Filed under: iPod Family, Tips and tricks
Fix For Sluggish 5G iPod Interface
So you bought one of the new 5G video iPods and have loaded it up with all your music and album art. But you notice that the interface is much more sluggish than previous generation iPods! 
Scrolling through your list of songs is significantly slower and gameplay when playing the "brick" and "parachute" games with a song going in the background is unacceptable! Fortunately, there's a fix. It has to do with your album art not being optimized on the iPod. Here's how to fix it.
1) Plug your iPod into your computer and open iTunes Preferences.
2) In the iPod section of the preferences, turn off the "Album Art" option.
3) Disconnect your iPod and reconnect it to update the iPod.
4) Now go back to the Preferences and re-enable the "Album Art" option.
5) You'll see iTunes begin to optimize the album art related to your songs. This could take several minutes depending on how much album art you have in your iTunes database.
When you're all done, the 5G iPod's interface should be nice and snappy again.
Note: The default state (out of the box) is that iPods automatically update/synchronize with iTunes, therefore these directions are written assuming that state. If you've turned off automatic updating on your iPod, these directions won't work for you. In that case, you'll have to manually update your iTunes by deleting your music from the iPod and then recopying it back to your iPod. Also, I haven't tested this as I don't have a video iPod and C.K. hasn't been around, but it seems to make sense. Let us know if you encounter this problem and how this solution works for you.
Scrolling through your list of songs is significantly slower and gameplay when playing the "brick" and "parachute" games with a song going in the background is unacceptable! Fortunately, there's a fix. It has to do with your album art not being optimized on the iPod. Here's how to fix it.1) Plug your iPod into your computer and open iTunes Preferences.
2) In the iPod section of the preferences, turn off the "Album Art" option.
3) Disconnect your iPod and reconnect it to update the iPod.
4) Now go back to the Preferences and re-enable the "Album Art" option.
5) You'll see iTunes begin to optimize the album art related to your songs. This could take several minutes depending on how much album art you have in your iTunes database.
When you're all done, the 5G iPod's interface should be nice and snappy again.
Note: The default state (out of the box) is that iPods automatically update/synchronize with iTunes, therefore these directions are written assuming that state. If you've turned off automatic updating on your iPod, these directions won't work for you. In that case, you'll have to manually update your iTunes by deleting your music from the iPod and then recopying it back to your iPod. Also, I haven't tested this as I don't have a video iPod and C.K. hasn't been around, but it seems to make sense. Let us know if you encounter this problem and how this solution works for you.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mart said 12:43AM on 11-13-2005
Guys - this has been a great help. I was just cursing out my iPod for being so slow.
On a related note re: iPod 5G bugs - check this out. I've let Apple know, but if you'd all like to also submit bug reports, we can make sure we get these fixed for the next firmware release.
1. iPod 5G artist listing bug
Environment:
Bug occurs when an 'Artist' has songs attributed to only 1 album *and* you have tracks for that artist that are not associated to any album (album ID3 tag is blank).
Problem:
When you browse to Artist, and select the artist, it jumps straight to the album listing of the 1 album you have, not allowing you to browse 'All' to see songs that are not connected to any album. The songs are definitely on the iPod though, as they are listed in the 'Songs' area. Desired behavior is for 'All' to list all tracks, both on albums and not.
2. Artist 'All' view song order bug
Environment:
When you have an artist that has many albums of content, all with songs.
Problem:
Go to an artist you have lots of albums for, then choose 'All' instead of an album. The tracks are ordered alpha *by album* (with the album details not shown, just the song names, obviously). The songs are not listed by alpha irrespective of album. How on earth are you supposed to find anything on this list? This has to be a bug. Expected behaviour should be that if I browse to an album, I want to see the tracks ordered by track listing, and if no track listing ID3 info, by alpha instead. However, when I go to 'All', I'd expect an alpha ordering (unless shuffle was on, of course!).
Reply
Ali Afghah said 7:49AM on 11-16-2005
I wanna try this for my nano ...
Reply
baos said 6:51PM on 11-27-2005
10: the thing with the clickers while turned off was also in my 3d gen ipod. dont think it's a software thing
Reply
Jon said 6:28PM on 12-02-2005
I Bought The New iPod "5th Generation" A While Ago. I Noticed 2 Flaws So Far.
1. It Scratches Too Easy
2. My Album Art Work Wont Show Up For Some Reason Even Though Its On Display Album Artwork On iPOd Prefrences
For Problem #1 You Can Use Brasso, Its Something That You Can Find Near The Soaps & Sink Cleaners At
Wal Mart
If You Can Help Me On #2 Pleae Do.
Thanx!
Reply
Pete said 3:00PM on 10-22-2005
I just ordered one of these things. After this fix, is it the same speed as the 4G Photo? I hope it isn't slower, I already think it should be a little quicker.
Reply
Damien Barrett said 3:10PM on 10-22-2005
Of course, not everyone will encounter this problem. If you do encounter this problem, after applying this fix, the speed of the interface of the 5G is just as fast as previous models.
Reply
AIM Buddy Icon said 3:22PM on 10-22-2005
Great! Thanks for sharing this fix.
Reply
Anrky said 6:17PM on 10-22-2005
thanks, I was just abotu to look for this solution... back to 60gb video goodness!
Reply
FatPaulie said 9:10PM on 10-22-2005
This also works for the nano!! YAY TUAW!!
Reply
help said 11:15PM on 10-22-2005
um... i just did this and now my ipod wont display any of the artwork even though it shows up in itunes...
any ideas?
Reply
Damien Barrett said 11:46PM on 10-22-2005
#6, you might try doing it again. Also, while a bit extreme, you might try restoring your iPod to factory state with the iPod Software updater and then letting iTunes resynch/uupdate to a fresh slate.
Reply
loren Cox said 1:47PM on 10-23-2005
Just did this on my 5G, which is set to manual updating, and I didn't have to wipe the library. The newest iTunes still updated the images without having autosyncing activated.
Reply
help said 4:00AM on 10-23-2005
doing it again didnt work... and restarting fresh... well, i dont even want to deal with that right now.
Reply
Chase said 8:20PM on 10-23-2005
Hello all..I'm not trying to flood this messageboard with off-topic posts, but I was curious if anyone else has noticed some flaws in the new ipod with video. I have been playing with mine for about a week now and have really been annoyed with a few things. ONE: notice how, once you enter an artists album listing and then back out to the main artist menu list it still lists the artists name in the menu heading instead of 'artists' as it should. and... TWO: When you power-down your ipod 5g you can rotate your thumb around the click-wheel and still hear the audible clicker sounds...which means the touch pad is still powered even after you turn off the device...maybe greatly reducing battery life? I tried to go to the apple store in indianapolis and they were going to exchange it until we discovered the quirks were in every single 5g that they had on display...even one of the store clerks. Has anyone else experienced some of these bugs? PLEASE SOMEONE ADDRESS THIS!!! I'm hoping it'll somehow be corrected with an update or something, but yeah...very annoying
Reply
Jeff said 1:36PM on 12-26-2005
this didn't help...any other solutions or ideas?
Reply
tom said 4:38PM on 12-26-2005
The fix worked great, Thanks! I agree that the 5G's seem a bit buggy though. Sometimes I'll update the iPod only to find that some album art has mysteriously vanished. Other times it will list multiple instances of a band even though there is no difference in spelling, etc. It seems like apple is getting a bit sloppy...
Reply
Amadeus said 5:02AM on 12-31-2005
The reason for duplicate artist entries is in fact not a bug, I suggest you actually check the artist names in the ID3 tag and rename them, you will most likely find one has a couple spaces attached to the end of it :)
Reply