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Its common knowledge that you dont want to drop / slam / or hit your expensive electronics, you might break them. Well, what if your expensive electronics is already broken?
I’m writing this in response to the hundreds of comments I received on my blog post about replacing a broken ipod hard drive.
It seems that there is a very unconventional way to fix your broken iPod, without having to open it or spend any money…. beat your ipod up! You heard me right, Slap your iPod!
How to do this:
Hold your iPod so the screen faces the palm of your hand and slap the back of it a few solid times. That’s it.
I personally haven’t tried this, but based on the response to my previous blog post, its worked for over 100 people so far.
Why does spanking your iPod fit it?
Here are a few of my thoughts on why this might work.
- Your iPod might have stopped working if the hard drive connection came lose. Slapping the iPod might jar the connection back into place.
- The hard drive arm might have gotten stuck for some reason. Spanking the iPod might free up that hard drive arm.
- It might just be magic!
I really don’t know why it works but I guess it does. If you have any experience with this post a comment.
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I found that mine would work a little with the “back” spanking, however, everything worked fine when I (like someone packing a pack of smokes) “packed” it on my mouse pad on the left (looking at the front) side.
AND YES IT DOES WORK!
Thanks, SHARK
I totally spanked my ipod last night and it came back from the dead like lazarus. It was truly a religious experience. I’ve been at my wits end with my photo ipod that I bought 3 yrs ago. I had already send it in to Iresq 3 times to be fixed..which cost me around $180. When it broke for the 4th time I had nothing to do but sell it off. Then I spanked it! Yay! It lives again.
i left my 2 yr old 60gb ipod in my friends car and when she gave it back to me it wouldn’t turn on UGH. just the clicking, whirring, you know the rest. but I gave it a whole bunch of smacks and i’m listening to it as i write this. hopefully it stays working for a long time to come! THANKS!!!
Thanks, I was JUST about to open my ipod up, and i’d thought i’d give it a few smacklings just incase!! and guess what…it worked!! Was skeptic at first, but it must just be magic
I had that famous error “1429″. Some blogs suggested I chuck my ipod in a lake. Instead I tried slapping it a few times and “voila!”…fixed…and I was able to get some of my pent up frustrations out
Thanks!
Man I couldnt believe it but it worked! I slapped the shit out of my ipod 20gb the old one and it finally came back to life and stopped clicking every five seconds like a skipping cd. Thanks !
A friend dropped their Video Ipod and I cracked the screen. The hard drive also began the CLICK. I tried the smack, the pound, the ram, and the take it apart. No luck. So now it’s time for the freeze. =]
Cant believe i have already bought a new one doooh. i hard strike with the palm to the connetor and the sad face went away
Thanks very much for this! I was encountering many problems and Apple’s support was leading me into a black hole. I googled “ipod sad face battery icon” and here you were! One solid smack to the bottom later and the thing is working well. For good measure, I went ahead and updated all software and restored to factory settings. Hopefully it’ll keep working well. Thanks again for all of your help!
I’ve been using this “technique” to fix my ipod for about 6 months. Never forget how satisfying it was to take my frustration out on a broken ipod and then see it respond by working again!
This actually worked!!!!!! I am so excited because I don’t have my music backed up and I sold a lot of my cd’s to make some extra cash. I am so excited that I now have my music again!! I am definetly backing it up this time!! Thank you so so so so much!!!!
After some earlier tries without succes, I decided to give it another try today…it worked
IT WORKED!!!!
OMG! OMG!….after all these months.
I spank it once and it WORKS!
It WORKS 100%.
Man this is WEIRD!!!! SOME CRAZY WORKING SOLUTION!!!
I have a 5th generation ipod and I recently have encountered the sad face problem, But no matter how hard I smack the back of the ipod, it still doesn’t seem to want to recover!!! Any suggestions?? Am I not hitting hard enough?? Is it supposed to be on or off when I hit it??
OMG! YOU ARE A GOD!!!! I LOVE YOU! I had so many things wrong with my ipod, all happening at once, my computer wasn’t recognizing it (finally fixed that), had a MAJOR software problem from an update (fixed just today) then after I got all those problems fixed, the damn thing kept restarting, and I tried all sorts of fixings for it, including someone telling me to grab the ipod firmly and slap it onto something like a phonebook (DID NOT WORK) and I was thinking damn, I have to open the thing up and I have had WAAAYYYY to many energy drinks to do that. Then finally came across your site, grabbed my ipod, gave it 2 sharp slaps on the side and a good hefty whack on the back, now its working 150% perfectly. YOU ARE THE ABSOLUTE BEST!
After trying everything else unsuccessfully:
the ‘ipod slap’ brought it back!
Thanks!
Give your ipod a firm pat on the back for all the faithful service… You’ll both feel better.
It worked!!! lol. Like i’ve always said hitting stuff always makes it work better, ecspecially women…lol, im kidding, im kidding. Thanks..
WOW! Today is Saturday, February 16th 2008. My 60gig Ipod Photo shut down on me today at an airport and would not reboot. I tried techy things like hard resets and all that jazz mentioned at the apple website. Nothing worked until I found your site and gave my ipod a firm slap on the palm of my hand letting the connector dock hit my hand. I followed up with three firm taps on the back for good measure. Much to my astonishment, IT STARTED WORKING AGAIN! Thanks much to this forum and the many people who have posted and gave me the courage to try this! I have my ipod back!
After 9 months of surviving by whacking, my 40 gig 4th gen was finally laid to rest last night. No amount of whacking could bring it back. I ordered a new drive and I’m hopeful that I’ll get another year or two out of it. By then the flash drive models should be cheaper for a comparable size.
That just bloody worked!!! Thanks so much. FYI, mine was a 60gb iPod Photo that had been showing that symbol for a week and I’ve tried everything. I gave it 3 firms slaps on the back, nothing, did it again, nothing, did it harder a third time and it fixed it.
OMG Thank YOU! I spanked my daughter’s iPod after everything else failed. AND, IT WORKS NOW! I’m a happy mom with a happy daughter!
hello every one.
i have looked at this site and well i have tried hitting it several times but nothing it is frozen and it has the locked icom up but it isn’t locked and i can’t connect it to itunes because it is not recongised so what should i do?? please help
I have been brooding over my ipod for 2+ years now, I finally looked this up, and wow, I am so impressed.
So barbaric.
So perfect! It just…WORKS!
I didn’t slap, but made a fist and banged on it with the side of you hand (fatty part other side of thumb). A few extremely strong “knocks on the door” and i was in. Repeat if necessary
Thank you thank you thank you!! i can believe the slap trick worked! i gave it a few and nothing kept slapping it around and there ya go… i was just about to give up on the thing. Thanks again and mad props to whoever figured this one out.
It worked for us too… Crazy.
Smacking the back didn’t work- tried a coupla times- but smacking the bottom, where it plugs in, has at least gotten me to the menu. Trying a restore now, wish me luck…
VICTORY IS MINE!!! Ah, yeeesssss…. Thank you!!!
It works!!!! “” brought it back to life. Thanks for the suggestion.
Holy Sh!t, it really worked. Thank you!
I actually threw my ipod against the wall and it started to work again.
Pretty effing awesome.
i had to beat my 80 gb classic, ut it worked.
I have the 04′ 20gb. I dropped my precious thing in the gym while I was running on the treadmill twice! After a few weeks, it kept acting up showing this screen with a folder and the address of the apple support website with a constant whirring sound. However, after reading website and smacking it a few times on my palm, it finally worked. Well, I guess for now… We’ll see what happens when it freezes again. Wish me luck!
It worked! Incredible! Many thanks
for some odd reason I got my 4th gen ipod out of my stuff drawer tonight. It hadn’t worked in 2 years. It’s been making the “whirr click” of death since. As I searched for a web site to send it off or order a hard drive or whatever, I came across this site. I smacked the ipod on the coffee table three or four times not really paying attention to it. A few minutes later I realized that it wasn’t “whirr clicking” any more. I restored it in itunes and now i’m updating my music.
you are a genius josh, thank god i was going to give it to the fish in the thames tommorow. i am wondering if it has anything to do with moisture, i have left it in a car over night a few times and also am a builder and leave it in my back pocket sometimes and what with my sweaty…. actually i’ll leave it there but thanks again josh, i always said mindless violence resolves 99% of problems.
Josh, just saying thanks for this highly technical fix – I Googled some interesting keywords after my iPod died at a party last night – a few slaps later and it’s up and running – glad I stumbled across your blog. Thanks again!
I tried this about 9 months ago and my iPod (3g, 40gb) has worked PERFECTLY since. I slammed it once – HARD – into the palm of my hand and VIOLA – no more sad iPod! Magic indeed!
ok….so the spanking trick works……but that might actually scew it up a bit cause you’re hitting it and well……i tried it to a couple of things that i had of my own and it actually got screwd up in the future……so ya………………………………if it like freezes though…all you gotta do is hold the center and menu button and ya…..its fixed too…………..but i like the advice….:)
Doesnt work! while displaying the apple logo, my i pod hard disk spins for a second and the goes quiet for a sec and then spins again for a sec and then stops for a second…. etc this happens about 10 times before it stops and shows the that folder image on the screen. I started with a gentle palm slapping which slowly escalated into me kicking the ipod around on the living room. No luck so far! Apple Sucks! Zen all the way!
Has worked for me on several occasions for my 3rd gen 20 gb iPod. Thanks a lot for this great advice!!!!
2004 I got a new iPod 4Gen 40GB under warranty as my first was broken after 5 months. That new one sometimes started a little slowly, sometimes clicking snd scratching a little like a bloken hard drive, but working – until just that day end of April, when I found some one to buy it: sad iPod icon again, refusing to start and not showing more than the apple logo after re-booting.
When I was searching the internet for a third party service site for the iPod, I found your spanking advice. As I thought that I had lost my iPod already, I didn’t hezitate to do what you wrote. From that moment it was working – no joke – better than before: no longer bad noise, starting up fast, but only playing music same as before.
Thanks a lot!
The ipod sad face indicates hard drive problems, but in many instances, the problem is not actually with the hard drive, but with the hard drive cable. Corrosion develops on the silver part of the hard drive cable and must be cleaned periodically to keep the iPod functioning correctly. This isn’t always the case, but many times it is.
i tried. but is not working. im not spanking hard enough?
how many time i need to do that?
Thanks VERY much.
I gave my 40gb iPod a serious spanking, and now it works.
Genius!
WOW! Thank you! I was about to order a new hard drive or logic board until I read this. My Ipod seemed to attempt to start up, it would make a whirring sound and then a click, and then give me the sad apple face. I’m with your hard-drive arm stuck theory, at least in my case, because after smacking it (hard enough to make my hand hurt) several times, I heard the whirring of it starting up… and no click, and it said it was charging!
Thanks again!
Was about to chuck my old 4th gen iPod, but decided to make one last attempt at salvaging it. Spanked it, nothing. Placed it screenside down in the palm of one hand, made a fist with the other and punched it 3 times like one would do if trying to get someone’s heart going again. Voila! Light came back on and it’s now recharging. THANK YOU!
what the hell this worked the first time
and then less than a fucking day later it
stopped working again and this smaking shit
will not work. i hate ipods i am on my 6th
one. this is bull shit.
Worked for me, slapped 3rd gen 60 gig really hard while it was making the whirring and clicking noise, hey presto – saved a load of money buying a new one!
Thanks for the tip
Worked like a dream – ipod was clickng and showing sad symbol – smacked it three times and hey presto a working and charging ipod – thanks very much
I love ipods !
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