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With so many unknowns they've should have transitioned much slower and had both in the next macOS.
 
And what about Windows? Or older Mac's that can't get Catalina. Will the version of iTunes on those machines still have iTunes Store and Apple Music support?
 
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Can someone try installing/force install an older version of iTunes with App Store into Catalina?
 
1 thing I’m concerned about is WIFI sync. I see no mention of that. It’s great that device management is now integrated into finder. However, I want to see all my iPhones : iPads without disconnecting/ reconnecting them physically to my Mac. I hope apple realizes this
 
Where’s the “Apps” tab in this new UI. Many times I’ll buy/download an app, only to find the new version sucks. How can I revert back to the previous version in this “new and improved” iTunes sync?! Once again it appears Apple is removing choice and control from the user.
 
Where’s the “Apps” tab in this new UI. Many times I’ll buy/download an app, only to find the new version sucks. How can I revert back to the previous version in this “new and improved” iTunes sync?! Once again it appears Apple is removing choice and control from the user.
This option has been long gone since iTunes 12.7. Either stick to iTunes 12.6.5, or buy iMazing or similar apps to sort of restore that functionality. But you can see it now that tech companies take away more and more options from people while giving no compensation in return.
 
Allot of this transition can also come to Mojave as well. But probably won't. They'd need a reason for users to upgrade.

Where’s the “Apps” tab in this new UI. Many times I’ll buy/download an app, only to find the new version sucks. How can I revert back to the previous version in this “new and improved” iTunes sync?! Once again it appears Apple is removing choice and control from the user.

They've removed the ability to sync apps even in standalone iTunes ...some time ago

http://osxdaily.com/2017/09/13/itunes-12-7-update-removes-app-store/
 
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This option has been long gone since iTunes 12.7. Either stick to iTunes 12.6.5, or buy iMazing or similar apps to sort of restore that functionality. But you can see it now that tech companies take away more and more options from people while giving no compensation in return.

They've removed the ability to sync apps even in standalone iTunes ...some time ago

http://osxdaily.com/2017/09/13/itunes-12-7-update-removes-app-store/

Not true, Apple continues to provide Enterprise version of iTunes to manage apps. Hopefully they continue to do so. I’m guessing Apple will likely kneecap 3rd parties from that functionality going forward as well.

Yet another reason why Apple will never succeed in the enterprise.
 
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Not true, Apple continues to provide Enterprise version of iTunes to manage apps. Hopefully they continue to do so. I’m guessing Apple will likely kneecap 3rd parties from that functionality going forward as well.

Yet another reason why Apple will never succeed in the enterprise.
They don’t even bother expanding their presence in enterprise world. No wonder why they won’t succeed. And yes, I am using that enterprise version to sync my device. At some point there gonna be more and more difficult To download app packages for sure. No compensation.
 
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For people who have used them, are the apps actually faster or anything? Or is it just change for change's sake?
 
For people who have used them, are the apps actually faster or anything? Or is it just change for change's sake?
For now it is a marketing term. Let’s hope in ions 13.4 Apple can actually deliver this promise.
 
So what if you aren’t upgrading to Catalina? Do they offer new versions of iTunes to sync to iOS 13 devices or are you SOL?
 
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So what if you aren’t upgrading to Catalina? Do they offer new versions of iTunes to sync to iOS 13 devices or are you SOL?
My guess is SOL, unless they release iTunes support kit or something as an update.
 
So what if you aren’t upgrading to Catalina? Do they offer new versions of iTunes to sync to iOS 13 devices or are you SOL?
If history is any indication you will require Catalina to sync an iOS 13 device.
 
No. Pretty average, if not slower than iTunes.
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I sync my device running iOS 12 using iTunes 12.6.5.3 just fine.
Sure, but I’m running OS X 10.9.5 (Apple arbitrarily decided it won’t sync iOS 11 or later devices). And I have too many production apps that break under later versions of Mac OS. I had to scrounge a less powerful iMac just to run 10.10 so I can sync an 8+ on iOS 11.

It’s death by a thousand cuts with Apple... no sync, no app management, no Touch ID, that notch, etc, etc. Galaxy Note 10 will be my next phone, and a non-Apple desktop. On the plus side, maybe they’ll keep iTunes alive on Windows.
 
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So, three or four, or maybe it's five apps or something, to do what one app, iTunes, does in one place.

That's just dumb.

I disagree. It makes a lot of sense to break them up.

Presently, you cannot make a local backup of your iPhone or iPad without iTunes. It means that iTunes has to be open at all times for automatic backups to work, while wasting CPU and memory. The overall iTunes interface isn’t optimised for the different media kinds it supports. You can already see this by comparing the new apps side-by-side. There are new buttons and controls and the TV app has a wholly new interface. iTunes has to use distinct menus in the menu bar for the different media types, making the app overall more complicated as a result. Putting everything into a single-window app means that any notion of multi-tasking isn’t available.

Finally, it makes a lot of sense for Apple to keep these products apart. Podcasts and the TV app appear to be new code bases, based on iOS (they use Marzipan/Catalyst). Going forward, they can improve individual apps more easily without having to backport the changes just for iTunes.

As an aside, iTunes has a mixed reputation with extremes on both side. Some people love it, some people absolutely despise it. It may be an opportunity for Apple to make the apps better and free itself of the negative reputation and gain more customers as a result.

Overall this is a necessary step and I am happy that Apple finally found the courage to do it.
 
I disagree. It makes a lot of sense to break them up.

Presently, you cannot make a local backup of your iPhone or iPad without iTunes. It means that iTunes has to be open at all times for automatic backups to work, while wasting CPU and memory. The overall iTunes interface isn’t optimised for the different media kinds it supports. You can already see this by comparing the new apps side-by-side. There are new buttons and controls and the TV app has a wholly new interface. iTunes has to use distinct menus in the menu bar for the different media types, making the app overall more complicated as a result. Putting everything into a single-window app means that any notion of multi-tasking isn’t available.

Finally, it makes a lot of sense for Apple to keep these products apart. Podcasts and the TV app appear to be new code bases, based on iOS (they use Marzipan/Catalyst). Going forward, they can improve individual apps more easily without having to backport the changes just for iTunes.

As an aside, iTunes has a mixed reputation with extremes on both side. Some people love it, some people absolutely despise it. It may be an opportunity for Apple to make the apps better and free itself of the negative reputation and gain more customers as a result.

Overall this is a necessary step and I am happy that Apple finally found the courage to do it.
Well said. However, given Apple’s harsh stance against obsolete tech and software, (removing 32bit included), I seriously doubt Apple will ever fully migrate all features (AppleScript support for example) available in iTunes to their separated apps anytime soon, or ever.

I personally neither hate nor like iTunes. It is a tool that serves its purpose of managing my music library and iOS devices. I have tried Catalina, and it damaged my iOS device music library that is synced from iTunes. I know it is beta 1 but it could also be the sign of Apple aggressively pushing users out of media ownership.

Another fun fact is Apple uses three banners to promote Apple Music. I haven’t seen this before, but I can safely assume They have decided DRM protected limited Apple music Library is the way to go.
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They will do the same as with books - formerly integrated in iTunes. All of your local content will be moved to a hidden directory, all files wil become renamed and encoded to ease the database handling and upload to their servers for Music Match management.

So: Your old album "Yellow Submarine" will be stored in a folder like
(9as752'908zsdfg7z20'4958zw

as well as all tracks will look like:
01 09ds8'2345qoigh
02 aso93'8475w0e98rzt
03 1'203984asdfiu1(=9
and so on.

And it will be mandatory (and not editable), to store them in the hidden default folder.
Yes, I am joking, but who knows, they did it with all our Ebooks, when they transferred them to the new "Books"-App.
And in Books you cannot transfer to your devices by drag and drop. Do you want to transfer 1 book? Well you just need to sync your whole damn library (in my case 5404 books). No manual transfer possible. I wonder if the people who design and code ever use the apps they create.
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A couple of questions. I have my iTunes library on an external drive. Will that still work the same way?

Also, they seem to be vague with videos. I have a bunch of movies that I've ripped from DVD's over the years to make my library entirely digital. Are these still going to work with the Movies app and will I be able to stream them to the Apple TV like I do now?

Side note: I'm still confused as to why Apple is doing this. To me its like they are doing it for the sake of doing it and not to make things easier on the user. I don't see how having to sync with 3 separate apps is supposed to be better than just syncing with iTunes.
This first beta does not allow choosing a library other than the one in your music folder. Probably a bug, but for the moment external drives are out as an option.
You can stream your own music or movies to your Apple TV, but you cannot manually transfer movies to iOS devices.
 
Oh, alright then. I will just give it a social pass and move on. Thanks for explanation. :):apple:
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It moves all your books and potentially audiobooks to its own container, which I hate (seriously, no space for those type of things in my Mac). For music and video, as of now, they do not move anything.

*sigh* If audiobooks are handled the same as ebooks, I think I'll skip upgrading. My iTunes library is on external drive, and I have a large amount of non-iTMS audiobooks on there, there is no way they'll fit on the internal SSD. Not to mention that Books on a Mac doesn't allow the editing of metadata ( I'm presuming this is still the case, my bug opened against the very first Mac version is still open ).
 
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There seem no clear info about iTunes library on external drive. What happen them? Automatically? Or need do it manually? Will it allow external drive library? No way it fit my iMac cos not enough storage.
 
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There seem no clear info about iTunes library on external drive. What happen them? Automatically? Or need do it manually? Will it allow external drive library? No way it fit my iMac cos not enough storage.
We May need to wait at least 3 betas before knowing how those things work. As of now, there seems to be no clear indication of How external library can be done.
 
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