23 Dec 2005

iPod USB Charging Problem

If you get a new iPod for Christmas, keep a careful eye on it during its first charge/update. You’re supposed to leave it charging for hours to ensure everything’s nicely calibrated, but while getting a video iPod set up ready to give to someone I eventually noticed it had stopped charging after all the tracks had been transferred. It also wouldn’t reconnect to the iPod to transfer more tracks. I got it charging again using my Mac, but it’s probably screwed up the battery life somewhat, we’ll see.

It’s seemingly related to using iPods with Windows 2000, and happens because the power gets cut when the drive’s unmounted. The solution is to go into the options for that particular iPod and ‘Enable Disk Use’, which keeps the drive connected (meaning you have to manually eject it). Or buy a mains charger, now that Apple’s too tight-fisted to include one in the box.

Anyway, hopefully few people are affected by this, but I thought I’d try to get a clear description out there for others to find.