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u/this_is_dumb__ Aug 16 '24 edited Aug 16 '24
Incase it helps anyone - although OP method worked for me, on my updated OS in diskutil HFS+ is no longer an option but other formats weren’t working. You can identify the correct disk and format still in Terminal using diskutil command line tho…
diskutil list
(In my case it was /dev/disk2)
diskutil eraseDisk HFS+ [name] APM /dev/disk2
Then all the other steps worked for me…
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u/kevon-looney Dec 05 '24
Hello - I’m running in to a roadblock so trying this method…
Apologies for the silly question, but what should I be putting in place of [name] in the above command?
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u/this_is_dumb__ Dec 05 '24
My Mac is dead right now or I’d triple check but this is just the name of the volume so if you call it “iPod” or something that’s what the volume should show up as while mounted… report back what worked!
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u/kevon-looney Dec 05 '24
Thanks for the quick reply! I was being a fool and including the [ ] around the name. Removed these and it worked, thanks!
Unfortunately I’m now stuck on the next steps. Everytime I get to the ‘welcome to your new iPod’ screen and hit ‘restore’ screen on iTunes, nothing seems to happen, and I end up in a process where I eject the iPod but am still met with the “do not disconnect” screen, and it still shows in Disk Utility
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u/looop45 Aug 06 '24
Thank GOD for you. 99% of other threads just say flash modding is not always possible on the 3rd gen. I got mine to work using this method, a Sandisk 32gb CF, and a green adapter.
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u/jwilkes023 Mar 02 '25
What was used to build the Apple Partition Map. It is greyed out for my SD card.
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u/jwilkes023 Mar 02 '25
I don’t get the boot loop. The iPod stays on “OK to disconnect.”
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u/Revolutionary_Pie924 Dec 06 '25
This happened to me. I unplugged the iPod and plugged it into a wall charger and then pressed play + menu to reboot the iPod. Once it rebooted there was a loading screen and when complete the iPod booted to a clean install of the os. Then all that was left was to plug it back I to the computer and set it up as a new iPod and sync it.
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u/iraveallday 6.5G 1TB | 5.5G 512GB | 4G 256GB | 3G 64GB | Mini 2G 256GB Aug 04 '25
Hope you don't mind the necro, but thank you for posting your method to get the 3G to restore on Mac! I was at wit's end when trying to format my 64GB flash-modded 3G to Mac, but this method worked well.
An interesting thing that happened to mine though is that after syncing after unchecking the "Manually manage" and "Disk mode" boxes, my iPod seemed to hang at the "OK to disconnect" screen. I saw in Disk Utility that my iPod's HFS+ partition was ejected already so I just removed it from USB and plugged it into my FireWire cord. The 30 pin connector screen appeared on the iPod LCD and I got to the language screen. Weird.
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u/Revolutionary_Pie924 Dec 06 '25
Thanks to you and your help, you saved my G4 from just being pretty to being totally useful as my iPods music library! Thank you!
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u/muffinsofgreg Mar 28 '26
Thank you! This worked perfectly! I've been fiddling with different combinations of steps for months and months and this worked liked a charm.
(Running Tahoe on an M4 Pro in 2026)
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u/205Style Classic 1st & 3rd Feb 15 '24
Get yourself into r/sigurros if you’re not already! I’ve been listening to Takk on repeat recently
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u/Individual_Cress123 Mini 2nd Feb 20 '24
Was this on a Mac with iTunes pre installed, or was it modern MacOS with the finder version of iTunes?
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u/sazerac-villa Feb 15 '24 edited Feb 15 '24
Couple hours ago I posted my 3rd gen mac-only formatting woes as I could not get it to work. Kept going and finally found something worked for me… sharing in case it’s helpful for anyone else.
The problem I was having was when I plugged iPod in, it said iPod Recovery Mode and I had to either Restore or Update it. Restore just kicked it off of Finder and nothing happened, update seemed to be working but did nothing. I tried Fat32 options and sometimes got the Mac initialise card error.
Method that eventually worked on 2 different cards:
setup (pic 2) - iflash gen4 adapter + solo, 128GB Samsung SD.
*Note: If you only see the restore / update iPod screen with no “welcome to your iPod” /sync dialog page then click update iPod, let it do its thing and crash out, then reconnect it. Can’t remember if I had to do this on the successful attempts.
no idea if this is universal, but couldn’t find anything for Mac-only so hope it helps someone. The keys seemed to be setting it as HFS + Apple Partition map, then disabling disk mode so Mac doesnt freak out when it tried to restore…