Q: I wanted to know why I can’t turn off my iPod. The manual says to push down on the play/pause button, but that doesn’t work. Should I take it back to where I bought it from?
– Jason
A: This is a fairly common problem that is normally solved by resetting the iPod.
To reset a 4G or later model iPod, simply hold down the center SELECT and MENU buttons until you see the Apple logo appear (about 5 seconds).
Note that under normal circumstances, the iPod should go to sleep by itself after a few minutes of inactivity, which is exactly the same as what happens when you hold down the PLAY/PAUSE button for a few seconds. There is therefore seldom any need to manually put the iPod into sleep mode.
The power savings by putting the iPod to sleep manually as opposed to allowing it to sleep by itself are negligible.
Of course, if your iPod isn’t going into sleep mode by itself, and still refuses to do this after a reset, then your last resort is to try restoring the iPod to its factory defaults by using the “Restore” option in iTunes.
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