iPod Classic - major sync problems

jrar

Having major sync issues all of a sudden - connected up my device same as always but although it recognizes the device and starts the sync process, it times out before it finishes and I have to force a disconnection. When it first happened 2 days ago, I had 31 new podcasts to sync, and it got to 10 of 31 before stalling - when I checked my device after the manual disconnect, 1 of the podcasts had been updated. I've tried again several times but end up with code 50 errors or other errors stating that a particular podcast cannot be uploaded due to problems encountered etc. - that's fine but then inevitably the sync never completes and I sometimes end up with a msg telling me my device wasn't recognized.

Yet, if I check the music library, the recently played view has been updated fine so it seems to be sticking on podcast refreshes only - any ideas ??
( I've tried it with different cables just to eliminate that as the source of the problem - also have latest version of iTunes - working off Windows Vista)
Also ran diagnostics and got the following :

Returns - 18,
Reallocs - 294
PendingSector - 4
PowerOn Hrs - 1561
Start/Stops - 695
Temp Current - 30C
Temp Min - 4C
Temp Max - 49C

UPDATE - tried again this morining and the result is that all of my podcasts and music (7500+ songs) have been deleted from my device !! Help please !

Zcott

It sounds a lot like hard drive failure :-(

braddun

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5537490

jrar

UPDATE - followed the steps to do an iTunes file consolidation, then backed it to my hard-drive, then backed everything else to my hard-drive and finally took the Restore option on iTunes.

Device was re-set to factory settings and I then connected it up and tried to sync - success !! However, although my music library has 7500+ songs, only 5016 were synced along with all of my podcasts.

What I've noticed on the songs that didn't sync is that they all have a circled exclamation mark symbol against them on the iTunes playlists and it would appear that when syncing, it cannot locate the original file, but that doesn't make a lot of sense to me given that I consolidated my entire music library supposedly into one place, and if I look at 1 particular artist, I have 2 of their CDs which were imported in from a memory stick so ought to have the exact same attributes, yet 1 of the CDs appears in my playlist no problem, and the other hasn't synced because it appears on my playlist with the "warning" symbol described above !

Do I manually need to manipulate my iTunes library files to ensure all of the data is gathered there for syncing or is there an easier way to do this ?

Thanks

Afterlight

OP a similar issue used to happen to my old classic, I found downloading an old version of iTunes resolved the issue. If you dig through a few apple forums you'll find plenty of threads re: what you're experiencing.

Also in re: '!' you must have the usb plugged in whilst syncing or drag and drop the music onto your laptop. Otherwise the music is not locatable for the iPod to sync it. Drag and dropping from usb to iTunes doesn't save.