Sync Issues with iPod touch - Takes many, many tries!

[Swampthing]

When I first got my iPod touch, I had no problems syncing it to my iMac. But ever since the 1.1.1 "update," I've had nothing but trouble getting this new iPod to sync. I've tried everything from plugging/unplugging the USB cord, connecting with iTunes open and closed, turning the power on the iPod on/off before sync attempt, reboot with iPod touch plugged in, and even reset the sync history which someone suggested in another forum.

Nothing works. Most of the time when I plug in the iPod touch with iTunes open, I get the infamous beach ball, and then the iPod doesn't show up. If I start with iTunes closed, it opens up iTunes, I get the syncing message at the top of iTunes, and the device shows up. It even starts to transfer a little bit, but then crashes and never finishes the transfer. I usually have to Force Quit the application because when I click on it, it says "Application Not Responding" and yes, I waited as long as a few hours to see if the sync would occur, but it doesn't.

The strange thing is that my 5.5 iPod syncs everytime without any issues at all!

Sometimes I can get it to work, doing one of these things, but it is getting REAL old. Is anyone else having problems like this with the new iPod touch and their iMac? I have the old lamp style iMac 800 MHz G4.

Any suggestions on getting the new iPod touch to sync?

[AlphaRob]

Are you plugging it into the computer directly through a USB 2.0 port? Because I once had a dock on the other side of my table and had an extension USB cord, and it wouldn't sync. Removing the extension cord and having a direct connection fixed things.

[Swampthing]

Yes, directly into the back of the iMac. I even tried exchanging my old iPod 5.5 cord with the new one... and that made no difference. Well, it did at first... but then stopped working again.

This is getting very frustrating... for the last 5 days, I haven't even been able to get it to sync once trying out everything I can.

[DerekVOF]

I had one of those old iMac G4 800MHz until just a few months ago. They don't have USB 2.0 ports, they have USB 1.1 ports which are noticeably slower. That's probably causing your sync issues -- Apple lists minimum requirements of USB 2.0.

Mac system requirements

* Mac computer with USB 2.0 port
* Mac OS X v10.4.10 or later
* iTunes 7.4 or later

[Swampthing]

Hmmm... I thought that USB 2.0 and 1.1 were 100% compatible, one was just slower. My PC has 2.0 ports, I wonder if the solution would be to transfer everything over there and from the Windows pc from now on. I keep my entire iTunes library on an external WD hard drive.

I've used MacDrive before to read my iPod on my PC when transferring music, so I assume it should be able to read an external Mac-formatted drive for iTunes.

[dpash]

i would take it to the Apple Store, see if they can help you, once you have tried all measures here.

[Reubania]

I don't think it's compatible. Don't take my words though, but probably the newly released iPods are a bit more fickle than the old generations.

I know I had the same problem with my 4G iPod, but I was on an XP machine. Everything synched perfectly when I installed firewire connections and used that connection instead of USB. But the newer generation iPods don't support firewire synching. Shame really.

[Hawkini]

I have the same problem with my XP pc and my 8GB iPod touch, it starts to sync, copies some of the track across and the losses the connection. it's incredibly frustrating. several other iPods have had no issues at all.