Have you tried putting it in disc mode before plugging it into the computer? the method is
1) Press and hold both the Menu (top of wheel) and Select (middle of wheel) at the same time for at least 6 seconds, till the apple logo appears (try this while its plugged into power if it doesn't work on battery), then let go. If the Apple logo doesnt appear after at most 30 seconds then this method wont work.
2) after letting go of the buttons in the previous step once the Apple logo appears, Hold down the Select (Middle of wheel) and the Play/Pause button (bottom of wheel) till a picture of the charger and a prompt to plug it into a computer with itunes installed pops up. let go of the buttons, this should again take no longer than 30 seconds.
3) Plug it into the computer, preferably with itunes already opened, and see if it will recognize it.
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4) if it does not show any kind of apple splash screen (the apple logo or the charger cable) then theres a chance its not properly formatted and will need a copy of ipod mini OS for it. you SHOULD be able to pull a copy off itunes by formatting or installing a backup but considering you said it wont even show up. this may be easier if you have access to a windows computer running 10 or later since youll be formatting to FAT32. If you can remove the flash disc from the casing and reformat that by itself before putting it back into its housing and back to the ipod then format once again this should fix the issue. if you cannot separate the SD card or its basically one unit with the SSD built into the housing, try looking for it through command line (command line will require a windows computer, i dont know if theres an equivalent way to do this on mac nor if there is how its done but someone more mac savvy might):
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4) if it does not show any kind of apple splash screen (the apple logo or the charger cable) then theres a chance its not properly formatted and will need a copy of ipod mini OS for it. you SHOULD be able to pull a copy off itunes by formatting or installing a backup but considering you said it wont even show up, we can try this next method.
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5) this may be easier if you have access to a windows computer running 10 or later since youll be formatting to FAT32. If you can remove the flash disc from the casing and reformat that by itself before putting it back into its housing and back to the ipod then format once again this should fix the issue. if you cannot separate the SD card or its basically one unit with the SSD built into the housing, try looking for it through command line (command line will require a windows computer, i dont know if theres an equivalent way to do this on mac nor if there is how its done but someone more mac savvy might):
Run cmd and type "diskpart" Type 'list disk" You'll see a list of all drives connected to your pc. Find the one that's approx 128gb (it most likely will not say exactly 128 gb or may say a number close to 128000 mb)
Type "select disk X" where X stands for whatever number your iPod drive has.
Type "clean" Unplug your iPod, replug it to your pc and try to restore it again using iTunes.
if all else fails you could try fire wire, which is a ipod 30 pin charger with two wires coming out it, one to USB and one to fire wire connection (predates USB) and can wake up an ipod with no battery in it, and you can usually find these on ebay but you will also need the brick for it. this method is more for batteries so this probably wont help at all but if you got one lying around it doesnt hurt to check.
heres some links that may help, and some videos that may show you something you were missing:
Have you tried putting it in disc mode before plugging it into the computer? the method is
1) Press and hold both the Menu (top of wheel) and Select (middle of wheel) at the same time for at least 6 seconds, till the apple logo appears (try this while its plugged into power if it doesn't work on battery), then let go. If the Apple logo doesnt appear after at most 30 seconds then this method wont work.
2) after letting go of the buttons in the previous step once the Apple logo appears, Hold down the Select (Middle of wheel) and the Play/Pause button (bottom of wheel) till a picture of the charger and a prompt to plug it into a computer with itunes installed pops up. let go of the buttons, this should again take no longer than 30 seconds.
3) Plug it into the computer, preferably with itunes already opened, and see if it will recognize it.
4) if it does not show any kind of apple splash screen (the apple logo or the charger cable) then theres a chance its not properly formatted and will need a copy of ipod mini OS for it. you SHOULD be able to pull a copy off itunes by formatting or installing a backup but considering you said it wont even show up. this may be easier if you have access to a windows computer running 10 or later since youll be formatting to FAT32. If you can remove the flash disc from the casing and reformat that by itself before putting it back into its housing and back to the ipod then format once again this should fix the issue. if you cannot separate the SD card or its basically one unit with the SSD built into the housing, try looking for it through command line (command line will require a windows computer, i dont know if theres an equivalent way to do this on mac nor if there is how its done but someone more mac savvy might):
Run cmd and type "diskpart" Type 'list disk" You'll see a list of all drives connected to your pc. Find the one that's approx 128gb (it most likely will not say exactly 128 gb or may say a number close to 128000 mb)
Type "select disk X" where X stands for whatever number your iPod drive has.
Type "clean" Unplug your iPod, replug it to your pc and try to restore it again using iTunes.
if all else fails you could try fire wire, which is a ipod 30 pin charger with two wires coming out it, one to USB and one to fire wire connection (predates USB) and can wake up an ipod with no battery in it, and you can usually find these on ebay but you will also need the brick for it. this method is more for batteries so this probably wont help at all but if you got one lying around it doesnt hurt to check.
heres some links that may help, and some videos that may show you something you were missing:
Have you tried putting it in disc mode before plugging it into the computer? the method is
1) Press and hold both the Menu (top of wheel) and Select (middle of wheel) at the same time for at least 6 seconds, till the apple logo appears (try this while its plugged into power if it doesn't work on battery), then let go. If the Apple logo doesnt appear after at most 30 seconds then this method wont work.
2) after letting go of the buttons in the previous step once the Apple logo appears, Hold down the Select (Middle of wheel) and the Play/Pause button (bottom of wheel) till a picture of the charger and a prompt to plug it into a computer with itunes installed pops up. let go of the buttons, this should again take no longer than 30 seconds.
3) Plug it into the computer, preferably with itunes already opened, and see if it will recognize it.
4) if it does not show any kind of apple splash screen (the apple logo or the charger cable) then theres a chance its not properly formatted and will need a copy of ipod mini OS for it. you SHOULD be able to pull a copy off itunes by formatting or installing a backup but considering you said it wont even show up. this may be easier if you have access to a windows computer running 10 or later since youll be formatting to FAT32. If you can remove the flash disc from the casing and reformat that by itself before putting it back into its housing and back to the ipod then format once again this should fix the issue. if you cannot separate the SD card or its basically one unit with the SSD built into the housing, try looking for it through command line (command line will require a windows computer, i dont know if theres an equivalent way to do this on mac nor if there is how its done but someone more mac savvy might):
Run cmd and type "diskpart" Type 'list disk" You'll see a list of all drives connected to your pc. Find the one that's approx 128gb (it most likely will not say exactly 128 gb or may say a number close to 128000 mb)
Type "select disk X" where X stands for whatever number your iPod drive has.
Type "clean" Unplug your iPod, replug it to your pc and try to restore it again using iTunes.
if all else fails you could try fire wire, which is a ipod 30 pin charger with two wires coming out it, one to USB and one to fire wire connection (predates USB) and can wake up an ipod with no battery in it, and you can usually find these on ebay but you will also need the brick for it. this method is more for batteries so this probably wont help at all but if you got one lying around it doesnt hurt to check.
heres some links that may help, and some videos that may show you something you were missing:
Disk Mode:
https://www.wikihow.com/Put-an-iPod-Into-Disk-Mode#:~:text=Press%20and%20hold%20the%20Menu,until%20the%20Apple%20logo%20appears.&text=When%20the%20Apple%20logo%20appears,the%20Disk%20Mode%20screen%20appears.
someone with a similar issue on reddit (where i got the command lines):
https://www.reddit.com/r/ipod/comments/17g9eex/ipod_mini_no_longer_showing_up_in_itunes_or_file/
My fav australian boy doing a similar upgrade on an ipod classic (not much new info here but sometimes just watching someone else do it helps:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3HyMOA3ybg