iPod no longer works with Sequoia

Ok, I've made several comments after having no luck whatsoever in getting my iPod classic to work with Sequoia, the last being somewhat irreverent (I'm a musician ... goes with the territory) and suggested, somewhat sarcastically, that after all my ranting and raving it would probably start working on its own, knowing of course that it likely won't, and this afternoon I tried hooking it into the music app on my MacBook, and it worked ... now it's completely content with itself. I don't get it. Of course, it's April 1st, and I'm waiting for the clown's face to pop up and scream "April fool!!!" Check back with me tomorrow .... (sigh)

Got it working. It's possible the contacts on my 30 pin cable are performing badly due to age.

If I had two Macs, & two cables I could do conclusive all-other-things being equal tests to pinpoint the problem conclusively.

I do have two 2nd Generation Nanos, which have been helpful in this process.

I updated my 2024 MacBookPro to Sequoia 15.4 to no avail. I still am not able to sync. Using the right side USB-C port I AM able to get the laptop to recognize the ipod but it prompts me to restore.

My situation is a particular one as I lost everything in the LA fires back in January so this ipod which was in my vehicle has my whole music collection. I can't restore. I also wish there was a way to pull off the music so I can backup my ipod.

There is a way to get all of your music off the iPod and into AppleMusic on your Mac.

Plug the iPod into your Mac and "Enable disk use" so the iPod mounts like any other HDD.

Click on the iPod so you can see its contents. Should be 3 folders called - Calendars Contacts & Notes

Click the "cmd" "shift" "." keys at the same time. This will reveal the invisible folders.

Navigate to the now visible but greyed out, iPod_Control : Music. In there you will find many folders called something like F00 & F44.

WITHOUT Apple Music running copy all of those folders into the Music : Media : Automatically Add to Music folder.

Start Apple Music and it will do as the folder says "Automatically Add to Music".

Apple Music will organise everything back into Artist and Albums ect.

NOTE. When I've needed to do this in the past I have always created a new Admin User, logged into it and used that with the fresh copy of Apple Music so as to not inadvertently do any harm to my music library.

Once the library is organised you can copy and add the albums your primary music library as you need.

I was having the same problem with an iPod Classic 160 GB (gen 6?). I had wiped it and restored using Sequoia 15.3, but then I could only see it as an external drive. Following the Sequoia 15.4 update I was able to see the iPod in the Music App, and it prompted me to go to Finder to complete setup. Now it appears to be syncing normally.

I also changed 30-pin cables, but I don't know if that was the problem. I'll have to wait until the sync is complete to test.

I will eventually upgrade this with a new battery and storage, but it seems to be working again as stock.

I am an Ipod Classic user also wanting to sync his ipod to a macbook pro running Sequoia. Currently I am unable to do so.

Should I submit a bug report as well? Let me know.

You could try a high quality contact cleaner like this one. No doubt there may be some cleaning needed. https://a.co/d/jiqDyTV

Not sure that would help. Much cheaper to just buy a new cable & hope for the best.