What's wrong with Itunes?

[Condorsat]

Bought my first Ipod in late 2012 for replacing CD's in the car. That was my first venture into MP3 ... which I think of as a utility.

Anyway quick search of the Internet ... Itunes for Windows was free ... downloaded it ... been using it ever since for ripping CD's I own .... AAC 128kbps or MP3 198kpbs ... both for car & portable DAP.

Also using Itunes for Windows on my Laptop main living room stereo rig ... I'm ripping CD's that are not available on streaming sites. AAC 256kbps sounds good on my stereo ... keep in mind I'm only using Tidal High Quality AAC 320kbps as my subscription steaming option at this point ... that's currently my reference point.

The program has never given me any problems ... I also use Itunes generated AAC & MP3 files (copied to SD card) on my FiiO X1.

Is it the lack of Flac on Itunes? Apple wanting to keep everything in their own echo system? What is the major bugaboo folks have with Itunes? Just curios.

 

[uofmtiger]

I think a lot of people don't like it because it is a resource hog. I have J River, Fidelia, and other music apps and my preference is for iTunes, so you are not alone. I have it always running on a Mac Mini that is mainly used for serving up media, so it isn't tying up precious resources of my "production" machine.

There are also a lot of Apple Haters out there, so that also fuels a lot of the vitriol.

 

[yarvelling]

Having disliked iTunes previously on Windows PC's (slow, resource hog), and then after converting to a Macbook Air (Windows 10 was the final straw for me), I find nothing wrong with iTunes!! It just doesn't work so well in a Windows environment....on OS-X, and iOS (iPhone 6S, and iPad Mini 2) I have found it fast, smooth, and efficient, and yes, it does sound great.... Listening right now using it on my iPhone 6S with Bose Soundlink II bluetooth headphones - very happy indeed

 

[KingBubba]

I want my music where I want it. I disliked itunes when I found out that it took over you music file and placed them where it wanted. I would not let it near any computer of mine.

 

[willyrover]

iTunes works fine for me on my Macs.

I, too, thought I wanted to control my music folders and turned off the "Automatically Manage My Library" features at first. Turns out if your files are tagged properly, iTunes does a great job keeping the file system tidy.

I do wish it would manage my movie files and folders (m4a, mkv, avi, etc.) without having to convert formats. I'm using Serviio for serving movies at the moment.

 

[uofmtiger]

I want my music where I want it. I disliked itunes when I found out that it took over you music file and placed them where it wanted. I would not let it near any computer of mine.

As mentioned above, you can turn that off.

I also think posts like this one sometimes confuse people and they are afraid to even try iTunes for their music.

 

[Alobar]

It will work to play music fine I suppose. It seems to have considerable limitations that I hadn't realized existed before trying JRiver. What initially drove me to JRiver in the first place was being frustrated by trying to delete duplicate music of a lesser resolution from the hard drive within Itunes. Seemed (at the time anyway) Itunes was incapable of doing this simple task. I tried the free trial JRiver and immediately started elliminating the low rez duplicates by the dozens with just a couple clicks. Then during the month I was using it I saw pretty fast what a superior program it was and by day 15 of my 30 day trial I was sending them the money and have never looked back at Itunes.
Itunes is made for those who just want to play some "tunes" without having any sort of learning curve at all. Most people probably don't know about or care about all the features that more robust software has to offer. If you have ever used software that you actually pay for, like say Audocad ot Turbocad, you will know the difference that powerful software has versus freebie stuff. Whether you can use that power, only you can decide.

 

[KingBubba]

I automatically rebel against products that take away personal control. The reason this bugs me so much is that often there is a way out, as uofmtiger pointed out, but the operator has to spend countless hours trying to find the way out. I understand that this type of thing is done to spare those with no technical bone in their head. My wife could not find her music files to save her life, which is why I put a shortcut on her desktop.

My android phone holds the same issues with me. I can't find anything and once I have found it, I don't know what I can do with it. I have spent numerous hours online searching for the answer to simple questions. I would also love to go to Linux on my computers, but I know I will have to spend hours trying to find things. I guess, as I age, I am becoming a bit of a curmudgeon about some of this stuff.

 

[willyrover]

I automatically rebel against products that take away personal control. The reason this bugs me so much is that often there is a way out, as uofmtiger pointed out, but the operator has to spend countless hours trying to find the way out. I understand that this type of thing is done to spare those with no technical bone in their head. My wife could not find her music files to save her life, which is why I put a shortcut on her desktop.

My android phone holds the same issues with me. I can't find anything and once I have found it, I don't know what I can do with it. I have spent numerous hours online searching for the answer to simple questions. I would also love to go to Linux on my computers, but I know I will have to spend hours trying to find things. I guess, as I age, I am becoming a bit of a curmudgeon about some of this stuff.

Just surrender control and let your device work for you. I, too, lived through the era of manually organizing file systems, endlessly defragging hard drives, cataloging disk backups, then cd backups, and manually duplicating hard drives on external drives as backups. It was like my computer should have been paying me by the hour.

Little of this matters anymore. I no longer care if I know what folder a song is in. Although I DO know because even though iTunes manages this automatically, where it puts the file is completely predictable. I usually just right click on it in iTunes and choose Show in Finder.

An earlier poster says Deleting Duplicates was an issue. iTunes shows you all your duplicates with three clicks. (File > Library > Show Duplicate Items) You can also sort a list of songs by bitrate or any other field. Deleting from the hard drive is as simple as right click > delete. It will prompt you to delete from iTunes, then again to delete from hard drive.

Let the software take care of the back end and just enjoy your devices!

 

[Johnno_Oz]

I've never liked the library system of iTunes on Windows, you really have to remember how to drill down if you want details. The albums views and details are better on Windows Media, on iTunes it is great on the Songs selection but not much else.

I just had a look and I have 5 copies of most songs bought in 2005 when iStore was first opened downunder. There's been a couple of computer upgrades for me since then and it seems to have changed where to put them. Constant 160meg updates as well, not only with iTunes but iCloud. The update seems to pop up front and centre and at the most inopportune times.

In older days it ripped CDs to MP4a and didn't read windows media. Ran on Quicktime which invariably crashed, stalled or froze.

Having said that, it does run a lot better than it used to. I do like the ability to download purchases on multiple devices.

 

[Alobar]

J

An earlier poster says Deleting Duplicates was an issue. iTunes shows you all your duplicates with three clicks. (File > Library > Show Duplicate Items) You can also sort a list of songs by bitrate or any other field. Deleting from the hard drive is as simple as right click > delete. It will prompt you to delete from iTunes, then again to delete from hard drive.

Let the software take care of the back end and just enjoy your devices!

Yes this was a few years back. I remember now what the issue was. Itunes would let me delete off the hard drive but it would only let me select one ****ing song at a time, and then 3 more clicks! I had hundreds of them and needed a faster way. I made up a list in JRiver, showing duplicates. Sorted assenting by bitrate, select all songs at once to be deleted by holding down the shift key and pow, 2 more clicks and all those duplicate lower rez songs were nuked off my drive. ITunes does have some features but they are what I would describe as minimalist and not very well set up for even mild power user stuff. I suppose they would be afraid one of their users could end up wiping out their music collection with a few clicks if they allowed more than one at a time..

 

[uofmtiger]

I should mention that I am happy we have some other options. I also have Fidelia and JRiver that I use on occasion. They both give you more flexibility than iTunes in some ways. Fidelia has the excellent CanAmp software built in that I like for headphones. JRiver has a "skill" that works with the Echo and Airplay, so I like it, as well.

 

[olson_jr]

I made up a list in JRiver, showing duplicates. Sorted ascending by bitrate, select all songs at once to be deleted by holding down the shift key and pow, 2 more clicks and all those duplicate lower rez songs were nuked off my drive.

Alobar, do you mind telling me how you made a list of duplicates? I really need to do this!

 

[Alobar]

Alobar, do you mind telling me how you made a list of duplicates? I really need to do this!

It has been a few years and I tried figuring it out and I couldn't for the life of me so I went to their "Frequently asked questions" section and this is what I found:

Copy this exactly: ~dup=[File Size],[Name]
Go to playlists and create a new smartlist (F9)
That will look something like this:
Note, you need to add the media type is audio in rules or else it will try to put pictures in there too.
Press Import/Export:

Here you will paste this just after where it says [Media Type] = [Audio]
~dup=[File Size],[Name]

Let me know if it worked. When I try it I don't get any hits.. Could mean I don't have any dups but I haven't been checking much so would be somewhat surprised

 

[olson_jr]

It has been a few years and I tried figuring it out and I couldn't for the life of me so I went to their "Frequently asked questions" section and this is what I found:

Thank you sir, I will give this a shot tomorrow and let you know what I get.

 

[slimecity]

Slightly off point but when I recently started my new job they gave me a new MacBook (great, as I have one at home for personal use, also running iTunes). I tried working operating normally PC-based software on it - Word, Outlook. It was bloody hopeless, slow, overly complicated, lagging..... and I very soon switched back to a Mac - similar (but converse) issue: The Mac was terrible at running programs designed to run on a PC.

 

[Johnno_Oz]

Alobar, do you mind telling me how you made a list of duplicates? I really need to do this!

CCleaner also has a duplicate file function. Cleaned mine over the weekend.

https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

 

[FONSguy]

Since my music library, and the associated folders with music cataloged in them are on an external hard drive, I wanted iToons to leave the music files where they were. When I imported them, by folder, I waited a few minutes between imports so I could sort my entire music library by date imported and create playlists of each folder. My music was originally digitized using Roxio's CD Spindoctor. I went from phono to preamp to my Mac's line/mic input and through CD SpinDoctor software. It gave me the ability to fix balance issues before importing. I imported almost 2000 tunes over a 3 year time period. Usually weekend mornings. ALL my MP3 tunes are in their own folders, and converted to AIFF. Back in 2008 or so Apple hosed up the XML stuff in the background and I lost ALL my playlists, over 250 of them.

 

[MacNoob]

This made me laugh.

iTunes:

iTunes shows you all your duplicates with three clicks. (File > Library > Show Duplicate Items)

Let the software take care of the back end and just enjoy your devices!

jriver:

It has been a few years and I tried figuring it out and I couldn't for the life of me so I went to their "Frequently asked questions" section and this is what I found:
View attachment 793149
Copy this exactly: ~dup=[File Size],[Name]
Go to playlists and create a new smartlist (F9)
That will look something like this:
Note, you need to add the media type is audio in rules or else it will try to put pictures in there too.
Press Import/Export:
View attachment 793152
Here you will paste this just after where it says [Media Type] = [Audio]
~dup=[File Size],[Name]
View attachment 793153
Let me know if it worked. When I try it I don't get any hits.. Could mean I don't have any dups but I haven't been checking much so would be somewhat surprised

 

[Alobar]

This made me laugh.

iTunes:



jriver:

Yeah it sounds pretty obvious if you just want to see a list of duplicates and don't care to be doing anything about cleaning them permanently off the hard drive. I can bring up a list of dups quite easily with about any media software, but for deleting lower res duplicates by the hundreds probably itunes wouldn't be my first choice as it only (at the time) could delete one song at a time. If you have hundreds or even thousands, that is tedious. .