Disabled friends nightmare with her first ipod touch

[Kissaragi]

My friend who is bedbound with severe CFS bought her first ipod touch about a month ago and has had nothing but problems with it and itunes ever since. First of all about 20% of her wmas imported into itunes with skips and silent patches, she keeps getting the ipod unrecognised errors, she cant delete certain tv shows from itunes whatever she does, she cant access the list of podcasts, itunes crashes constantly and many other small problems. I have checked shes not just making mistakes in the way shes doing things, all the problems seem to be centred around itunes

Having severe CFS means that shes not only physically bedbound but mentally she finds it extremely hard to cope with problems, she has rung apple once and didnt get a very good response so she is worried about ringing again and the effect of the stress from ringing them will have on her health. If it was my ipod i could keep ringing or camp outside an apple store until they either sorted it or refunded me, but thats not an option for her. Unfortunately i live many miles away so im unable to go over there and ring for her but im her only 'mac savvy' friend.

Can i ring for her from a distance and pass on the steps they say to try? Or can she email apple customer support? Writing an email over a few hours with my help would be much easier for her than ringing.

Or could she return it to the retailer she brought it from (argos in the uk) as faulty?

This has to be sorted one way or the other and soon but id like some advice from you guys on the best way to do that

Thanks very much.

[duncyboy]

Does/did your friend have any other kind of iPod previously? Is iTunes installed on a Mac or PC? Is the computer in question bang up to date? Is the iPod firmware up to date?

Narrowing the problem down between iPod and iTunes can be tricky. Just syncing an iPod to iTunes isn't enough to cause iTunes problems. Then again, the fact she's having multiple, varying problems with the iPod could mean that's the cause.

I'd recommend making sure all the updates to iTunes and iPod are in place and a full restore of the iPod first.

Hope this helps.

[Kissaragi]

Does/did your friend have any other kind of iPod previously? Is iTunes installed on a Mac or PC? Is the computer in question bang up to date? Is the iPod firmware up to date?

Narrowing the problem down between iPod and iTunes can be tricky. Just syncing an iPod to iTunes isn't enough to cause iTunes problems. Then again, the fact she's having multiple, varying problems with the iPod could mean that's the cause.

I'd recommend making sure all the updates to iTunes and iPod are in place and a full restore of the iPod first.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply. Shes never had any type of ipod before, just sony mp3 and mp4 players. Its a windows laptop running windows 7 with all the latest updates. Itunes and the ipod firmware are also fully upto date. She did a full restore last night and it didnt seem to make a difference. All the problems seem to be centred around itunes and syncing, the ipod touch itself appears to work fine when the content actually gets onto it.

[elpmas]

I'm just wondering...wouldn't making the wma files into mp3 files do the trick?

[Kissaragi]

I'm just wondering...wouldn't making the wma files into mp3 files do the trick?

Possibly, but that problem is probably the most minor at the moment.

Are there any good, reliable solutions to not using itunes to sync? is there a program she could just drag and drop music and movies onto the touch with?

[duncyboy]

I'm just wondering...wouldn't making the wma files into mp3 files do the trick?

This is a good idea- I've had problems using Apple's own 128 AAC syncing option on both a Touch and Nano so it's not beyond belief there's a problem with WMA too.

Another thing to try, often favoured by the Geniuses (Geniii???) at the Apple Store is to sync one or two things at a time.

Wipe the Touch and try a few WMA's first. Then a few vids and so on. See if the problem rears its ugly mook at any particular stage?

[Moocher]

Her best solution given her situation is to reach out to local friends to try to find a local iTunes "wizard" who can help by actually taking her Touch and setting it up for her or trouble-shooting it and getting it fixed. I suggest she ask her friends if they know any teenagers who are good with iPods and iTunes.

Anything we tell her to do will likely lead to frustration and anything we tell you will be for naught since you are so far away.


Mooch