How to Fix an Apple iPod Touch with a White Screen of Death

November 30, 2009 By Greg Mombert

iPod Touch Buttons

We show you how to fix your iPod Touch when you encounter the white screen of death. If your iPod is frozen, then follow these simple steps and you’ll be back up and running in no time. It requires what is known as a system reboot.

Locate the power button. This is the rectangular button on the top left side of the iPod Touch.

Locate the home button. This is the circular button on the face (screen) of your iPod towards the bottom.

Hold the home button and the power button at the same time and wait until the device shows the Apple logo on your screen (should take around 30 seconds). Your iPod should reboot with your files just the way you left them.

If the hard reboot doesn’t solve your problem then connect your iPod to iTunes. iTunes should detect a problem with your iPod and give you an option to restore it to factory settings (erases all your songs and files so back them up first).

Showing 24 comments

Mr. Fix It at 6:20am 22nd November 2010 If normal reboot fails to solve the problem. Do a DFU mode restore. "http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-fix-password-locked-iphone-ipod-touch-392678/ " and update the firmware. If the ipod "works" like recognizes itunes , transfers data. Your battery, connections, and chips are good and your lcd screen is bad. Check the LCD display connection, ribbon cable, and LCD screen for cracks and physical damage. Major repair bill...sorry..
dyllon at 5:20pm 26th August 2010 it desnt show the apple logo but it does reset and it still has screen
Clo at 4:52pm 20th August 2010 Worked on my daugter's ipod. After holding both power 7 hom button for at leat 45 seconds, i saw the apple logo. Then, it took about 3 minutes before we get the passcode screen. everything is back to normal. Thanks !
brandon at 4:13pm 10th August 2010 Paula same with mine. i have a 3rd gen. i have a white screen. i can still listen to music. but i have to use the iphone headphones that have the clicking thing.. please if any one has a soulution please hit me up.
Paula at 1:09am 5th August 2010 home + power button didn't work. I don't get an apple icon EVER - even after holding those buttons for 2 minutes straight. Syncing didn't work Restoring to factory setting didn't work Got anything else??? OH! and iTunes didn't detect any problems, I had to manually restore.
jessica at 7:31pm 21st July 2010 real helpful thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THANKYOU at 4:56am 16th July 2010 oh my gosh thx i thought i was screwed and forced to send it to that money hog apple..... thx
david at 8:42pm 13th July 2010 david: : thanks very much for your help it saved me a lot of hasel from my son it is fantastic that some one can help somebody else cheers .
dru at 2:35am 25th June 2010 also does not work for me this advice was just copied off of apple support--no new information lame
Poppy Parr at 3:30pm 10th June 2010 yea i tried that and it didnt work either does anyone else have any other ways you can fix your ipod touch because when i press it the screen goes black then goes back to white and my itunes doesnt detect any problems with it :/

can anyone help me please? x
1. annoyed at 9:44pm 28th July 2010 I have been having the same problem as this.. have u found a solution!
David at 6:35am 1st June 2010 Well I got the white screen "of death" and came to this easy guide, then a couple of months later.. i basically forgot about how to reset an ipod ==;; and found this guide again when I got the "green screen of death" O.o

so tyvm.
michael at 2:09am 5th May 2010 didnt work restore dosent work for me help nothing working
MO at 1:49pm 2nd May 2010 Yes mine worked and all recovered, thanks
Mitchell at 10:51pm 14th April 2010 Wow. thanks this whole white screen thing scared the heck out of me. thanks of the easy fix! u saved me LOTS of time and money from phoning APPLE. -mitchell
Richard at 2:59am 13th April 2010 ive tried this many times and it still doesnt work. ive also tried restoring and even downgrading firmware but none of those things helped. is there nething else i can do?
1. Zan at 8:47pm 15th December 2010 I got the same problem man and I'm still searching every website or anywhere I can think of and still hopeless,let me know if you can find the answer and I'll do the same to you. zpulvera@yahoo.com
kurtis at 6:13pm 28th March 2010 Im wondering if i ugrade to 3.1 from 2.2.1 since my warrinty is over and say 3.1 messed it up will apple cover it?
sallio 3 at 8:26am 27th March 2010 thank you
shafiq123 at 8:52am 6th March 2010 I reset the ipod from setting->General->erase all contents. IPOD asked to take one hour but battery was low due to this it halted. I charged it but again it is not coming in DFU mode I pressed sleep/week button with home button for more than one minute but it did not go into recovery mode. When I presse the tope left button it switches on with white screen but again turned off. So it is not detected by windows or itune. Is there any sloution of this problem?
Ty Schwartz at 11:25am 27th December 2009 apparently it's not the white screen of death if you can just fix it easily, haha
kal at 4:09pm 13th December 2009 what if this still doesn't solve the issue?
Muhammad Ali at 9:04pm 30th November 2009 A useful article with easy to follow instructions
iPod Tips at 6:05pm 30th November 2009 What a helpful article! Learned a lot. Thanks for helping me solve my ipod issues. I owe you!