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Empty nano ipod gen. 7 not able to be synced

I get this error message: "The iPod “Bro. Craig’s iPod Nano” cannot be synced because there is not enough free space to hold all of the selected items (additional 6.03 GB required).” This nano is empty. Nothing is on it. It used to sync. What can I do to restore it? Running Ventura 13.5.2 on an Apple M1 Mac

iPod nano

Posted on Sep 20, 2023 8:00 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 20, 2023 3:30 PM

Whatever it is that you are trying to add to your iPod is larger than can be fitted onto it. Check the size of the selection that you are trying to add to the iPod.


The actual storage capacity of an iPod is less than the capacity mentioned (due to the operating system etc.), so If your iPod is a 4GB device, then I'm guessing that the actual storage capacity will be about 3.5GB (but note that that is approximate). Since the error message states that an additional 6.03GB is required, that means that the selection that iTunes is trying to add to the iPod is approximately 9.53GB in size.


Try deselecting the playlist you mentioned and then tap the Sync button. In theory, iTunes will go through the steps to sync but since there is nothing to sync, the iPod will remain empty. However - if there is something else selected, that you had not noticed, I would expect one of two things to happen:

    1. songs appear on the iPod that you had not realised had been selected
    2. nothing is added to the iPod, but a message telling you that additional space is required appears again. This time however, the space is smaller than before. Again, this tells you that there is still something selected to sync that you did not know about


I assume that you are using sync selected playlist, artists, albums and genres, in which case perhaps there is something selected in the selection area (that is out of the display area) that you are not aware of. See the screenshot below:


8 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 20, 2023 3:30 PM in response to BroCraig

Whatever it is that you are trying to add to your iPod is larger than can be fitted onto it. Check the size of the selection that you are trying to add to the iPod.


The actual storage capacity of an iPod is less than the capacity mentioned (due to the operating system etc.), so If your iPod is a 4GB device, then I'm guessing that the actual storage capacity will be about 3.5GB (but note that that is approximate). Since the error message states that an additional 6.03GB is required, that means that the selection that iTunes is trying to add to the iPod is approximately 9.53GB in size.


Try deselecting the playlist you mentioned and then tap the Sync button. In theory, iTunes will go through the steps to sync but since there is nothing to sync, the iPod will remain empty. However - if there is something else selected, that you had not noticed, I would expect one of two things to happen:

    1. songs appear on the iPod that you had not realised had been selected
    2. nothing is added to the iPod, but a message telling you that additional space is required appears again. This time however, the space is smaller than before. Again, this tells you that there is still something selected to sync that you did not know about


I assume that you are using sync selected playlist, artists, albums and genres, in which case perhaps there is something selected in the selection area (that is out of the display area) that you are not aware of. See the screenshot below:


Sep 20, 2023 12:36 PM in response to BroCraig

The message means that iTunes is trying to put more onto the iPod than it can hold. In this situation, the sync is abandoned. For example, if your has space for 8GB iPod, iTunes is trying to put 14.03GB onto it.


So the issue is going to be either:

  • the total capacity of the iPod is not enough for all the music that you're trying to add
  • there is a lot of unavailable space on the iPod (such as unreadable files, which will be listed as "Other")



  • What is the capacity of the iPod;
    • how much storage does the specification say and
    • if you look at the capacity bar (for the iPod) at the bottom of the iTunes window, what does that say? Importantly, does the capacity bar show a large amount of a section named Other? If so, how much Other is listed?
  • How much music are you trying to add to the iPod?
    • if you are syncing you entire music library, look in the iTunes songs window and at the bottom of the window it gives the size of your library

Empty nano ipod gen. 7 not able to be synced

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