This question comes up more often than you might think. In this piece we'll cover several items of iGear, because you may have something other than the standard iPhone. Note too that in some cases (see below), the specific steps may vary from one generation of the same device to the next. So, here 's what to do when your handheld freezes up on you.
Unfreezing or Resetting Your iPod Touch
This one's easy, given the relative lack of buttons on the device; there's almost no way you can go wrong. All you've got to do is hold down both the “Sleep/Wake” and the “Home” button at the same time. Just keep holding those two until you see the Apple logo. If you see the “Slide to Turn Off” option, just ignore it and keep those two buttons down. Once the machine is off, just hit the “Sleep/Wake” button again to bring it back up.
Unfreezing or Resetting Your iPod Classic
Of all the Apple devices in circulation this one's probably got the simplest unfreezing solution. Here, you toggle the “Hold” switch to the hold position, then turn it off again. After that, press and hold the “Menu” and “Select” buttons until you see the Apple logo appear, which should be in the neighborhood of 6-10 seconds.
Resetting Your iPod Nano1st-7th Generations
Toggle the “Hold” switch on and off again, then press the “Menu” and “Select” buttons simultaneously until the Apple logo appears in six to ten seconds. For 6th Generation, it's a little different; just hold down the “Sleep/Wake” button and the “Volume” button at the same time for 8-10 seconds For the7th Generation, hold down the “Sleep/Wake” and “Home” button until the screen goes black.
Resetting or Unfreezing Your iPod Shuffle
The shuffle is a bit of an oddity because you've got to completely disconnect before you can reset. In this case, eject your shuffle from iTunes, if connected, then remove the shuffle from the USB dock. Move the switch on the top or side (depending on model) of the shuffle to the “off” position. You know you've done it when you can no longer see the green stripe. Wait 10 seconds. Move the switch back to the on position, and you should be all set.
Notice that in all cases, you may have to repeat these steps, depending on what has caused your device to freeze in the first place. This is because if the device is unresponsive, then your commands may not actually be processed. They'll ultimately work, but you may have to go through a couple of heart stopping iterations to make it happen.
Apple has made a whole raft of extraordinary products, most of which are pretty reliable, so freezing doesn't happen often, but of course, from time to time it does occur. Once you've got the steps down, they're all actually fairly intuitive. Much more so than, say, turning your Windows PC off by pressing the “Start” button, which never made much sense to anyone.
That's not to say that Apple products are perfect, they've most certainly got their flaws and faults, although that's a thing which is sure to make Apple fans cringe to have to fess up to, but at least they can boast fairly intuitive controls.
