Tuesday, September 7, 2010

How To Fix A Disabled Ipod Touch

Someone brought me an iPod Touch recently. It was locked on a screen that said his iPod was disabled, and to try again in 26 million minutes. That seems like a rather long time to wait for a reset. After some internet research, I figured out how to restore it.



Unlock Your Disabled iPod

Step 1 Close iTunes, and turn your iPod off.

Step 2 Turn on your iPod while holding both the Sleep button on top and the home button.

Step 3 Hold both buttons down until either:
  1. The first time I did this, it took about 30 seconds for anything to come up on the iPod screen. Once the apple comes up on the iPod, release the sleep button while continuing to hold the home button.
  2. The second time I did this, the apple screen came up as soon as I pushed both buttons. If I released the sleep button now, it wouldn't work. I had to hold both buttons through the first apple screen. After about 5 seconds or so, the apple screen disappeared. I held both buttons through this part. When the apple screen returned after 15-20 seconds,  I released the sleep button and held the home key. 
Either way, it might take you a few tries to get it. Just keep trying until the next step happens

Step 4 iTunes should open up and say that it has detected an iPod in recovery mode and that it must be restored. I was still holding the home button up to this point. Its fine to let go now. iTunes should be up at the iPod default screen with everything greyed out except for the restore button. Click the restore button.

The first time I tried to restore the iPod, iTunes said it had to download the default settings. It took so long that the iPod reset itself and went back to the disabled screen. The iTunes download continued on, so I left it. Once the download was done, I restarted the iPod again (right back to step 1), and it came up to the restore window. Clicking restore caused the iPod to start loading in the default settings.

There we go! A freshly restored iPod.

62 comments:

  1. Your method is the only one that actually worked, thanks a lot!! =)

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  2. thanks so muchh, this is the second time my ipod has fucked up.
    you havee saved mee fromm an ass whoopinn from the parents.(:

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  3. thank you sooooo much....i was dyin widout ma itouch 4 almost a month not noin wat 2 du....ur a lyf savr....

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  4. Awesome! Someone keeps taking our nephews iPod and locking it...this time is resulted in being disabled. Fixing and putting a password on it so they can't do it again! Thank you so much for spelling it out...damn thing is to expensive to be a paperweight!

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  5. This worked TOTALLY perfect on my sons iPod. PROBLEM SOLVED! Thank you so very much for sharing. I was afraid it was toasted. But second try at your remedy for it.. IT WORKED..and now my son is happy and so is my bank account. lol. Have a wonderful evening ya'll. Sincerely, Shari Loehr

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  6. Wow! I just tried this and it worked! Thanks so much! My sons IPOD said it would take several MILLION minutes to enable!!! I'm so relieved because I can't afford to buy another one!! Sherry in WV

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  7. This saved me from buying a new iPod. Mine had been in storage for about a year and had was disabled so I'm pretty happy to get it back up and running. Thanks much!

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  8. dude it dosent work

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    Replies
    1. it didnt work now my mom might kill me if i dont fix it by tonight

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    2. OMG! you are a life saver. It actually worked. I have tried numerous things and this actually worked. Thank you.

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  9. thanks if finally work

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  10. It totally works, Keep trying and follow to the letter.

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  11. My ipod says disabled with no time lelft on it. when i did what you said to do all it told me was to connect to itunes. Ive already tried using itunes and called them, nothing worked. What should i do now?

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  12. This will work. You just need to get the timing of when to let go of the buttons just right. Keep trying, after a few attempts, you should get it.

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  13. When i do this it says unrecognised device??

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  14. I think that means that you've almost got it, you might have just not held the buttons down in the proper order or for the proper amount of time.

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  15. This worked perfectly. Excellent instructions. Thank you very much!

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  16. you are a ledgend! my ipod has been disabled for almost 5 months and i have just read this kicking myself :P thanks

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  17. thanks it really worked

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  18. i cant figure it out ahhh help me

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  19. kay umm not working and i need some assistance like asap!

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  20. Mine is locked with no time left on it. I have tried this and it brought me to a screen where it had the usb cord and the Itunes logo on the screen nothing is working, I also attempted to connect to ,y comp. but it failed to connect to the ipod in recovery mode Please help!!!

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  21. Big whoop. You entered DFU mode. Since you're at this state, why not just jailbreak your device while you're at it.

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  22. do i need to connect to itunes to do this?

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  23. THEY SAID THE IPOD SERVER CAN'T BE CONTACTED AND THEY SAID MAKE SURE THE NETWORK IS ACTIVE AND IT WAS ACTIVE THEY STILL WON'T LET ME

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  24. SEE I DONT GET WHY MY IPOD SAYS THAT ITS DISABLED BUT THEN SAYS CONNECT TO ITUNES LIKE NOW THEY ARE BEING CONFUSNG

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  25. you are amazing. Thank you so much.. this worked perfect.

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  26. but i found this ipod touch that im trying to restore. so this is not the original itunes that the ipod was synced in. i been trying this since last night and now idk what to do.

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  27. That shouldn't matter for restoring it to factory settings. It should work from any computer.

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  28. I have bo time left wat du I du

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    Replies
    1. How much time is left shouldn't matter, it should still work the same way.

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  29. This worked perfectly, it took a couple of times to get the apple to come on and off but it worked and we were able to restore from Itunes. Thank you for sharing.

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  30. I have tried everything you have said and gotten all the messages described below but it wont restore the default settings and still shows disbled (no minutes mentioned). What else can i try. IPod is only 4 months old.

    Please help.

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    Replies
    1. Not sure what other advice I have to give. This has always worked for me, even if it took me a few tries to get it right. Just keep trying and playing with the timing on when you let the buttons go. If done correctly, it should work. If it isn't restoring your iPod, then somewhere along the way you arn't quite doing it right.

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    2. Do you know what the password is? If so you can kick it out of disabled mode and type it in by bypassing the iPod is disabled screen.

      That would allow you to get your data. Then I would try restoring it on another computer with a different data cable. If you find that your iPod still has problems take it back to Apple. You are under warranty and this is not normal.

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  31. do you gotta have internet ?? Can't i just use itunes on my mac?

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  32. Nope. ITunes requires an internet connection for restores. By the way never lose your connection during a restore. I have seen more than one iPhone get bricked that way.

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  33. I've been trying methods all day to fix a friend's iPod. My own method didn't work so I went searching. Your's was the only one that worked perfectly and I got it on the first try! Thanks so much!

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  34. IT ISNT WORKING! IVE TERIED A MILLION TIMES PLEASE HELP ME IM BEGGING YOU!
    \

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  35. hey Emile, thanks. I've restored two of my girls ipods. Now my problem is my new iPhone 4S. I backed up the old 3G last night and transferred all the data to the 4S. Everything looked perfect so I went to bed. When I woke up, you guessed it...the 4S wants a passcode despite never having had one set up. I've tried the passcode from the 3G but it doesn't work either.

    So I tried your iPod technique and it seemed like it started to work, but then I got an error message from iTunes saying it needed the password to continue.

    I see there is still four hours until the update is finished. Should I start over?

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  36. Yep, worked after a couple times...

    Thanks!

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  37. thank you! my sons ipod was disabeled for 22,126,844!

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  38. Worked just like you said.
    Thanks!!!!!

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  39. My ipod isn't disabled, it died, then I tried to charge it and now it won't turn on. Will this method still work? Because I pluges my ipod touch into my computer and tried, but the apple still didnt show up. Please help!

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    1. I don't think this process is going to help you in your case. If plugging it in doesn't result in anything, it could be the your ipod is dead. Although, I would try to confirm that it isn't just your plug that is dead. Try plugging it in at a friends house. Best of luck!

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  40. my ipod is diabled but it doesnt reset there is only a picture that comes on my ipod of the usb connecting to itunes but it won't restore!! can anyone help me

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  41. Thanks so much, my kids do this to each others iPod and iPhone but this time they could not fix it. My son has been without his iPod for months and just got a iTunes voucher for Christmas, so I was wrapt with your advice I fixed it and I'm so not tech savvy if I can do it any one can.

    Thank you so much :)

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  42. Does it RESET the iPod?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, this restores the iPod to factory settings. You'll have to reload all your stuff back on.

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  43. Worked perfectly! Thanks!!

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  44. Ive Been Trying It But It Doesnt Work It Just Says Contacting The Ipod Software Update server..But Doesnt do anything Ive Let It Sit For Hours And Nothing happens

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  45. This would have saved me so much money on iPod repair bills. I always went to someone instead of trying to fix things myself. Thanks!

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  46. well, my ipod says, its disabled connect to itunes. so i did. itunes says,"can not connect to ipod,because it is locked with a password. unlock it" well i cant unlock it. what do i do?

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  47. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  48. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  49. Thanks for sharing this. It will definitely come in handy!

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  50. So releived - thanks ..If It doesn't work first time - go again it really does work !! I tried twice and got it in the end

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  51. My daughter put a password in her ipad and then forgot it. For weeks i've been trying to restore it. I finally gave up. Yesterday I started searching again for a different way to restore it, and voila I found this page. Thank you! I really appreciate it. It really worked.

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  52. Excellent post and wonderful blog.

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