Why is iTunes so bad?

[khha4113]

iTunes may not be perfect for media management but having the new MTP interface on Android phones which takes like 10 minutes to load the files in a directory is far worse. Sure it's drag and drop but its the worst drag and drop in the world right now.

I would kill for the old fashioned USB Mass Storage.

Are you exaggerating too much? It might take a little bit longer but it's no way to load that slow! Correct me if I'm wrong, but Itunes uses MPT interface protocol too.
My old Galaxy S2 and LG Thrill 4G allowed them to connect to PC as Mass storage instead of MPT via option called 'USB utilities'. I couldn't find that option anymore in S4.

 

[QueBert]

I have a playlist question, I have one I made which I drug to the root of my phone. My directories on there mimic the ones on my HD. When I play it none of the songs come up, it obvious can't find them. Is there any easy way to make them play nice with my phone?

 

[mikeymikec]

iTunes may not be perfect for media management but having the new MTP interface on Android phones which takes like 10 minutes to load the files in a directory is far worse. Sure it's drag and drop but its the worst drag and drop in the world right now.

I would kill for the old fashioned USB Mass Storage.

My Android phone asks me when I connect it to PC USB what I would like to do with it. USB Mass Storage is one option, HTC Sync another, mobile network tethering, and a possible fourth that I can't remember.

 

[Zaap]

I have a playlist question, I have one I made which I drug to the root of my phone. My directories on there mimic the ones on my HD. When I play it none of the songs come up, it obvious can't find them. Is there any easy way to make them play nice with my phone?

There's probably half a dozen ways, but I'd try the old-school method.

Open the playlist file in a text editor.

Create a one-track playlist on the phone. Open that in the text editor.

Copy the path in the first playlist up to the / point where your actual folder structure begins.

Find/Replace that path with the correct path from the playlist created on the phone, and replace all. Save, copy to the phone.

Now the playlist will work. This of course assumes the folder structure of computer and phone match, IE: Directory/subdirectory/Artist/Album/Track etc.

 

[Kneedragger]

The latest U.I iTunes received I think is a step back in usability. Airplay is probably the only feature that really matters for me, Sonos is a bit too much $$ for me..

 

[TheNiceGuy]

I still don't have the files. I want to keep what's on my phone now, and add a few university lectures I downloaded (correct encode format). iTunes and the iphone either outright refuse to add the sound, or threaten to delete all current files on the phone before adding the new ones.

What can I do?

I ended up missing my appointment because I couldn't get the files. The whole process really angered me. Im an average user. i don't care what apple does, and i dont want to be manipulated into haveing to keep up to date with what they do, or 'in their system' to paraphrase Jobs. I just want to slide it off the desktop onto my phone which takes literally less than a minute with anyything else. It had me update iTunes, then learn the new ui to navigate, then threaten to erase my phone data, then hints about having to build a library. May be due to a pc rebuild, dont know, shouldnt have to know. i dont want some gay library and manipulative corporate junk to learn on my pc. Angering.

 

[dagamer34]

As soon as iCloud and Google Music came out, I stopped using desktop programs to "sync" my music. Want to listen to something, stream it from a cloud locker. Concerned about data caps. Download a copy while at home on your home WiFi.

The only people this negatively effects are those who still use non-WiFi iPods (dwindling every year). Everyone else should be using the cloud.

 

[mikeymikec]

I still don't have the files. I want to keep what's on my phone now, and add a few university lectures I downloaded (correct encode format). iTunes and the iphone either outright refuse to add the sound, or threaten to delete all current files on the phone before adding the new ones.

What can I do?

I ended up missing my appointment because I couldn't get the files. The whole process really angered me. Im an average user. i don't care what apple does, and i dont want to be manipulated into haveing to keep up to date with what they do, or 'in their system' to paraphrase Jobs.

You might want to look into a piece of software called Sharepod. I haven't tried it but I researched the topic a few weeks ago.

As for a later poster's comments about "everyone should be using the cloud", then it's no longer your data because it's under someone else's control. You're sacrificing flexibility for a small amount of user-friendliness. Since you don't pay specifically for the cloud service, you don't have any rights. It will come up in court at some point, the cloud provider will say "what, didn't you have any backups?" (possibly in order to avoid a ransom/theft implication, probably alongside an argument of "it wasn't your music anyway, you only acquired a licence for that music which can be revoked at any time"). That is, if you could even afford to take them to court. This time will probably be when most people think, "I can't think what I'd do without cloud services!".

 

[QueBert]

There's probably half a dozen ways, but I'd try the old-school method.

Open the playlist file in a text editor.

Create a one-track playlist on the phone. Open that in the text editor.

Copy the path in the first playlist up to the / point where your actual folder structure begins.

Find/Replace that path with the correct path from the playlist created on the phone, and replace all. Save, copy to the phone.

Now the playlist will work. This of course assumes the folder structure of computer and phone match, IE: Directory/subdirectory/Artist/Album/Track etc.

If I'm going to do thru all that I might as well just make the playlist on my phone in the 1st place.

As soon as iCloud and Google Music came out, I stopped using desktop programs to "sync" my music. Want to listen to something, stream it from a cloud locker. Concerned about data caps. Download a copy while at home on your home WiFi.

The only people this negatively effects are those who still use non-WiFi iPods (dwindling every year). Everyone else should be using the cloud.

This also negatively effects the people who don't want to use Google's horrible music app. I know GSfile or whatever it's called allows you to stream from a cloud to other music apps. But, it's still a ways from being done. And it should be unnecessary imho.

 

[JackBurton]

As soon as iCloud and Google Music came out, I stopped using desktop programs to "sync" my music. Want to listen to something, stream it from a cloud locker. Concerned about data caps. Download a copy while at home on your home WiFi.

The only people this negatively effects are those who still use non-WiFi iPods (dwindling every year). Everyone else should be using the cloud.

Exactly.

 

[Zaap]

If I'm going to do thru all that I might as well just make the playlist on my phone in the 1st place.

LOL! I should have known find/replace would be WAY over the head of a guy who gets bamboozled by drag and drop. You'd rather spend hours bitching than a minute actually figuring anything out.

 

[QueBert]

Exactly.

So you're agreeing with people having to use 1 program (Google Music) to do something without having any other choices?

Hummmm, sounds a lot like the reason people bitch about iTunes.

LOL! I should have known find/replace would be WAY over the head of a guy who gets bamboozled by drag and drop. You'd rather spend hours bitching than a minute actually figuring anything out.

I don't get Bamboozled by anything, I'm not trying to do extra work, I want things to be fast and simple. I could write a DOS batch script to do what you're saying, but the time involved to achieve the same end results make it pretty stupid imho. Luckily with iTunes I don't have to do anything, and also I rely heavily on smart playlists, which you cannot create by dragging and dropping. If I wanted to drag and drop it would actually by easier and faster to do from a DOS box for me.

 

[Zaap]

You asked the question QueBert. Of course you didn't actually want an answer. You just want to continue whining about things and wasting more time ranting on a forum than it should take to figure out how to create a playlist that works right in the first place. What you're bumping up against is the fact that software doesn't actually cover for a lack of critical thinking skills.

 

[QueBert]

You asked the question QueBert. Of course you didn't actually want an answer. You just want to continue whining about things and wasting more time ranting on a forum than it should take to figure out how to create a playlist that works right in the first place. What you're bumping up against is the fact that software doesn't actually cover for a lack of critical thinking skills.

I knew that answer, I was thinking there's a way to do it that doesn't involve 3 extra steps. Editing an ascii text file isn't hard, but I have about 250 playlists and am always changing them around, so search-n-replace for that many constantly changing files doesn't seem I dunno, simple? Everyone keeps bringing up how simple drag and drop is, when in reality it couldn't be further from the truth.

 

[ControlD]

I knew that answer, I was thinking there's a way to do it that doesn't involve 3 extra steps. Editing an ascii text file isn't hard, but I have about 250 playlists and am always changing them around, so search-n-replace for that many constantly changing files doesn't seem I dunno, simple? Everyone keeps bringing up how simple drag and drop is, when in reality it couldn't be further from the truth.

I guess it depends on how you like to listen to your music. I never used playlists (much less "smart" ones) at all. I prefer listening to my music by album so for me drag and drop is easiest and that is what I use even with iTunes. For me, being able to drag and drop albums is easier without needing a third party program. If you are more used to using playlists then the iTunes model seems far superior to me, although there are programs that can accomplish the same thing with non-Apple devices I think. Media Monkey, etc. all seem to support playlist syncing.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

What's the easiest way to do this? I have video, photos, audio and voice files, maybe other stuff, on my phone I don't want to delete. I dont think there is an "apple approved" backup on my new PC. I want to add a few voice audio files.
I copied video/photo files to my PC. Is my easiest fastest option just to let iTunes torch the rest of my phone files? I got stuff to do and need it yesterday, so if so, then so be it.

 

[Zaap]

I knew that answer, I was thinking there's a way to do it that doesn't involve 3 extra steps. Editing an ascii text file isn't hard, but I have about 250 playlists and am always changing them around, so search-n-replace for that many constantly changing files doesn't seem I dunno, simple? Everyone keeps bringing up how simple drag and drop is, when in reality it couldn't be further from the truth.

Again critical thinking fail. You asked about ONE playlist you created. Learn what you're doing rather than ranting so much about simple things you don't understand. Like that oh-so-hard drag and drop! I have no problem creating playlists that work correctly on both computer and phone.

 

[foghorn67]

As soon as iCloud and Google Music came out, I stopped using desktop programs to "sync" my music. Want to listen to something, stream it from a cloud locker. Concerned about data caps. Download a copy while at home on your home WiFi.

The only people this negatively effects are those who still use non-WiFi iPods (dwindling every year). Everyone else should be using the cloud.

This. So much easier.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

I ended up manually "synch"ing or whatever loaded in-house language Apple is trying to force people to learn. Torched some files in the process. I didn't want to download yet more spindled solutions from 3rd parties. I tried the icloud download auto "easy" way - spent a couple of hours setting it up and could only listen as long as my PC was connected, couldn't "download" or "sync" or whatever to my phone to use on the go. It ended up with different "sections", "clouds", "WTF"... All nonsense stupid.
I'm sure they know what most people want, but realize that they can get more money and control by using an immoral l business model. Force people to stay in a convoluted proprietary system, learn that system, and maybe make things easier by spending more money. This tends to cause customers to stay with them, weather they're happy or not, weather their goals were met or not. Classic marketing manipulation in modern clothes.
I think most people (generally not the type who would be a member of Anandtech forums) would like a kind of "Grandparents" option - some way to make it so intuitive and user friendly that even their grandparents could pick it up and use it. Have it meet their needs and fill a niche in their lives. Not the other way around where the user is manipulated and forced to pander to the device or company changes like a cow. If people want to fiddle their hours away on this, they can, but I and a lot of others see it as an obstacle and irritant to what we need.
I also don't like how a lot of features on my phone and its programs are being purposely disabled so they can make more money indirectly through their controlled parts. More manipulation. All of this is adding up for me, so that if another more honest option becomes available than Apple products, I'll jump from the 10 years of buying Apple stuff in a second without looking back.
Anyway, thanks for the interest guys - I'm done with all this crap.

 

[Munky]

As soon as iCloud and Google Music came out, I stopped using desktop programs to "sync" my music. Want to listen to something, stream it from a cloud locker. Concerned about data caps. Download a copy while at home on your home WiFi.

The only people this negatively effects are those who still use non-WiFi iPods (dwindling every year). Everyone else should be using the cloud.

I refuse to use the cloud or any other service that offers to "keep" my data for me and then "deliver" it to me on their terms and pricing, when I could just use local storage instead.

Edit: but then again, I didn't buy a hyped up gimmick of a device without file system access, no drag and drop support, and non-expandable storage.

 

[Anubis]

i dont think anyone is saying use teh cloud to store everything and not keep a local copy but it works great for simply serving up music

its all i use google music for. i upload stuff to it and stream it to my phone and such. its simply a online storage that costs me nothing

now if someone made a phone that could store 200 gigs of music i would have no need for it, but no one does and most likely never will

 

[AstroManLuca]

After switching from Android to Windows Phone, one of the things that really bugs me is the poor on-device podcast management. Pocket Casts on Android was the best thing ever, managed everything really well, intuitive interface, all that. The WP podcast apps are all slow, lack features, buggy, unreliable, and never really behave the way I want them to. The alternative is syncing through iTunes, which actually involves two pieces of software (iTunes and a Windows Phone sync enabler) and I have to manually remove anything I've already listened to.

I just don't get this syncing business. It's not 1999 anymore, I don't have a Palm Pilot.

 

[silicon]

ITunes is arguably the worst piece of major software ever written.

without a doubt it is an awful piece of software.

 

[Commodus]

I think iTunes is fine, but I'm also on a Mac and have spent several years getting iTunes down to a science. It does need an overhaul to be lighter and easier to grasp, but I wouldn't get hyperbolic like some here and call it the "worst." It's just not.

Also, it's not strictly true to say that drag-and-drop is easier. It's easier if you only have a little bit of content to sync, and you're a fairly tech-savvy person with a good understanding of file systems. Remember, one of the big reasons why the iPod conquered the MP3 player world was because it took the headaches out of syncing a lot of content. You could transfer the two albums you just bought, your new exercise playlist and your song ratings just by plugging in. It took the work out of syncing and made it feasible for the legions of normal people who should never have to know what subfolders and ID3 tags are.

With that said, it's hard to say how long sync-focused software like iTunes will stick around. The ultimate in simplicity for media is streaming -- when your subscriptions get you virtually any song you want (and plenty of movies/TV), you don't even need to sync. Cloud storage takes a lot of the headaches out, too. We'll need much higher data caps on cellular for this to work (really, 10X would be much better), but iTunes is increasingly feeling like it's only really useful for local playback.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Necro thread huh?

I was able to convince my sister to go for a Nexus 7 over an iPad Mini, almost solely so I don't have to deal with iTunes. That bloated pile would almost certainly flop over on the parent's 2003-era desktop, and I don't want it on my laptop.