iTunes 12.2

[alidstone]

I just wanted to start a general thread regarding 12.2 issues, I hope it is adopted. The update is horrible, half of my artwork is messed up, I'm having issues creating stations, and the whole interface is far to cluttered to name a few of my concerns. Personally, I think an apple music app may have been in order, or at least a different "tab". What are your thoughts of 12.2?

 

[mic j]

Can generally agree with you. Some of my artwork is missing. Having a hard time figuring out what is what and how to do this and that. Not what I hope from Apple. Love the concept of Apple Music but am looking forward to refinements that will make it simpler to use.

 

[Partron22]

Hearing the horror stories, I've yet to update from 12.1.
In fact, for the first time, I'm considering going retro.

 

[xmichaelp]

I have no issues with it compared to the previous. I prefer the bigger album art.

I hope they split it up though.

-Have an iTunes Store app for buying everything.
-Have a Music app for all your music and Apple Music.
-Have a Videos app for Movies and TV Shows.
-Have a Podcasts app.
-Move audio books to iBooks.

 

[Partron22]

I prefer the bigger album art.

They finally fixed that?
That is a point in 12.2's favor!

 

[Wild-Bill]

Mistakenly let iTunes update to 12.2 on my MacBook Air. Running 12.1.1 on Mac Pro. I regularly choose the Mac Pro library in iTunes on my MBA. Now, with iTunes 12.2 when I try to play a playlist (created on the Mac Pro and residing on the Mac Pro iTunes library) I can only see TEN songs, and it keeps asking me if I want to import them. This update is a complete disaster.

 

[pituin]

I have no issues with it compared to the previous. I prefer the bigger album art.

I hope they split it up though.

-Have an iTunes Store app for buying everything.
-Have a Music app for all your music and Apple Music.
-Have a Videos app for Movies and TV Shows.
-Have a Podcasts app.
-Move audio books to iBooks.

They really need to do this as soon as possible. I don't know why they're so reluctant to do it.

 

[Partron22]

Via Slashdot: Apple Music Could Wreck Your iTunes Library

Part of the attraction of Apple Music is the ability to download tracks and playlists to your device for offline listening.
...
These options are only available if you turn on iCloud Music
...
Because Apple Music is a cloud based service, adding favourite tracks and playlists in Apple Music will add them to your collection in the cloud. If you don’t turn on Apple Music, you don’t have access to your musical cloud record, and the only way to listen to the music is to stream tracks while online. No offline copies, no playlists, and no bookmarks...

This is definitely a "give a try first on a dispo Yosemite partition, and point it a copy of your iTunes library" sort of update.
This is why I always wait for the .dmg files at Apple Support Downloads before doing major System or App updates. Having a string of .dmg files makes it easy to revert.https://support.apple.com/downloads/

 

[kirky29]

Theres so many annoyances for me with it, so many stupid things that should work that don't... For the first time ever I've been confused at an Apple product/service too lol. Shame.

I also worry that Apple won't give us an update for weeks/months maybe longer lol.

 

[mic j]

Theres so many annoyances for me with it, so many stupid things that should work that don't... For the first time ever I've been confused at an Apple product/service too lol. Shame.

I also worry that Apple won't give us an update for weeks/months maybe longer lol.

I concur with you. I just find it confusing to use, which is not Apple-like. I also am hoping that future updates will mesh things together more clearly but am concerned they are too sold on their "concept" and be unwilling to make the necessary changes. By the way, this is one of the first time I have felt compelled to post the "flavor" of post on a pieces Apples software (OS X, iOS, Safari, iTunes, and all the rest), so I am not just whining.

 

[Lodesman]

My iTunes 12.2 update is very unstable. Opening it is fine and it works well but, if I put it in the background for a while, when I come back to it I have the beach ball and a 'not responding' from the dock. I then have to force close the app.

Any ideas ?

 

[navaira]

I think of 12.2, especially Apple Music part, as developer preview beta 1. I re-released an old album of mine on Apple Music. When you search for it, you can find individual tracks, but not the album. When you click on the track, it directs you to a page which won't load, only to eventually display "Apple Music error". (Helpful, thanks) When you listen to the curated playlists, you can't click on artist name to go to their page, you can't click on the album title to go to the album, you have to use the (•••) button only. BUT when you go to iTunes Store, you can click on album title and on artist name and it takes you to album page or artist page respectively. While in iTunes Store you do not have the option to stream, and when in Apple Music you do not have the option to purchase. And the interfaces for iTunes Store, My Music and Apple Music are all different WITHIN ONE APP. And perhaps the stupidest bit: Apple Music keeps on suggesting that I stream albums I already own. I'm very lucky that my library is over 25k songs (which generates the oh-so-descriptive error "Genius results can not be updated". I do not use Genius) because I have read that purchased or matched songs are replaced with DRM versions during iCloud upload.

What. A. Mess.

I do have to admit "Think Different" applies to iTunes 12.2 and all its parts. You have to think different depending on which tab you are using.

 

[kirky29]

You have to think different depending on which tab you are using.

Hahaha, best way to describe it!

 

[Partron22]

What. A. Mess.

Since the future appears untenable, I'm working on downdating to 10.4.1 (64bit, G4 and Intel compatible, multi-windows, cover flow, the last of v10 that doesn't open a nag screen at startup if it can't contact iTunes store). Likely I'll end up having to create a small partition with 12.2 on it for store and some syncing purposes; but main library will be kept under 10.4.1, where Apple cannot get its hands on it and mess it up. Plus, I like v10 better than v11 or v12.

 

[navaira]

I might be doing the same soon. Does 10.4.1 still have Cover Flow?

 

[maflynn]

I'm not disagreeing with the sentiment but I will point out nearly every major update to iTunes included a fair amount of complaining about the iTunes. No one likes change and I do question some of the design changes but there's really not much else we can do other then switch to something else like spotify. I think iTunes has more features so it would be a step down

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Nice article. http://thenextweb.com/apple/2015/07/08/the-song-remains-so-lame/

 

[Hirakata]

For the first time ever I've been confused at an Apple product/service too lol. Shame.

Ain't this the truth. The first time I used the new update, I remembered an album I wanted to buy and I couldn't figure out how to get to the damn store!

 

[Hirakata]

I hope they split it up though.

-Have an iTunes Store app for buying everything.
-Have a Music app for all your music and Apple Music.
-Have a Videos app for Movies and TV Shows.
-Have a Podcasts app.
-Move audio books to iBooks.

Yes. I don't understand why Apple thinks they need one app "to rule them all."

 

[navaira]

It would make sense if the app actually worked correctly. Something I noticed and like a lot is that when I bought only one song from an album in iTunes Store, and I am in My Music and click on the song, I get the option to stream complete album. Click and magically full album appears! Here the integration makes perfect sense. Elsewhere, not so much.

Also, search function in My Music is borked. When I type "baby d deliverance", it informs me I don't have the album. But when I type "deliverance", here it is! I have it after all! (Performer name is Baby D, not Baby-D or anything else that could confuse the search. And this used to work before.)

Edit:

The search bug has been persistent since iTunes 11 I think. I enter something in search box. Aha! Here it is. I click it, and iTunes automatically goes back to displaying all of my music. If I double-click, I end up listening to a-ha's Analogue (which I grew to hate because of this).

12.2 specific: I look up an EP or album. I select it and make a change, say, set it to compilation and artist to "Various Artists". iTunes changes files, I click the album again, and it only has one randomly picked track. I have to reset the search, search for the album again and hey presto, all tracks are back.

 

[Partron22]

I might be doing the same soon. Does 10.4.1 still have Cover Flow?

Yes, and multiple windows too.
I'm trying to roll back on a heavily backed up test machine. It's basically working, but with some problems.
Importing library.xml as a playlist brings back the playlists, and the artwork seems to mostly survive, but playcount, which is in the xml, does not come back.
Adding back the music gives some tracks with track# preceding song title. Likely the xml file has changed tags between 10 and 12.
I expect this is all fixable, and perhaps even easily so. I just have to figure out how to do it.

I take part of this back. It seems iTunes fixed the names of the tracks with track# preceding song title by itself overnight. Odd. Playcount's still missing.

 

[hojx]

I have no major issues with iTunes 12.2 that's new.

I've been using iTunes Match (iCloud Music Library) since it started and I do get an occasional album art that refuses to sync to iOS. Not an MUSIC problem.
I'm from Singapore and other than English songs I have a large mix of Asian pop (Chinese, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese) and I dislike how iTunes Store forces English names onto artist names, but this has been a longstanding annoyance that I just end up renaming.

I guess there is a reason why iTunes 12.2 is a point release and not iTunes 13—because Apple still hasn't figured out the best way to integrate streaming into a traditional music download store and local library.
That said I really love the new playlist view!

 

[navaira]

What the hell. My iTunes 12.2 has TWO DIFFERENT PLAYLIST VIEWS. Check this out.

Those are two local playlists, fully comprised of local files, both in Playlists tab as you can see. I haven't changed any settings or anything. This is how they display by default. Why? For the love of skeuomorphism WHY?

Edit: Did I say two? I meant THREE:

 

[Partron22]

What the hell. My iTunes 12.2 has TWO DIFFERENT PLAYLIST VIEWS.
...
Why? For the love of skeuomorphism WHY?

I'll bet the "Show album artwork" box is checked in songs view for one of those playlists.

I hate the little hearts everywhere; feels like Junior High.
Still working on retreat to v 10.4.1.

 

[navaira]

I found the solution: Playlist menu > Songs/Playlist/Albums.

So now I just have to go through my 150 playlists and change them all. Simple! #developerpreviewbeta1