Apple Releases iTunes 12.4 With Design Tweaks [Updated]

[Tech198]

and the iTunes Store option is moved to "Go to" sub-menu on right click.

Also, the "back" and "forward" arrows at the top no longer navigate between "pages" in the iTunes Store... It now navigates tabs only...

Thank you Apple This is the opposite of "making it easier"

A nightmare, just waiting to happen.

 

[Smellmet]

and the iTunes Store option is moved to "Go to" sub-menu on right click.

Also, the "back" and "forward" arrows at the top no longer navigate between "pages" in the iTunes Store... It now navigates tabs only...

Thank you Apple This is the opposite of "making it easier"

A nightmare, just waiting to happen.

I don't see the point in those buttons either - had they kept the icons at the top what possible need would there be for them? Even now with the drop down menu I look at them and think 'I'll never need to click that'

 

[Tech198]

I don't see the point in those buttons either - had they kept the icons at the top what possible need would there be for them? Even now with the drop down menu I look at them and think 'I'll never need to click that'

I don't mind that. but used the arrows all the time to navigate from album to search results page all the time.

 

[Porco]

Damn. I spend my entire time flitting between music and podcasts.

cmd+1 (music) and cmd+4 (podcasts) are our new best friends.

 

[koifish22]

I like most of the changes except for the mandatory sidebar. I sometimes can't play/pause using the spacebar; I hope it gets patched soon.

 

[Smellmet]

To be honest as long as I can view songs in list view with the sidebar on, and they don't take away up next, I'm happy. That is the only mode I ever use itunes with. I'm not interested in album artwork etc.

 

[ItWasNotMe]

I seem to have gained a column on the left in Songs view, largely blank (for old, previously loaded stuff), sometimes has a number (for newly added).

There is no column title, its not in the list of add columns and is utterly, utterly, utterly meaningless to me.

Anyone any idea how I get rid of it?

 

[TRDmanAE86]

I suspect there is a difference in how some people use iTunes. I use it for managing my media library but I rarely play any media from iTunes. All of my playback occurs from an IOS device or my AppleTV. So I switch between media types fairly frequently.

If someone used iTunes mostly for playback I could see where they might stay in one category for a long time without switching.
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I've been contemplating a move back to iTunes 9. There haven't been any positive improvements made since then and a lot of bad changes have happened. Moving back to iTunes 9 would require me to maintain a separate copy of iTunes 12 in order to sync to newer IOS devices though. I hate that kind of complication.

I already do something simular. In additon to iTunes 11, i use Media Monkey for my solely for my Android phone (and importing a few songs to my iPod where iTunes refuses to corroperate ). Most of the songs conflict with each other. However, once they are loaded in, it's not that big of a deal. Best of all, the album formats play nice with each other. I'm probally going to do the same thing with iTunes as you. I'm getting a new iPod that will require iTunes 12. I'm investigating whether I should migrate my iTunes 11 over to a VM or one of my older laptops.

When you think about it, whatever us easiest for you works. !

 

[997440]

I like most of the changes except for the mandatory sidebar.
.....

You can hide or show the sidebar.
option/command/s
or
Menu Bar -> View -> Show (or Hide) Sidebar

 

[VasileiosTech]

Hey guys in the previous versions when I pressed right click on a album, there was an option about consolidating the selected album..... But now there is no such option... where did it go?

 

[koifish22]

You can hide or show the sidebar.
option/command/s
or
Menu Bar -> View -> Show (or Hide) Sidebar

But you still have to use it to switch between artists/albums/etc.

 

[ErikGrim]

Previously when clicking on the three dots ... next to the song, you would have to click on + add to playlist to expand the sub-menu, and then click on the playlist. Now the sub-menu items drop-down automatically when highlighting add to playlist. Maybe I exaggerated a bit but the way it was before made it seem real clunky.

That sounds like the least intuitive method of adding a song to a playlist.

 

[Smellmet]

Yeah I find just a simple drag 'n drop MUCH easier.

 

[iChristos.]

Are they ever going to add an option "Show in Apple Music" or this will stay forever for iTune Store?Seriously it is really frustrating going back and forth between iTunes and Apple Music in order to find music.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Apple simply cannot admit that as despised as the iTunes 10 Interface was at the time, it was LIGHTYEARS BETTER than iTunes is today! Personally, I miss not only the fixed sidebar, but the Cover Flow view for Movies (you could have a neat orderly list but still see a decent sized cover art preview up top; maybe that wasn't how it was meant to be used, but it worked infinitely better for scanning movie lists than the choices today of oversized icons or lists with no art or when they have art, the art is small and the lists spaced out so you have to scroll 5x more often). I honestly think there isn't a single qualified software leader at Apple these days. Busy indicators are gone in Spotlight and Photos (so you constantly wonder if it's locked up when it doing something unexpected or updating or moving slow). Hard drive handling is so much slower in Yosemite and El Capitain than Mavericks for spinning hard drives. Graphics draws are slower if you aren't using Metal, etc. etc.

I remember the days when OS updates meant new features, more stability AND better performance. It's sad Apple can't manage a single one of those these days....

 

[TRDmanAE86]

The other day I had to install iTunes 12 on computer to restore a DFU mode iPad Air that had to be returned. I played around with it a little bit and, i'd have to say I liked it better than earlier versions of iTunes 12 but, it's still hasn't surpassed the level of excellence iTunes 10 was.

 

[Loge]

I don't like the drop down menu. I prefer the icons. It's faster.

And there is the space for them right there!

 

[gnasher729]

I have for the first time downgraded iTunes to an older version (which is a pain, requiring the use of Terminal, and loses all changes to the library since installing the newer version). I have also for the first time used swear words in a bug report that I sent to Apple.

"Reset play count" is gone. Which is an essential feature the way I use iTunes. Especially since the "Books" application on the iPhone f***s up play counts all the time. People have created Apple Scripts to make it work again. WTF.

Playlists disappeared. I have playlists with songs, I have playlists with audio books. All in a folder containing playlists that I want on my phone. Now the audiobooks playlist is gone, unless I switch from "Music" to "Audiobooks".

F*** the bloody idiots who make design decisions like that. None of them is actually using iTunes and the Music and Books apps.
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Why is it still so slow to load? iTunes is bar none the slowest app to load ever. I am running Win10 with i7 and SSD drive and everything loads in a snap EXCEPT iTunes. It drags to the point where you think maybe you didnt double click it. then finally oh there it is. I forgot what I was wanting to look at in there now. Not that I have an extremely large music collection in there either. Its just slow as crap period.

It's not the slowest. Launch the Books app on your phone when you are on the underground (now WiFi, no 3G) and the app just hangs.

 

[Smellmet]

I think itunes 12 is FAR better than 10. Up next alone is reason enough.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

I think itunes 12 is FAR better than 10. Up next alone is reason enough.

'Up next' makes up for all the horrible interface changes? Right. LOL. They couldn't even put the up next information on the visible screen. You have to click to see it. Look at Kodi's interface, flawed as it is. It still shows the relevant information better.