iPod touch How to stop the frickin' pop-up screen?

[mgguy]

For the past week, when I press the home button on my touch to exit applications like mail, a small pop-up screen appears that gives me an option to choose press either "close" or "music" buttons. If I chose close, then I get the home screen. If I chose music, it opens the music application. This never used to happen. I shut the touch down to see if that would get rid of it, and it worked so far. Does anyone know why this started occurring and whether there is an option to turn it off? I checked the Settings options for music and there was nothing in there that seemed related.

 

[WildCowboy]

That's what happens when you double click the home button. Rather than exiting the app to get at your music, the double click just brings up that overlay where you can adjust the music output.

At least on the iPhone, the settings for this are under Settings --> General --> Home Button. I can't remember if and where it is on the iPod touch.

 

[mgguy]

Thanks. But this was happening when I single clicked the home button. But it seems to have stopped after doing a shut down. There are no settings for the home button on the touch, at least I couldn't find one.

 

[sandman42]

The 'double-click home button' feature is not configurable on the iPod Touch like it is on the iPhone -- the only mode it has is to open the music controls.

OP, it sounds like your Touch was experiencing a bug where a single click of the home button was being interpreted as a double click, which would explain why a restart fixed it. Hopefully won't come back. Incidentally, that 'double-click' feature is pretty handy (when it works right), if you weren't already aware of it.

 

[mgguy]

Bummer. It started doing it again today. Every time I pressed the home button once the window popped up. I then shut it down again and it stopped again. I haven't used it much since then, so I have no idea whether this will continue and become an ongoing problem. If it keeps happening, I suppose I should take it in to the Apple store and have them run a test on it. That window is VERY annoying when you aren't interested in listening to music and just want to escape an application. I hope I can keep from throwing it down and stomping on it.

 

[Ivan P]

Bummer. It started doing it again today. Every time I pressed the home button once the window popped up. I then shut it down again and it stopped again. I haven't used it much since then, so I have no idea whether this will continue and become an ongoing problem. If it keeps happening, I suppose I should take it in to the Apple store and have them run a test on it. That window is VERY annoying when you aren't interested in listening to music and just want to escape an application. I hope I can keep from throwing it down and stomping on it.

You could also try a restore in iTunes.

Just hang in there, mine did it for about a week and then stopped, yours may do the same.

 

[sandman42]

Ditto above. I would definitely try an iTunes restore before I resorted to re-booting it with a real boot. That's just me though...

 

[mgguy]

Thanks for all your comments. It started doing the same thing again today. I started to do an iTunes restore and then decided against it when it said that all my media and data would be erased. I think I will give it a few days to see if it goes away. If not, then I will restore. If I do that, will music, applications, and the other stuff I have I my computer be synced back onto the touch?

 

[angemon89]

Thanks for all your comments. It started doing the same thing again today. I started to do an iTunes restore and then decided against it when it said that all my media and data would be erased. I think I will give it a few days to see if it goes away. If not, then I will restore. If I do that, will music, applications, and the other stuff I have I my computer be synced back onto the touch?

Yes, every time you sync, iTunes creates a backup of your touch's data so that in case you do need to restore, you can get all your settings back. Apps and music will sync again with no problem.

 

[sandman42]

Yes, every time you sync, iTunes creates a backup of your touch's data so that in case you do need to restore, you can get all your settings back. Apps and music will sync again with no problem.

Right. And to clarify for the OP, your "media and data" will only be erased from the Touch, not your computer, if that wasn't already clear to you. After the restore iTunes will automatically re-sync all your content (media and data).

One thing that you will lose, which may not be a big deal, is the formatting of all your icons on your screens. Any added apps or web locations will be in alphabetical order, and you may need to re-arrange them. Other than that, your Touch will be just like you had it. One other thing to consider, though, is that because it does totally wipe your Touch, re-install the OS, then re-sync all your music, video, photos, apps, etc, it can take a relatively long time compared to a normal sync.

 

[mgguy]

The advice from all of you is very helpful. I just noticed today that Apple released an update of touch software, which I have just installed. Hopefully that will take care of my problem. But next time I have a need to restore, I will know how to do it. Thanks again for your guidance.

 

[Lunchbox700]

Otherwise another more dire possiblity is a button going bad. I have had the sleep/power button go bad on me, and know a few people that have had bad home buttons. The home button is pretty poorly designed if you look at a lot of older Ipods (mine included) you can sometimes notice that the button is not longer flat it sort of tilts too one side.

 

[mgguy]

Huh. As I said in my previous post above, I thought I upgraded to a new version of software for my touch. (BTW, my touch is the most current one sold.) When I connected the ipod to my computer, I got a message window that asked me if I wanted to update my ipod software. Naturally, I responded yes, and let it do the install. But today while reviewing MR threads, I didn't see any reference to an ipod update. It started me thinking that maybe I didn't get a new update after all, but just a reinstall of the old version. Last night I started to do a restore of my touch, but then I aborted it just when the computer asked me if I agreed with the legal agreement document (I clicked "cancel"). So maybe when I synced my touch this afternoon it continued with the restore that I quit earlier. In any event, it ran forever and it completed sucessfully. AFAIK, everything works the same and looks the same now as it did before, except that I'm not getting the unwanted (and hated) music pop-up screen. But I'm still not sure whether I really only restored the touch or got a new upgrade as I originally thought. Did anyone else upgrade today?

Edit: The plot thickens. I just did another sync of my touch and everything went as usual, except I got an error message saying that the computer couldn't sync my calendar because of a data error on my touch (or something like that). This has never been a problem before. I don't really use the calendar application anyway, but it still always synced successfully. Does anyone know what could may have caused this? I subsequently synced again, and selected the advanced option to force calendar from the computer (one time only) and it worked without getting the error message. Go figure...