I hate ITunes

A

Acol

Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2008
Messages
15
Reaction score
0
I'm starting to think that there has never been a less user-friendly piece of software than I-tunes. I consider myself reasonably tech-savvy and have in the past 20 years of using a computer managed to figure out most software without even needing to use the help file, but I am completely flawed by I-Tunes. How do so many people with IPhones make use of this horrible piece of software? I've been struggling like crazy to simply copy some photos of our kids from my pc to my wife's iphone so she can make them into wallpapers. What a mission! Find the photos tab (I can't find it), add the photos to your library (this seems to double up on disk space?), sync your iphone with I-Tunes...

Or something like simply adding a few new songs to your phone without having to re-sync all of them - why can't I just copy and paste or drag and drop from windows into the phone? :mad:

Any comments would be appreciated so I'll know I'm not alone or going crazy / stupid.
 
Huh? Whats wrong with copying your songs into iTunes? Drag and drop.
In iTunes, you decide if you want to automatically sync all your music, or selected playlists, artists, etc.
Whenever you sync, it will sync any new music that match those requirements

Your photos? You simply have your photo's in iPhoto (or if you use windows, whatever the equivalent is).
In iTunes, you simply decide if you want all photo's or specific albums, events, etc on your iPhone.
Whenever you sync, it will sync any new photo's that match those requirements

Cant get much simpler really...
 
fxit_man said:
For music, make sure "Manually manage songs" is ticked on the main tab of your iPhone in iTunes.
Click to expand...
Surely it is easier to have it automatically all music rather than manually manage? Otherwise you get your library in various locations on your HDD and its a mess. Rather let iTunes do it. Simples!
 
Last edited:
I also don't like the program - but agree if you 'manual manage', things are a little better
 
Agree with OP.

Why not just allow manual file management? Why do I have to move files from A to B, or add new library locations every time I copy an MP3 folder? Thank heavens for audio devices that read off memory stick.
 
unskinnybob said:
Agree with OP.

Why not just allow manual file management? Why do I have to move files from A to B, or add new library locations every time I copy an MP3 folder? Thank heavens for audio devices that read off memory stick.
Click to expand...

Surely letting iTunes manage everything is easier? You get a CD, rip it in iTunes. Done.
You download mp3's. Drag into itunes, delete from download folder, done. Clean and neat
 
I must confess that I absolutely hated iTunes as well, in the beginning...

I still get irritated with it at times - but am increasingly realising that the more I get used to it, the simpler (and better) it becomes...
You undoubtedly need to spend some time playing with it - but most importantly, you need to let go of everything you're used to in regards to file-sharing/music software, particularly if you're new to the entire Apple world...

Once I stopped expecting it to behave in a manner that I was used to - and getting upset when it didn't (thereby judging it by 'other' standards) - we started getting on just fine!

After I changed my approach - I suddenly started finding new features, not only in the software, but in the hardware as well...

Whilst I always new about holding down the middle button to add a song playing to the "on the go" playlist (on an Ipod Nano), I only recently figured out that if you don't hold down the button, but simply press it, you can cycle through the Genius on/off setting, the song rating option, and the shuffle options... It used to bug me no end that I could only set the rating on my pc... (little did I know!)

This, along with some other recent discoveries, almost always sees me having "aaahhh - that's so obvious, and so simple - cannot believe I never figured that out" moments.... Which is a good thing! :p

Long may it last!
 
The best thing would be the syncing ...

I want to sync with my My Music directory - I don't care if Apple don't want to me to manage my stuff like that, I still want to. They should at least give the option for users to what they want.

d
 
Dolby said:
The best thing would be the syncing ...

I want to sync with my My Music directory - I don't care if Apple don't want to me to manage my stuff like that, I still want to. They should at least give the option for users to what they want.

d
Click to expand...

So tell iTunes to use your My Music folder as the location of its library.
 
Dolby said:
I want to sync with my My Music directory - I don't care if Apple don't want to me to manage my stuff like that, I still want to. They should at least give the option for users to what they want.
Click to expand...

I do it like that. :confused:
 
... and when you add a folder in My Music - does it automatically appear in the library?
... what about deleting a few folders?
... or moving them within the folder?
 
JStrike said:
Surely letting iTunes manage everything is easier? You get a CD, rip it in iTunes. Done.
You download mp3's. Drag into itunes, delete from download folder, done. Clean and neat
Click to expand...
Haven't given media sharing a try. Maybe I'll take a "step" of faith. Is it any good at sharing movies? Pointless spooling movies using Media Center and audio using iTunes.
 
Picked up my single biggest issue with iTunes when I did just that - extended the library to include a folder with thousands of sub-folders, all with organised mp3s of albums... [long story - but they are not illegal downloads!]... Some of them were obviously 'incomplete' for iTune's purposes, since I now have literally thousands of "Track 01's", "Track 02's", "Track 03's" etc...

All of them are listed as "Unknown Artist"... I've been ignoring them for a while now, but the pedantic in me is seriously freaked out about it... So much disorder!! :p

I'm hoping there's a better alternative than having to listen to each track, in an effort to identify it, and re-insert the details manually... :wtf:
 
Dolby said:
... and when you add a folder in My Music - does it automatically appear in the library?
... what about deleting a few folders?
... or moving them within the folder?
Click to expand...
Itunes library doesn't update for any of these. The apple philosophy is that you don't see any of the actual files. So delete within iTunes, tag within itunes; the rest isn't necessary.
Windows Media Player in 7 is pretty good at automatically detecting changes.
 
Dolby said:
... and when you add a folder in My Music - does it automatically appear in the library?
... what about deleting a few folders?
... or moving them within the folder?
Click to expand...

That's not what you said. :)

Look, iTunes is definitely not the be all and end of all music apps, BUT as an all in one solution to manage, sync, rate and generally organise playlists etc. across multiple devices it really is brilliant.

I would like a auto-detection of new folders feature, but hey - not a big deal to add via itunes. Guess it saves you having to wait for a scan of your music folder everytime you open itunes.

Cassady said:
Picked up my single biggest issue with iTunes when I did just that - extended the library to include a folder with thousands of sub-folders, all with organised mp3s of albums... [long story - but they are not illegal downloads!]... Some of them were obviously 'incomplete' for iTune's purposes, since I now have literally thousands of "Track 01's", "Track 02's", "Track 03's" etc...

All of them are listed as "Unknown Artist"... I've been ignoring them for a while now, but the pedantic in me is seriously freaked out about it... So much disorder!! :p

I'm hoping there's a better alternative than having to listen to each track, in an effort to identify it, and re-insert the details manually... :wtf:
Click to expand...

Use something like MP3Tag. Who rips music without tagging it? :)
 
Itunes is not the most user friendly piece of software. Not super flexible and also not being able to customise it a lot gets to me. But then again I am not really a fan of most things Apple... so I am not 100% neutral.
 
Cassady said:
I'm hoping there's a better alternative than having to listen to each track, in an effort to identify it, and re-insert the details manually... :wtf:
Click to expand...
iTunes is horrible for music that's tagged incorrectly. I like it because it forces me to make sure everything is tagged before dragging and dropping into iTunes.
If you still have your original folder structure, you can use something like mp3tag (opensource) to update the tags from file names, or by manually entering an album name and letting it download the rest of the info (there might be something that can tag from folder name, can't recall what it was though; perhaps a plugin for Songbird).
It's horribly tedious... but do it in batches of 10 albums / artists once a week and you'll get it done in a few months.
 
Yeah iTunes doesn't play nice with poor tags. I used to bitch about it but then i just decided to only add cleaned up albums to it. Its quite fulfilling to do a few every week, slowly growing the collection. A wall of manicured albums, all organized to perfection is something worth working towards over time. It's really about quality over quantity.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X