

here's a list of what's in that "Moving in Stereo" set:


The Loco-Motion (7&#8221; Mix) Kylie Minogue
The Loco-Motion Grand Funk Railroad
Love Train Holly Johnson
Love Train The O&#8217;Jays
Train Of Thought a~ha
Peace Train 10,000 Maniacs
Long Train Running Bananarama
Jumping Someone Else&#8217;s Train The Cure
 
Last edited:
I understand completely, and we won't get into it... but realize that they're playlist names -- not a manifesto, not your personality, not your approachability, and they reflect little about who you are. I know nothing more or less about your creativity, your identity, nor your ingenuity after seeing a sample of your playlist names.

Still, I understand the need for creative expression. My own opinion notwithstanding, I still think it prudent to try and name them in a less "creative" manner and see if that helps... I think it's at least worth a try, and I doubt you'll feel any less creative or lose part of your identity in the process. If it doesn't help, then -- no harm, no foul, and you can name them right back to the creative names they were previously.

It's worth a shot... whether you want to take that shot or not is up to you. If the reboots are completely random and happen on different songs at different times, then it's likely the names you've given those playlists has little to nothing to do with the reboots. However, if you can reproduce the reboot by playing a specific playlist, or performing a specific action related to playlist names, then I would say there's a higher correlation between using those "creative" names and your iPod rebooting problem.
 
I understand your perspective but, the randomness of the resets are a repeated behaviour no matter what I'm doing--menu browsing, 'Settings' config, or even playlist visiting (not playing them, just browsing).
 
So if it is randomness only by navigating... I will have to believe ElDiablo is correct.
Sorry for the threat to your identity.
Cheers
 
Well, here's the glitch--I have not found, even in the iPod's own PDF manual what the character set is and which characters by use of Option or Option-Shift are within the range of suitable characters. Now, if I had that list, I'd know what characters I can use.

Further peculiarity--my 80GB iPod Video never balked or hard reset when I had these songs and playlists. So, why with this Classic?
 
Last edited:
Since it happens in the settings menu and other areas of the iPod unrelated to playlists, I'm inclined to believe the characters don't have anything to do with it.

I have heard of random iPod resets before... I'll try and track down some information and possible fixes.
 
I am aware that 120s were flaky and Apple fixed whatever that glitch was but, mine is a 160. So, it makes me wonder if the 160 line suffers the same mishap.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top