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iTunes is a piece of shit.
- Thread starter Rapping Granny
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MisterRueler
Neo Member
Is it agreed that iTunes works fine on Macs? I don't have any problems with slowness, and I believe my music collection to be fairly large (or is about 6,000 songs still not large enough to experience slowdown?).
MisterRueler said:
Fine is an overstatement, it is the crappiest app Apple writes. It's certainly not slow, however if you spend much time in it, especially if you have a multi-language library, and are anal-retentive about labeling things, you quickly find that iTunes does not work like other Apple software, and is horrendously broken.
Dreams-Visions
Member
very curious. everything certainly appears to be in order. and yet, your issue exists, albeit very unique.Kong Fisso said:
idk, and it's rare for me to not be able to give someone direction.
Dreams-Visions
Member
it works the same on both. opens maybe a little faster in OS X. the main difference is that people using iTunes on Macs were willing to learn how to use it. Many of our Windows users here were not, frustrated by the fact that it doesn't work like other media players.MisterRueler said:
Vipershark
Member
Uncheck the songs that you don't want?mt1200 said:
I don't get how people don't know this feature exists.
*Clarification: As much as I dislike iTunes, I have yet to find as powerful, useful, media library organization software - my feelings stem from the fact that it just isn't up to par with other Apple software, however I can see how it might works pretty well for people that don't keep libraries such as mine.
angelkimne said:Just for my own amusement and to further the point (okay, it's mostly for my own amusement);
Native FLAC support? Awesome, i'll be sure to check them out if I want a dedicated MP3 player, for the time being I just use my phone but it doesn't have FLAC support. I have a shitty old iPOD with rockbox on it right now but the device is a perpetual pain in the ass to use, either the HDD or CPU is going on the thing. It boggles my mind how anyone would buy an MP3 player that doesn't allow drag and drop. I also remember when I used my old ipod having it sync through winamp and it would work alright until some sort of apple update would install breaking my ability to sync it with anything but itunes. Since then itunes, quicktime, bonjour and all the other bullshit associated with ipods are cleansed from my hard drives.
mt1200 said:
The easiest way to manage a large library for iPod syncing is to create playlists, and only select certain playlists to sync.
I can't believe the whole "but I can't click and drag my music!" thing still exists because:
1) manual management of files is arcane.
2) syncing a playlist you made manually is pretty much the same thing.
3) and you CAN click and drag with manual management on an iPod with iTunes anyway.
Dreams-Visions
Member
Nope, I'll stay right here with that shit. Because it's mostly true and has been since the beginning of the thread. Most that have posted here:Orellio said:
1.) Want iTunes to work exactly like WMP/Zune/Foobar
2.) Never bothered to learn the very basics of how the player works in order to get the results they want
3.) Hate that they can't drag and drop (again, wanting it to act like a different player)
4.) Have poorly-tagged music (metadata)
As one who uses iTunes, Zune and Foobar, along with Decibel, Fidelia and Audrivana on a daily basis to sift through 17,165 songs, the fact of the matter is that they're all different and all can be learned. It's all a matter of being anal-retentive about managing your music collection and learning what you use. It's about how you structure your folders and whether your metatag your music thoroughly or not. It takes legwork, and no most people don't want to do said legwork. after you do that, all the players work well for the most part, though iTunes and Foobar offer more sorting/filtering options at any given moment.
Make no mistake, when your music has been tagged with metadata properly, iTunes and Foobar stand alone in ease of use when it comes to finding your music. Column browsing FTW. I bet if half the complainers were asked to post a screen shot of their iTunes library and setup, we'd shake our heads at how disorganize their metadata is and how they're using the least efficient sorting/UI options. Meanwhile, of my 17,000+ songs, 100% of them have Album/Artist/Genre taggings...and all but one album has the necessary album artwork.
edit: scratch that. now not a single song appears without album art, or proper metadata.
mrkgoo said:
iTunes is arcane confirmed.
Clearly it's much better to hide file access of the device by default, completely fuck up all the file names, split them into a million different folders with completely randomized filenames so that you never know what file is where, how to copy one from a device to a computer, or manage the files with much more efficient software than itunes on a device with pathetic capacity, and no SDHC card slot. Yes, this is progress.
Jesus, sheeple and their "well you actually don't want to do that despite what you think you want".
kkaabboomm
Member
Combichristoffersen said:
...to buy music? thats all you want to do? why not go to amazon where they recently dropped 'top hits' prices to $.69, whereas Apple has them at $1.29, and lots of times Amazon has cheaper songs overall?
You don't use iTunes as a media player or whatnot...so...yeah. Why not go Amazon? Plus your mp3's don't have your user name or other identifiable info stored in them?
My library is completely organized and tagged properly. It's not a problem with finding the music, the problem is itunes is a bloated, slow piece of garbage piece of software. Apple wants to leverage all of their other businesses on itunes and the end user gets a worse product because of it. My 15,000 track library opens in seconds in foobar, automatically loads new music, and doesn't fuck with my tags. I can't say the same for itunes.
Dreams-Visions
Member
you make it sound so complicated for the end-user.Shambles said:
Want to add all your music to your iDevice?
Place a checkmark next to "sync entire library" and press "Sync".
Want to add just some songs to your iDevice?
Put the songs in a playlist, place a check mark next to the playlist in the iDevice menu and press "Sync". ...And every new song/album you want to add, just drag it to that same playlist and press "sync". All the traditional sorting methods (Genre/Album/Artist) will still work on the iDevice. There is no need or reason to create multiple playlists. I have 2 playlists. One called "iPod" and one called "Workout". "iPod" has about 8,000 songs on it. "Workout" has 12. The only time I ever sort by Playlist is when I want to access the workout songs only. The rest of the time, I just sort by Genre/Artist/Album from the main menu, which shows all songs.
I also have a small Creative Zen Plus 1GB mp3 player. It's slightly faster to open my Music folder, find the artist-->album-->songs to add...if we're talking about one or 2 songs. Beyond that, it's faster to find multiple things in the iTunes library, Ctrl+click them all, drag them to the playlist and press "sync".
The tears are unnecessary and again, smack of a simple inability or unwillingness to adapt. It's nowhere near as bad as you suggest it. But again, you can tell who's seriously used the system and who hasn't.
because he didn't want to learn how iTunes works, and needs something to take out his frustration on.ivedoneyourmom said:
Shambles said:
don't think I don't see the irony of what I posted
And you know my point. Giving up file management is such boon to me. I did it for mymusif files, and I did it for my photos.
The point was i find it kind of old-fashioned to have to worry about how the file is named, or where it resides. It's all about finding your files. And even if you were desperate to worry about that kind of thing - in iTunes, you still can.
I haven't actually said anything about iTunes being crap or whatever, because thats a user preference. Personally, I don't mind it, but admit I haven't tried much. I'm all about simplicity and the path of least resistance ( which I personally find to be iTunes, given that I don't find it that big a hurdle to learn it). And I have no idea about it on windows, which i've heArd is less than ideal.
EricHasNoPull
Banned
Fuck you Apple Inc. and iTunes for totally ignoring the value of my Canadian dollar and still charging me US prices for songs and apps!
Other than the above obvious, it's a great software, runs like butter on my 64bit Win 7 machine, I don't care what the haters say about the program's performance.
Just wish Apple was a bit more considerate for us Non-Americans
Greedy fucks!
Other than the above obvious, it's a great software, runs like butter on my 64bit Win 7 machine, I don't care what the haters say about the program's performance.
Just wish Apple was a bit more considerate for us Non-Americans
Greedy fucks!
D
Deleted member 1235
Unconfirmed Member
Dreams-Visions said:
this is actually informative.
You know what is shit about itunes though? Why in the blue fuck can't I use all the nice genius stuff using my ipod as the source?
I have a PC at work, I don't want to copy my library there off my ipod (apple half prevents this anyway) but what I do want it to be able to treat my itunes install the same as my home one, but using the ipod as the library.
Give me the genius functions and all that from the ipod. why is this hard?
Apple seems horrible at imagining a world where people don't have a home terminal and a remote device and that's all.
I don't LOVE itunes, but I don't find it as bad as some. Would be willing to learn how to work around some of these issues.
that's a nice tip about the playlists, I'm going to look into that.
EricHasNoPull said:
In some ways it sucks that the iTunes prices were stuck at the exchange rate at the time iTunes came out. It means 99c songs are NZ$1.79 (currently US$1.41).
On the OTHER hand, it's AWESOME, because 99c apps are NZ$1.29, Which makes them, well US$1.01, but when the exchange rates change it's like I can get them for 70c or less!
I just flip between accounts depend on which one works out cheaper.
EricHasNoPull
Banned
I wonder if half the iTunes haters on this thread, don't like iTunes becasue they are using a different music devices with it (other than an idevice, ie: ipod, iphone etc.)
I've been using the software since I purchased my first, third gen ipod mini six years ago. and now I use it with my iPhone, I never really used another mp3 player with it, I don't even know if you can...but I guess I can see the frustration of some people with the software, since I don;t think it was made to work with anything other than an iDevice.
But yeah beside the iPod + iTunes shit, the vast majority of stuff it offers is pretty amazing, Tv Shows, Movies (even though I shop for my Movies and shows from Netflix or PSN) Internet radio and Podcasts (I cannot do without) and yeah other than that the standard iDevice stuff, like Apps (make your own free ringtones) and eBooks and the easy accessibility of the iTunes/App Store (despite it being a bit of a rip off, I tend to shop and compare elsewhere for my media)
I donno, what the big deal is, it's definitely not a good software if you want to use it with your Samsung, or LG mp3 player I guess, but otherwise it's a pretty simple and clean media player.
Wow! wait... you can trick iTunes like you can trick PSN that you are from a different country? I didn't know that, I remember trying to make a US account way back when and I think for the life of me, I couldn't. iTunes wouldn't let me, like it knew my IP address or something.
I've been using the software since I purchased my first, third gen ipod mini six years ago. and now I use it with my iPhone, I never really used another mp3 player with it, I don't even know if you can...but I guess I can see the frustration of some people with the software, since I don;t think it was made to work with anything other than an iDevice.
But yeah beside the iPod + iTunes shit, the vast majority of stuff it offers is pretty amazing, Tv Shows, Movies (even though I shop for my Movies and shows from Netflix or PSN) Internet radio and Podcasts (I cannot do without) and yeah other than that the standard iDevice stuff, like Apps (make your own free ringtones) and eBooks and the easy accessibility of the iTunes/App Store (despite it being a bit of a rip off, I tend to shop and compare elsewhere for my media)
I donno, what the big deal is, it's definitely not a good software if you want to use it with your Samsung, or LG mp3 player I guess, but otherwise it's a pretty simple and clean media player.
mrkgoo said:
Wow! wait... you can trick iTunes like you can trick PSN that you are from a different country? I didn't know that, I remember trying to make a US account way back when and I think for the life of me, I couldn't. iTunes wouldn't let me, like it knew my IP address or something.
MarkMclovin
Member
I have iTunes on my Mac and on my laptop with windows 7 x64 and it's shit on both. Doesn't stop me (or most of you) from using it though.
For me iTunes has been fine ( but not the greatest meda player). My main problem has been tagging. The album by The White Stripes called "Elephant" gives me a totally different cover from a totally different band. My other tagging issue is that whatever I do to change settings I can't get cover art for Kayne's last album. Also, as far as syncing time goes what can I do to cut the time down? Don't say manually sync since I have pretty much all of my iTunes that I want on my iPod save for a few songs that are unchecked.
aMarkedMan
Banned
Sorry for the late reply but, yes, some of them appear to have check marks.Gouty said:
Baconbitz said:
For the artwork problem: select the entire album, hit CRTL-I (CMD-I on Mac) and that'll bring up in the info box. Drag hi-rez artwork from Amazon into the square Artwork box on the right, hit ok, enjoy the correct album art. Do the same for Kanye's album.
If you have all your music on your iPod that you want already, syncing shouldn't be taking any time at all unless you change your music a lot. If that's the case, it's gonna take how long it's gonna take.
Oppo
Member
I really did expect a major overhaul when 10 came out. Surprised they stuck with it.
I mean underneath all the cruft it is still SoundJam MP.
They need to back away from iTunes as an app name, leave it for the music store, and come up with a new fully-formed media manager with a new name. They have to know this.
I mean underneath all the cruft it is still SoundJam MP.
They need to back away from iTunes as an app name, leave it for the music store, and come up with a new fully-formed media manager with a new name. They have to know this.
TheDrowningMan
Member
I really like iTunes, though it's much, much better on my iMac than any Windows machine I've used, so I can see why many Windows users aren't keen. Anyway, I like it because it keeps my music nicely categorised and tidy with no fuss. I know where everything is going to be found without question, it's no hassle to find what I need and I don't have to do anything complex to ensure that all albums have artwork (if iTunes can't find it, I'll just image search and upload to iTunes).
I find dragging and dropping my HTC Desire much more cumbersome than doing so with iTunes + iPad. Just make sure you're not auto-syncing your music library every time.
I find dragging and dropping my HTC Desire much more cumbersome than doing so with iTunes + iPad. Just make sure you're not auto-syncing your music library every time.
Majima Everywhere System
Member
Einbroch said:
Since they stopped making Zunes, I wish they would allow third parties to make use of the software somehow. My girlfriend recently got her first Ipod, and now she has 8 copies of every song in her library stored in random ass folders across her computer. Or, you know, itunes could just be compatible with all types of common music extensions and bit rates so that shit doesn't happen.
Oh and not being able to redownload music is a laugh too. It would save more money to let you download than to pay customer service to deal with the fallout.
iTunes (Mac) works like a charm for me. I've got a huge music library, neatly organized, full albums, most tags complete (album, album artist, artist, year, tracks, artwork, genre). Because of the size it and the fact that my library is on a separate HD, makes it a bit slow when adding new music, but other than that I don't really have complaints. I do wish they would add some lyrics tab or mode or something. I'd really welcome that!
Even amongst Mac users there are some people that HATE iTunes. I'm sure they are better media players out there. I hate the fact you have to delete your entire library every time you sync a device to a different computer even if your device has 100% none DRM songs. If only they made Winamp and Media Monkey for Mac OS X I think they are better for organizing huge music collections.
Mama Robotnik
Member
Part of my dislike of iTunes is that it runs on my i7 with 4 gigs of ram, with all the grace of Half-Life 2 on a Sega Master System.
Its slow and hugely unresponsive, waiting an indeterminate amount of time to actually acknowledge I'm selecting something, utterly unintuitive (at least for me), far too cluttered and runs background subprograms that keep recurring until I (inevtiably) uninstall the software when the needed iPhone software update is complete.
This pathetic display, combined with being effectively forced to use the program to activate my iPhone, results in even the word "iTunes" causing a grating effect on my brain when I hear it, in the same way that "Games for Windows" does over in the gaming side.
The other annoyance is that Apple seem adamant to force me to go about things in the complete opposite way that I want it to. I do not give a fuck about tags, music organisational structuring, album art, libraries, genres, playlists or anything else and am perfectly happy with having MP3s in named folders. All I want to do is copy these folders over to my phone, like nearly any other non-Apple hardware will let me do. Without jailbreaking the hardware to give it this basic functionality, I'm forced to try and manouver Apple's endless, pointless hoops until it comes to getting a new phone.
Which probably won't be an iPhone. Its a shame really, because I really do love my iPhone, its internet browsing and app library are great. Its just every time that I plug it into my computer or try and copy some actual songs onto it that things go to shit.
Its slow and hugely unresponsive, waiting an indeterminate amount of time to actually acknowledge I'm selecting something, utterly unintuitive (at least for me), far too cluttered and runs background subprograms that keep recurring until I (inevtiably) uninstall the software when the needed iPhone software update is complete.
This pathetic display, combined with being effectively forced to use the program to activate my iPhone, results in even the word "iTunes" causing a grating effect on my brain when I hear it, in the same way that "Games for Windows" does over in the gaming side.
The other annoyance is that Apple seem adamant to force me to go about things in the complete opposite way that I want it to. I do not give a fuck about tags, music organisational structuring, album art, libraries, genres, playlists or anything else and am perfectly happy with having MP3s in named folders. All I want to do is copy these folders over to my phone, like nearly any other non-Apple hardware will let me do. Without jailbreaking the hardware to give it this basic functionality, I'm forced to try and manouver Apple's endless, pointless hoops until it comes to getting a new phone.
Which probably won't be an iPhone. Its a shame really, because I really do love my iPhone, its internet browsing and app library are great. Its just every time that I plug it into my computer or try and copy some actual songs onto it that things go to shit.
H_Prestige
Banned
Agreed. I regret not getting an Android phone instead of the iphone 4. This thing is small and feels more like a fancy toy than a mobile computer. I really hate that you can't just drag and drop files to and from a computer. It's so idiotic, syncing is such time wasting bullshit.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
Class_A_Ninja said:
She screwed something up if she has 8 copies of every song.
H_Prestige said:
:lol Fancy little toy eh?
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
Somnid said:
Are there any that don't use a cable?
Oppo
Member
Mama Robotnik said:
No you're not, you just haven't investigated.
iTunes -> Preferences -> Advanced
Uncheck "Keep iTunes Media folder organized"
Now point it at any folder structure you like, et voilá.
You can tell it not to do shit when you plug it in. With the iPhone plugged in, in Tunes select it in the sidebar, then uncheck
"Open iTunes when phone is connected"
"Manually manage music and videos"
Then you can drag and drop to move music/video and it won't auto sync.
Because media is big. And backing up your phone on a regular basis is encouraged.Somnid said:
Having said that if you are not a podcast junkie like me, and you have loaded most of the music/video you want, you don't need to sync with the cable outside of backups. You can sync mail/contacts/calendar and get app updates over the air.
D
Deleted member 1235
Unconfirmed Member
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
there should be
Mama Robotnik
Member
PortTwo said:
I don't have iTunes installed so I can't apply this at the moment - but does this get rid of all that syncing bollocks and just open a folder for me to copy my MP3s into, like nearly every other player and phone on the market will let me do?
Oppo
Member
Mama Robotnik said:
Well iTunes is a music browser, right. But you only need to tell it where the music lives (your own folder structure), and it will scan tags for presentation purposes.
So if you uncheck "keep my folder organized", you are own your own, and iTunes simply provides a view of your music. So yeah, copy all you like. If you do the Manually manage checkbox I mentioned above, you can use iTunes directly as a drag-and-drop loader.
Mama Robotnik
Member
PortTwo said:
That does sound a lot better, wish I'd known that when I first started using it, thanks.
Still not reinstalling the software however because of its appalling performance difficulties. I just wish Apple would allow me to treat the phone like an external hard drive, would be very happy with that. Ah well, its nice to want things.
The_Inquisitor
Member
I have the run this shit in compatibility mode so iTunes doesn't fucking crash every time I plug in my iPhone. I am using the latest iPhone firmware and iTunes software too.
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