What to Do When Your iPod Touch is Frozen?

Sometimes, users of the iPod Touch often find that their iPod Touch screen has become frozen and will only display a particular image or icon. Nothing seems to work because the ipod Touch is frozen and therefore, unable to work at all. One user, Susie, wrote in to us and said,

“My itouch is frozen-with the screen showing the itunes icon and the usb plug. itunes is asking for a passcode but i cant put my passcode in since the itouch is frozen. I tried holding the home and power button for 30 seconds as directed by ipod touch app – no luck! help please i just want this to work already…it’s been like this for months now.”

So what are you to do? Firstly, let’s address the issue of the icon that’s showing on the screen. Should the screen of your iTouch ever freeze, don’t become too concerned with the image that’s displayed. The Touch will simply show whatever image it was showing at the time of the freeze, or convert some of its signals into images, which is why Susie’s may have been showing an image of the USB plug. Regardless, don’t let it bother you. Just try and get it to unfreeze and the image will go away. So, how do you get it to unfreeze?

Because Susie’s Touch has been like this for several months, we’re assuming that she’s tried many of the common solutions such as charging the battery and holding the home and power button as she mentioned. So, what else is there to do? To begin with, you will need to get into iTunes. If you can still physically connect your iPod Touch to your computer through the USB cord, you should be able to get into your iTunes account without needing to enter a password. Once you get into iTunes, you will need to reset your iPod Touch. Be forewarned that this will erase everything on your Touch and so, you will need to reload your Touch again with everything that was once on it after it has reset. This is how to reset your iPod Touch.

Start at the Home screen in iTunes, with your Touch connected to your computer. Choose Settings>General>Reset>Reset All Settings. This will only reset your preferences. Any data, music, apps, or videos that you have on your iPod Touch will still be there after performing this step. If your Touch is still frozen, you may have to take it one step further and completely erase all the data from your Touch. This is how you do that. Again, beginning on the Home screen, choose Settings>General>Reset>”Erase All Content and Settings”. Now your Touch will be completely erased and should return to the exact condition it was in when you bought it. Now all you have to do is start reloading it back up with all your favorite music, videos, and apps!