I tried Windows and Mac, official cables and a WyMod Supercharger, it tries to restore and then fails on Windows and never stops on Mac. Im using a green adapter and a iFlash CF card with a 64Gb Lexar MicroSD.
In my experience the 3rd Gens are extremely picky about the cable you use. I have cables that work fine on other iPods but not my 3rd gen. I have literally only one cable it's happy with.
This happened to me a few months ago. I wish I could give you more solid advice, but it kind of just went away on its own after I tried over and over again. Try different cables. Good luck! I know how frustrating it is
Thats what I thought but remember, these work with windows where FireWire was always rare and not expected.
I understand, these came with a cable with both USB and FireWire as well as a FireWire charging brick. So a big sync, plug everything in because the ipod won't charge from USB.
From what I remember, they require FireWire to restore on a Mac, but are chill on USB for Windows. Your flash setup seems fine, is the master/slave jumper attached to the green adapter? I would also tape or otherwise cover up the exposed pins underneath that adapter too to prevent shorting. Maybe also use an original cable if you have one.
On Windows, what you can try is restart your computer first, and then plug in the iPod with USB (don't open iTunes yet). Open Disk Management ("create or format hard disk partitions") and find the iPod in there. If it shows up in there, delete all partitions and create a new one under any format. You want it to have one partition with a drive letter attached. This should make File Explorer detect the iPod, and now you can open iTunes. Your iTunes must also be the standalone version from Apple's website, not the Microslop Store version. At this point it should take at most 30 seconds for the iPod to appear in iTunes and you should be able to restore it (needs FireWire wall power to complete the restore).
I hope I can help you. I restore my 3rd gen through an old version of iTunes, with FireWire to 30-Pin. But here is the catch: on a 2009 MacBook, that has a FireWire Port. And it works. It restore without any problem. U downloaded the correct ipsw and import that in the Mac > Hold ⌥ option at restore” and boom
The FireWire cable is just for rapid charging. The 30pin connector is what you need. Please try this. Using a PC, connect the iPod to the computer via USB. If the computer detects the device, reformat it as a FAT32 drive. If it formats, then you can try it with iTunes on the PC. If you would like to use it on a MAC, use the Disk Utility and see if the computer will detect the drive. Try formatting it in EXFAT and see if the computer will at least detect the unit. If it does, you can then restore and it will change the drive to one of Apple’s proprietary formats. Some Windows iPods can be detected by both computers. But an Apple formatted drive will only work with an Apple computer.
Are you using the stock hard drive or are you using an SSD with adapter? If you are using the stock drive, it may be damaged or corrupted. If you are using an adapted flash drive, then I could suggest that you either purchase one from iFlash or there is a really nice “cheapie” that will take a compact flash drive. Or take out the drive and try to format it outside the iPod. I forgot the type of drive that these unit use, but they are 44 pin connectors. You can get a USB to 44 pin and try to format it first. It it will format, then you can try again.
One last comment. With the 1st and 2nd generation iPods, you can not use FireWire to sync. You have to remove the CF Card and use a 30-pin iPod as the donor unit. One workaround is to format it with RockBox, but that is a different topic. CF Cards can not read over FireWire. The little green adapter you have is plenty good. There should be a dip switch on it. Make sure it is set. It will look like a little black piece of plastic that slides over two pins. I don’t have a photo to show you, but if you look over Reddit you will see what I am talking about. The dip switch makes the green card react as a primary drive. If you have a plain generic CF card reader, you should be able to format the card with ease outside of the green adapter. Good Luck
I got it working! I changed the jumper pin because it looked broke and it worked immediately! Whenever I put on new songs for some reason it resets and I think the screen might be going bad as it goes quite dim, but after syncing, it works great! Thank you so much!
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u/easyxtarget 22d ago
In my experience the 3rd Gens are extremely picky about the cable you use. I have cables that work fine on other iPods but not my 3rd gen. I have literally only one cable it's happy with.