-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
iTunes is a piece of shit.
- Thread starter Rapping Granny
- Start date
- Status
Dice
Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
Whenever I plug in my iPod I get a windows popup that says there seems to be a problem with the drive so it wonders if I want to scan it. I say no, but one tie I said yes and it found no problems anyway. Aside from this, it syncs just fine, except some album art displays while it is playing the album have shifted around to the wrong ones. They're correct in coverflow, though. I'm not going to wipe my whole iPod (can you even do this?) just to try and resync to get correct album art display. I like the way it manages tags/sorting but everything else is so shitty.
Sounds like a USB communication problem. You can eliminate iTunes/Apple software from the equation by doing the following:
1. Completely uninstall iTunes and its components
2. Put your iPod into Disk Mode
3. Connect the iPod to your PC. Windows should detect it as a USB Mass Storage Device and assign it a drive letter
4. Try to reproduce the problem.
If the problem still occurs, the issue has nothing to do with iTunes. Try a different USB port, try a different dock cable, and try the iPod with a different computer. If the problem follows the iPod, then your iPod probably needs service. If the problem only occurs on your PC, you either have a software conflict (commonly, security software that is trying to scan the removable media) or your USB controllers are completely hosed.
Bitmap Frogs
Mr. Community
I swear Apple bogs down iTunes on windows on purpose.
My old 24 iMac with a core 2 duo ran iTunes better than my new i7 quad.
My old 24 iMac with a core 2 duo ran iTunes better than my new i7 quad.
Mike Works
Member
Every single time there's an iTunes update, it stops installing halfway through and I have to uninstall iTunes and then download the newest version from their website. Every time.
SteveWinwood
Member
Sometimes?
Ken Masters
Banned
iTunes is the best music player on Mac, never once had an issue with it. I wouldn't mind. A redesign though
it's a POS on PC
Poimandres
Member
I've never had too much trouble with iTunes apart from how difficult they make it to change your format/quality of choice in the iTunes store, and how the best quality on offer is still piss poor.
But my iPod Classic just died for no reason. I've only had it for a little over a year. I could pay $200 to get it repaired, but screw it, I'm done with Apple. Getting myself a Cowon.
But my iPod Classic just died for no reason. I've only had it for a little over a year. I could pay $200 to get it repaired, but screw it, I'm done with Apple. Getting myself a Cowon.
lol, imagine having to upload music to it through Musicmatch Jukebox. GODDAM that shit sucked dick.
Goddamn, I love iTunes on Windows. Handles my music perfectly, in addition to syncing. The only thing I would change is that when adding a folder that contains many other folders, it adds each folder one at a time. I sort my library by date added, and the files are all jumbled up and not with their respective album buddies this way.
Minor issue though, glad I don't have your guys' problems.
Minor issue though, glad I don't have your guys' problems.
AMEN
LightOfTruth
Member
Other than starting up itunes works fine for me. Windows 7 here.
Although it could use lots of improvements.
Although it could use lots of improvements.
Oh christ I'd forgotten about those days. I was so thrilled when iTunes for Windows came out and brought an end to that.
Now I miss my iPod 3G, too.
Rocket Punch
Member
Yeah, that's it.
TemplaerDude
Member
THE BUTTONS, ZEY DO NOTHING
my dad gave me a throwaway sansa clip and i installed rockbox on it and used it for the gym a couple of times... realized how awesome of an mp3 player it was and now i use it daily over my ipad2 and android smartphone as my go to music device... it has the perfect blend of:
- controls.. harware buttons great for using without sight
- sound quality... honestly this thing has better SnR than ipad2, phone, even my PC
- battery life... 10 hrs at least
- display... 2 tone OLED is easy to read
- size/clip
- cheap... i see them for $20-30
- expandability... 4gb built in and microSD slot... can drag and drop over USB
i honestly have no clue how the ipod nano and ipod shuffle did so well when competing against this...
- controls.. harware buttons great for using without sight
- sound quality... honestly this thing has better SnR than ipad2, phone, even my PC
- battery life... 10 hrs at least
- display... 2 tone OLED is easy to read
- size/clip
- cheap... i see them for $20-30
- expandability... 4gb built in and microSD slot... can drag and drop over USB
i honestly have no clue how the ipod nano and ipod shuffle did so well when competing against this...
Maleficence
Member
Are there any alternatives to iTunes where I can easily transfer my library and playlists?
Need iPod support too.
Need iPod support too.
yeah but great design and marketing can get the initial adopters to buy it.... but what makes them praise and reccomend such a shoddy product compared to something thats superior on the market? you need more than design and marketing to sustain the sales that the nano and shuffle have.
Synth_floyd
Banned
I wish they had media monkey for mac.
TemplaerDude
Member
Legions of rabid, mindless drones who will buy anything with an Apple on it.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
If it were shoddy, it would not sell like it does. The iPods sell because of the ease of use for non computer folk (which are the majority).
Try working with the general public and explain how to use any piece of electronics to them. 9 out of 10 people I talk to get a glazed over look when I use the term "drag and drop" when referring to transferring files on a computer.
What Phonicle said. The product is not "shoddy". How is the shuffle or nano "shoddy"? They function, and they function well. They always have. The adopters that buy it usually love it. They then spread word, simple as that. It's easy to be convinced when the item in question is pretty and popular.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
And just as easy for many others to hate it and never want anything to do with it because it is pretty and popular. Sadly, that is the way many things work.
Are there better music players on the market? Yes. Many out there offer more tweakability and superior sound quality to iPods. Are they as dead simple to use for even the most computer illiterate person out there? Not a chance. Many people just want to buy something and get it to do its job with as little tweaking as possible.
I used to be all about tweaking and adding things on, but now I just want things to do what they are supposed to do with minimal effort and work on my end.
i tried explaining both to my mom (total non techie):
drag and drop:
my mom has a nook simple touch e-reader and i showed her how to select her epub files and drag them to the window that pops up when you plug in the nook via USB. if she wanted to delete any books she just clicks the files and hits the delete key on the keyboard.
itunes:
my mom has an ipod and i was setting it up for her. i had to setup her with an itunes account just to use itunes (she most likely forgot the password to it). then i showed her how to add songs to the library and then hit sync to sync the library with her ipod. when she wanted to delete some songs i had to show her how to delete the song properly so it only deletes from the ipod and not the itunes library.
im the same way and i dont understand how the ipod is minimal effort... i curse apple for having a proprietary charge cord since i have to carry both a standard USB charger and an apple charger since all my devices except my ipod can share one charger. i dont like how i have to install itunes on every computer so have it work with my ipad. i cant even fathon how any one would think that a sansa clip is harder to use than an ipod shuffle or nano. yes the clip has more settings and doodads but you dont need to access them... you can easily just goto the song you want and hit play or pause. not sure how that can be hard. on the shuffle i have no fricken idea what the thing is doing since theres no screen and you have to decypher audio beeps. on the nano the scroll wheel functions as navigation and volume... so sometimes i want to change volume mid menu and i cant
Funny, the Nano is the only iPod I haven't owned, and I think it's easily the coolest one (well, I guess barring the iPod touch IF you don't have an iPhone).
Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with iTunes and iPod syncing not being the most intuitive. It's easy to manage, and I think a pretty neat system, but not really intuitive. A lot of people like to think of their music device as being separate from their computer. The iPod, however, is far from it, being an extension or addition of your computer library. Computer and non-computer users alike find it a bit convoluted. It's completely simple ONCE you understand the relationship, though. Man, trying to explain to people that you pretty much needed a computer for an iPod was a tough one.
And that said, you can actually set up the iPod as a drag and drop device with iTunes anyway.
Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with iTunes and iPod syncing not being the most intuitive. It's easy to manage, and I think a pretty neat system, but not really intuitive. A lot of people like to think of their music device as being separate from their computer. The iPod, however, is far from it, being an extension or addition of your computer library. Computer and non-computer users alike find it a bit convoluted. It's completely simple ONCE you understand the relationship, though. Man, trying to explain to people that you pretty much needed a computer for an iPod was a tough one.
And that said, you can actually set up the iPod as a drag and drop device with iTunes anyway.
1. You don't need to remember the iTunes password. I don't even remember signing into mine...
2. Why not setup automatic syncing with the library and iPod? If not, then all she has to do is press delete on the songs in the iPod on the left instead of the Library...don't see how thats harder then dragging and dropping.
3. Adding songs to the library is literally dragging and dropping...but prettier.
1. well it asked me for one... so i taking your anecdotal evidence with salt
2. setting up a syncing profile is already way over her head. yes i can do it for her, but that means the software wasnt intuitive to begin with
3. so its functionally the same but prettier? my mom doesnt care about pretty, she wants to listen to music not stare at pretty UI
This is now how I manage my iPod. I'm trying to keep a new installation of Windows bloat-free, and I really didn't want iTunes and all the shit that it requires to be running all the time. Seriously, look at all this crap just for a audio player\device syncing application. On my last Windows installation, every time I would try to launch iTunes it would hang for 30 seconds because the Bonjour service wasn't responding.
I'm pretty sure there are plenty of easy to use mp3 players.
replicashooter
Banned
Songbird. Tis tha bomb, ay.
What does iTunes do with podcasts over the Zune software?
Ventilaator
Banned
I like this thread. Using Itunes is easily the single worst user experience I've had with anything ever, no hyperbole. It totally pissed me off when I got a PSP and a ios device basically at the same time. I plugged in the PSP and got a "photo" folder, a "video" folder and the like. It makes perfect sense where everything needs to go.
I plug in the ios device and first I need to download this extra software that then needs to update itself for a while. Then I get 4 folders that say "music" on it and 2 of those go into a dozen subsections. What? Then I put some stuff on it and it all was automatically deleted the next time I plugged in the thing.
It needs some figuring out, but I had that to compare right next to the PSPs "Put that stuff here" so it was disgusting.
I plug in the ios device and first I need to download this extra software that then needs to update itself for a while. Then I get 4 folders that say "music" on it and 2 of those go into a dozen subsections. What? Then I put some stuff on it and it all was automatically deleted the next time I plugged in the thing.
It needs some figuring out, but I had that to compare right next to the PSPs "Put that stuff here" so it was disgusting.
i honestly have no clue how the ipod nano and ipod shuffle did so well when competing against this...
Really?
Design?
What gets me, is that itunes is slow to respond for at least 20-30 seconds after launching, even on an SSD. (Windows 7).
So, because of that, I keep it open most of the day, but I'll randomly get error messages from itunes that'll pop up in the foreground saying it can't connect wirelessly to my iphone.
The whole setup is atrocious, on mac or PC. For me, it's not the performance I'm worried of, it's the whole user experience. If you have multiple idevices, (like an ipad and iphone) it becomes a pain in the ass to manage what apps and what music you want on each device. Furthermore, delete an app on the device itself, and it'll just resync the next time you plug the device in, unless you delete the app in itunes.
Not only that, I've had old an ipod touch get completely wiped when I plugged it into a new computer. Itunes popped up a bunch of gibberish about what it was doing, but it never made it explicitly clear that it was going to wipe the device. Why I continue to put up with itunes? I don't know, but I just wish Apple would get a decent UI design for itunes.
I just like to mention, that the PSP wasn't always like that. Of course sony fixed it, but at one point to play videos they had to be encoded just right and put into an arcane folder structure that was unique to sony devices. Besides, if you want to transfer games to it (without CFW) using the PC, you need to use sony's equally shitty MediaGO.
So, because of that, I keep it open most of the day, but I'll randomly get error messages from itunes that'll pop up in the foreground saying it can't connect wirelessly to my iphone.
The whole setup is atrocious, on mac or PC. For me, it's not the performance I'm worried of, it's the whole user experience. If you have multiple idevices, (like an ipad and iphone) it becomes a pain in the ass to manage what apps and what music you want on each device. Furthermore, delete an app on the device itself, and it'll just resync the next time you plug the device in, unless you delete the app in itunes.
Not only that, I've had old an ipod touch get completely wiped when I plugged it into a new computer. Itunes popped up a bunch of gibberish about what it was doing, but it never made it explicitly clear that it was going to wipe the device. Why I continue to put up with itunes? I don't know, but I just wish Apple would get a decent UI design for itunes.
I just like to mention, that the PSP wasn't always like that. Of course sony fixed it, but at one point to play videos they had to be encoded just right and put into an arcane folder structure that was unique to sony devices. Besides, if you want to transfer games to it (without CFW) using the PC, you need to use sony's equally shitty MediaGO.
I could not agree with the OP more, after going from my Ipod Touch to using my android phone I could not figure out why the hell I put up with the piece of shit Itunes software for so long.
My wife's nano died a while back, I gave her the Ipod Touch and for the life of me cannot figure out if there is a way to merge our purchases (as I will never use a apple product again), even synching on my office PC vs the upstairs one causes all sorts of weird crap
still have a Sansa also (2 actually), they are amazing players and can take a beating.
My wife's nano died a while back, I gave her the Ipod Touch and for the life of me cannot figure out if there is a way to merge our purchases (as I will never use a apple product again), even synching on my office PC vs the upstairs one causes all sorts of weird crap
still have a Sansa also (2 actually), they are amazing players and can take a beating.
1. Ok, but it should never ask for it again. Not really a big deal if she doesn't remember her pw.
2. Syncing profile? You plug in your ipod for the first time and its set to automatically sync. Just like any software ever created, you have to have at least a little knowledge of what your software does. Obviously Windows Explorer isn't intuitive either if you had to explain to her how to do it.
3. Prettier, as in simpler. My point was that the technique to adding songs was the same.
Maleficence
Member
I shall check it out since you're the only response I got! Any idea how to transfer stuff across?
Edit - never mind found a quick guide!
Q
qizah
Unconfirmed Member
On Windows I stopped using iTunes, I just use Foobar2000 now. Simple and loads really quickly, easy. On Ubuntu I just use RhythmBox, simple and easy as well. Also got rid of my iPod, so I use my Android for music now.
However, there's probably a lot of programs that let you manage your iPod/iPhone's music so if you Google I'm sure you'd find something.
However, there's probably a lot of programs that let you manage your iPod/iPhone's music so if you Google I'm sure you'd find something.
AstroNut325
Member
I was a defender of iTunes until I got a WP7 device and had to use Zune software. I can't stand iTunes now!
I think the point of all the syncing craziness with iTunes is to make the end user-experience better. On an ipod, you get really rich options to organise, each, and browse your media, related to how you did it on your computer. Playlists, smart playlists, genius mixes ratings, etc
On nearly all drag and drop only music players I experienced, the options seemed to be limited to alphabetic by artist/album/title etc.
On nearly all drag and drop only music players I experienced, the options seemed to be limited to alphabetic by artist/album/title etc.
Supermanisdead
Member
my dad gave me a throwaway sansa clip and i installed rockbox on it and used it for the gym a couple of times... realized how awesome of an mp3 player it was and now i use it daily over my ipad2 and android smartphone as my go to music device... it has the perfect blend of:
- controls.. harware buttons great for using without sight
- sound quality... honestly this thing has better SnR than ipad2, phone, even my PC
- battery life... 10 hrs at least
- display... 2 tone OLED is easy to read
- size/clip
- cheap... i see them for $20-30
- expandability... 4gb built in and microSD slot... can drag and drop over USB
i honestly have no clue how the ipod nano and ipod shuffle did so well when competing against this...
really, you have no clue? this thing is hideous.
- Status