About iTunes.

How it that iTunes' fault?

 

I have an iPhone so iTunes is essential for loading music on it. I have had some problems importing ALAC files through iTunes. For some strange reason some of the tracks get some sort of screeching noise. I have had the same issue on 3 different computers. It doesn't have that problem when importing to MP3. Other then that I have no issues with iTunes. I am a devoted iPhone user so iTunes is just something I will have to use.

 

I use iTunes to rip CDs and transfer music to my iPhone. It works O.K. but I always feel that something is missing ...

 

I could never figure it out. One of the most frustrating pieces of software I've ever operated. Nothing is clear. While I understand the concept of sync'ing, its implementation is beyond maddening.

I have multiple PCs and simply wanting to *add* (NOT sync!!!) songs was impossible. Instead, it'd stubbornly always want to sync, which resulted in iTunes deciding that meant deleting my entire library of songs on the iPod which now only has the songs I wanted to add in the first place. Every time.

While I was immensely dissatisfied with the sound quality of the iPod when pitted against my older CD-based players and other portable music players I had at the time, I enjoyed the interface and form-factor of the iPod... but this iTunes crap was enough to push me over the edge.

So back to the store the iPod went. With the money, I bought a lower-priced iRiver which sounded many times superior to the iPod, had way more features, supported more file types, and allowed for simple drag & drop of files through Windows Explorer. Same with the Cowon player I bought later. Couldn't be simpler.

Out of all my years of operating probably hundreds of programs by now, iTunes remains the one that makes me grind my teeth. I've used it exclusively to activate my iPad and I did buy a couple of things through iTunes which weren't available anywhere else but those uses were out of pure necessity. Probably used it all of a handful of times in 10 years.

 

This. This is why I opened this thread. I don't understand. I never encountered ONE single issue with iTunes. It always worked fine. And yet for so many other users it's a nightmare ?

 

OK, then. Explain to me how you'd just add a song to your iPod from a PC that doesn't have a copy of your entire library.

Try as I might, I couldn't figure it out. iTunes ONLY wants to sync, period! So if you have song X on the PC and the iPod has songs A through G, well guess what happens? iTunes erases all those songs and just replaces them with the one song you wanted to add.

It doesn't get more convoluted than iTunes. Either your blind to other people's needs or you use iTunes in the single way that Apple designed it but I like the freedom of being able to do what I want and how I want. iTunes isn't able to do so. Learned a long time ago to stop trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

 

None of my recent PCs have optical drives. Haven't had one with one in years. Been using a USB BluRay. Works just fine and I don't have to carry it with me.

 

I can see the use if you've bought into the whole Apple eco system sure but as someone that hasn't had the need to I've always looked toward non proprietary systems of ripping, filing and transferring my own music to. There are it has to be said better ripping programs such as dbPoweramp for Mac and Windows and XLD for mac that make more accurate rips with greater ability to customize. and music players if you prefer to play out from your computer. It's only installed here on the Windows laptap for using the iTunestore and even then it feels bloated trying to search for artists to download MFiT downloads.

 

You just check the "Manually Manage My Music " (or whatever it says) and drag and drop your files. I would never allow it to "sync" my music.

 

Where is that? Just took a look and there is nothing even close to that which I could find.

 

Google broken on your computer?

How to set the "Manually manage mus...

 

I was looking in the Preferences menu and had no device physically connected when I did so.

 

First, I prefer to manage my own music collection with Windows. I don't need no stinkin' software to do it for me.

iTunes has a non-intuitive system of file management. You have to dig deep to find simole functions like converting a file to .wav.

The playlist operation makes no sense.

There seems to be two conversations in this thread: one about why people don't like the interface, and the other about why people like iTunes vs. CD. The OP is asking about the former.

 

But some of these things (like converting a file to another file type) are dead simple but people are just complaining about not being able to "eyeball" solutions. I mean, one of the most basic decisions one needs to make when using an iPod is whether you want to let iTunes automatically sync all or part of your library or manually manage it. No...just dive right in and complain when things don't work the way you assume they should.

 

I've been having trouble getting my music library synced to my Apple devices. Struggled with the manual method, too. I'd say my success rate has been 50-50 for the last few years. I seldom use it, anyway. I prefer the Napster app. Even if I have my own files or CD, I download from Napster whatever I'm going to want to have on my iPad or iPhone.

 

Is the some kind of disconnect between Apple and iTunes that I'm unaware of? They make the hardware, they make the software, and they sell the content. It's total vertical integration. If they remove all the disc drives from the computers they make it more difficult for consumers to play or retrieve data from a disc.

It seems pretty straightforward to me. Apple is a business not a charity. It has been very effective at pursuing profits for the benefit of its shareholders. There is nothing wrong with that, I just find that many Apple zealots lose sight of that fact.

 

I don't want my computers to have built in drives. I'd rather use a $20 external drive so I don't have to be without a laptop while sending if off for replacement as cd drives eventually go kaput.

 

I rip all of my CD's to iTunes and while it does have a few minor issues, I've enjoyed using it so far.

 

This thread is about iTunes. It's even titled "About iTunes". iTunes doesn't make hardware and hasn't removed disc drives. General anti-Apple rants don't help the thread.

 

Here's a news flash Apple and iTunes are inextricably linked. I do not like the way Apple is putting iTunes on a device that doesn't permit me to scan my CDs. I do not like the way the latest updates of ITunes categorize and sort Artists and Albums. I do not like the new hierarchy and I hate being constantly steered toward the Apple Store.

Because my original complaints were specifically about the way Apple is integrating its iTunes software into its proprietary platform I think your criticism is misguided. It's a distinction without a difference.

 

That's one of the things I find annoying about many music management programs: The strong emphasis on syncing. While I have come up with methods to make syncing fairly easy, sometimes it seems like it takes a long time when you just want to send a single song to your player since it has to sync all of the times set to be loaded on your player. That's one of the reasons I like Media Go, I can just select a song and send it to my player without the need for syncing my entire library.

 

I have large cd and Lp collections. I use Apple Music streaming for about half of the listening in my music room. Even for music that's in my collection. Just easier. I know I'm supposed to say it sucks quality wise but I'm quite happy with it.

 

Forget iTunes - how about posting a pic on a message board? Have a look at all the identical threads in Forum Business started by mystified users at their wits end (who don't even notice all the identical threads).

 

Nobody had any idea Google would be so complicated.

 

It's not that the application doesn't work, it's that it is poorly written. It's also bloatware now. They probably need to rewrite the program from top to bottom and rethink a few processes.