Ipod Classic....failure to synch

[Luna Baby]

Not looking for any help on resolving the issue, really. Just that we have an appointment scheduled for Saturday to meet with a "Genius Bar" tech to have my son's iPod Classic looked at for repair/replacement. The stupid piece of technology is less than 6 month old and has begun to fail to synch. My son has over 10,000 songs in his itunes library and can get less than 500 on the thing before the synch fails. I called the tech support line for assistance (son did so the night before but they blew him off and told him it was his "anti-virus"). In order to get help via phone, I must pay additional money in order to troubleshoot the problem-even though it's still under warranty! I've opted to take a short trip to meet directly with a rep for repair/replacement that's free all but my fuel to get there.

Has anyone else dealt with these "Genius Bar" techs? I feel like I've been pushed around on the phone and won't stand for it. I was nice to the tech on the phone when I told him that basically the options he gave me for telephone support weren't acceptable and he understood though I did feel like he was trying to make me feel a little dumber than what I really am...."Let me walk you through the troubleshooting online....." and "Let me walk you through setting up your return for service or appointment with Genius Bar, etc" I'm smart enough to get online and find your phone number, I think I'm smart enough to walk myself through getting an appointment!

I just hope they don't "dumb it down" too much when we hit the Nashville store Saturday. Some Apple employees are going to learn just what I think of Apple and their products if they do. This is the 3rd apple product we've bought (2 touches-1 for each boy and now the classic...) and I'm not impressed...at all.

[emax4]

I tend to try and fix my own issues, so I haven't used the bar before. I think the Mac Geniuses have a flowchart to follow, but I could be mistaken.

Does your son sync the iPod across multiple computers? Is he using a PC or a Mac? I know that Apple has both forums that users can post questions and answers on (even if it's something like iTunes on a PC), and Apple has their own sets of documents regarding to both hardware and software.

Are all 10,000 songs in the same location (physical computer or media)? If worse comes to worse, I would just reset the device entirely to factory settings. I've been using an iPod Touch for a few years, but before that I had an iPod Video. I can't remember a reset from the device would just do the settings, or reformat the drive. on the iPod Touch and iPhone, the internal flash drive is reformatted.

[Arcus]

The first time I had problems with my Classic syncing, the "Genius Bar" guy said it was because I was using a PC and not a Mac. I rolled my eyes at him, rebooted my Ipod (using the hard reboot. Press and hold the Menu and center button til it resets) then hooked it back up to my laptop. It synced right up. I then did a scandisk of the iPod drive and it played nice. I did all this in front of the 'tech' that told me it was my computer. He wasn't too happy with me that I fixed it in front of everyone by not buying a Mac. I found that I have to use this trick about once a year, but my Classic is 5 years old now. I'd like to think that the new models don't need this trick.

[Aethian]

Our guys in GR are lovely to deal with. That being said when my iPod touch was doing that I did a fresh install of iTunes and it fixed it right up.

[Aislin]

I have always had good luck with the genius bar. The repaired 2 macs 3 iPods 2 iPhones and an iPad for me over the years and always been polite and fun. I have neve paid a dime and the onetime I was going to have to pay the tech told me a mom and pop joint down the road would be cheaper and sent me on my way.

[Der Cute]

All the times I've gone to an Apple store, they've been very helpful and good to me. I haven't had any issues at all with the Genius bar or the staff in the store.

[Luna Baby]

Well, I decided I'd rather not give up my entire Saturday, so I called to see if I could get in last night (I called at 5 pm after I got off from work!). Sure thing, he said. I went to my 5:30 appointment, dropped off the hubby and grabbed the teen and all needed equipment and headed down I65 for that 1.75 hour drive. Got there about 10 minutes prior to my scheduled appointment time. The guy checked me in, pointed me out to a nice quiet spot in the store where we could place and set up the lappy and just hang out. Shortly, along came Chris, our technician. I can say nothing but good things about him. He had us bring up the iTunes app on the lappy and in the meantime, he ran back to run a diagnostic on the unit. Comes back with, "Well, I have good news and bad news." My heart just sunk. I just knew that the it was gonna be "it can be fixed but your son caused it so it'll be $xxx." Boy was I wrong! His words were, "The bad news is-it's broken. The good news-here's you a brand new one!" No charge, no nothing! He had my son go ahead and synch a bit to make sure he could get everything going and low and behold, we made it home 6 hours after we started out!-----6 hours because I got lost in Nashville somehow looking for somewhere to eat.

Baseball game is calling my name. Gotta run!!!!

[emax4]

I'm so glad it worked out for you and you had a positive experience as well!

[Bardmaiden]

My sister had a similar experience, took her Iphone in to see if a small issue could be fixed, the home button didn't always work. Guys in the Apple shop were like we can't fix it but have a new one on us (it was within warranty though).

[JetGirl]

It was probably the hard drive.

[Luna Baby]

Yes, JetGirl, it was. In the tech's own words, "It's broken." But we did get a brand spanking new one so we're all good now.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Rename the iPod "Titanic."

It'll synch fine, then.

[lordlundar]

Rename the iPod "Titanic."

It'll synch fine, then.

Oh boo. You deserve a dose of bad karma for that one.

[MadMike]

Rename the iPod "Titanic."

It'll synch fine, then.

But I thought it was unsynchable.

I have an iPod as well, and it's somewhat of a pain when something goes wrong with it, as the nearest Apple store is about 45 minutes away from me. But I have to give them credit, they have wonderful customer service. The one time, the problem turned out to be my fault, and it was just outside of the warranty, and they still gave me a replacement at no charge.

In my defense, I honestly didn't know that what I was doing could damage it. When I wasn't using the headphones, i.e. I had it hooked up to the car stereo or the computer, I'd wrap the cord around the iPod. I got away with that for awhile, but then one day the sound stopped coming out of one side. The guy told me that if you're going to wrap the cord around it like that, you need to unplug it from the headphone jack, or you could damage it. It would have been nice if they mentioned that in the manual, but at least I know now, and they were nice enough to replace it for me. Haven't had a problem since.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Rename the iPod "Titanic."

It'll synch fine, then.

Yeah, watch out for the iBerg app.