Apple Releases iTunes 12.1 With New Yosemite Notification Center Widget

[szw-mapple fan]

I have had this feature for a while now, via a free app called MiniPlay on the mac app store. It offers the same functionality, with added album artwork support and iTunes volume controls. Very fast and reliable. I'm not going to use Apple's version until they add support for at least album artworks.

 

[n-evo]

One thing not mentioned: the new iTunes is finally 64-bit on Windows

I'm sure music playback will benefit greatly from it.

 

[humar]

Are these outlines a glitch or did they genuinely think this was a good idea?

Image

I prefer this..

 

[Crispy Duck]

I prefer this..

Me too. I didn't like the sparse emptiness of the new info panels of 12.0. Not knowing where to click.


Thankfully they've seen sense and added the boxes back.

Also – have they also removed the "add new field" option – and just put the empty fields back in as default? (I've not actually upgraded myself and can't check). That would also be an improvement.

 

[humar]

Me too. I didn't like the sparse emptiness of the new info panels of 12.0. Not knowing where to click.


Thankfully they've seen sense and added the boxes back.

Also – have they also removed the "add new field" option – and just put the empty fields back in as default? (I've not actually upgraded myself and can't check). That would also be an improvement.

All the fields are now shown by default. Finally.

 

[Crispy Duck]

Are these outlines a glitch or did they genuinely think this was a good idea?

Image

That track isn't officially released until 2nd Feb. Tsk. ;o)

 

[EdgardasB]

still syncing performance is not good as it was before iOS 8/ Yosemite....

 

[simon the diver]

Unless its sorted out the sync issues

Unless its sorted out the sync issues, I shall continue to refer to this as 'iTunes- the Lipstick on a Pig edition'

 

[Brenster]

still syncing performance is not good as it was before iOS 8/ Yosemite....

Yep. Still sits for an age on Waiting For Changes To Be Applied. Still fails to sync new music selections to my 128GB iP6.

Between iTunes/iP6 syncing not working, discovered/DNS problems on Yosemite/iOS8 devices and the like, the Apple eco-system of early 2015 is feeling like the Microsoft one of late 2003 that originally caused me to switch.

Add on the recent VAT related UK iTunes Store price hikes (+ a bit more for good measure on some artists/catalogues - I'm looking at you Queen), my recent purchase of a Surface Pro 3/Office 365 is starting to feel like the thin end of a wedge.

EDIT: And Lo! iTunes has wiped all of the non iTunes store purchases from my iPhone 6. Again. Seriously Apple, we're heading for a major falling out here.

Time for yet another factory restore.

 

[simon the diver]

is it just me or is d/l updates from Apple gotten a lot slower?

212MB.... going on 40 mins now

mine came down in about 1 minute - could be timing could be your isp

 

[constructor]

EDIT: And Lo! iTunes has wiped all of the non iTunes store purchases from my iPhone 6. Again. Seriously Apple, we're heading for a major falling out here.

Time for yet another factory restore.

I never, ever had such a problem – it never made a difference whether tracks had come from the store or they had been ripped into iTunes from CDs: iTunes always reliably synced all of the selected ones to my iPods, iPhones and iPads (automatic sync, all tracks in the selected playlists).

 

[rishi.talreja]

Bonus tip: There is a trick for getting the separate cover art window back in iTunes 12 (particularly nice when it's playing on a secondary monitor): Run a music playlist in the mini player while having the main window open and then drag a music video from the main window into the playlist in the mini player.



iTunes will play the video and when proceeding to the next track the former video window will switch to cover art and stay that way until you explicitly close it. It's still resizable as it was when it was an "official" window with an entry in the Window menu and much nicer than the tiny cover display in the mini player if you've got good-quality covers in your library.

OR you can just CMD click in the main window on the square album art in the now playing section. I believe it brings up the same window with player controls(not the mini player).

 

[Elbon]

I care a lot more about the alleged improvement in syncing performance than I do about the widget!

(i really don't know any OS X users that regularly use their notification center)

Syncing improvements are definitely welcome. Syncing in iTunes has been a buggy mess for a long time.

I actually do use Notification Center occasionally, but only to check the weather.

 

[Brenster]

I never, ever had such a problem – it never made a difference whether tracks had come from the store or they had been ripped into iTunes from CDs: iTunes always reliably synced all of the selected ones to my iPods, iPhones and iPads (automatic sync, all tracks in the selected playlists).

From OS X Panther with a 3rd gen iPod, through iPhone 3G 16GB, iPhone 4 32GB to iTunes 11 + iPhone 5 I never had a problem either. Since the iPhone 6 128GB though I've been able to complete the first sync after setup with no problem. Subsequent syncs convert all non iTunes store originating music to 'Other', leaving only ~20GB of iTunes Store purchases available to play.

Both on macrumors here and on apple.com support communities, there's a fair few of us having had these problems. Various people have had some joy with deleting music from their phone then resenting, but nothing that works all the time for all users. The only sure fire method of being able to sync all new & existing music from iTunes to the iP6 128Gb is to do a factory restore each time.

Not been using any odd software utilities to monkey about with either the phone or my iTunes library. Just my late 2011 MBP, the iP6 128GB and whatever the latest version of OS X, iOS and iTunes might happen to be. With each iteration of iOS and iTunes I hope the problem has been solved. And every time it isn't. And it's starting to grate.

 

[constructor]

OR you can just CMD click in the main window on the square album art in the now playing section. I believe it brings up the same window with player controls(not the mini player).

Good to know there's an even simpler way. Thanks!
(Is that actually documented anywhere, officially?)

----------

Both on macrumors here and on apple.com support communities, there's a fair few of us having had these problems. Various people have had some joy with deleting music from their phone then resenting, but nothing that works all the time for all users. The only sure fire method of being able to sync all new & existing music from iTunes to the iP6 128Gb is to do a factory restore each time.

No such problems ever, not even on my current iPhone 6 128GB.
(Current versions of OS X and iOS.)

It sounds as if some tracks or your music library database might be damaged somehow so iTunes chokes at some point and runs into trouble.

Have you tried deleting all iTunes data files in your home folder (including the iTunes Preferences and the database files) and then re-imported your music into it? Unless it's actually a particular "toxic" music file, that might resolve a corruption in the metadata. (Of course have a Time Machine backup at hand in case that this doesn't help.)

 

[tkermit]

Try again.....centering the darn music notes might take you a longer way on your icon design career......

centering is overrated... :

 

[rishi.talreja]

Good to know there's an even simpler way. Thanks!

(Is that actually documented anywhere, officially?)

You're welcome. I don't think it is but I've always used it to get bigger album art than the mini player allows. I usually have 1200x1200 or 1600x1600 album art in my files for better quality. You can right click on the art to increase/decrease the size or just resize the window.

 

[ItWasNotMe]

All the fields are now shown by default. Finally.

But...
Using the 'new' dialog, you still can't
1. Enter multi-line comments, or
2. Paste multi-line text into the comments field,
and
3. In this release, they seem to have removed access to the 'old' dialog (previously available by holding the option key)

 

[constructor]

You're welcome. I don't think it is but I've always used it to get bigger album art than the mini player allows. I usually have 1200x1200 or 1600x1600 album art in my files for better quality. You can right click on the art to increase/decrease the size or just resize the window.

I had thought I had tried all possible combinations before, but apparently I'd missed that one.

Over the years I've added more and more high-quality cover art to my library, so when CoverFlow went away in iTunes I was really frustrated at first before I found my workaround by accident. iTunes runs on my external 24" display so there's plenty of space usually.

 

[diegogaja]

"Siri, play song pablo honey."

Thanks for the tip, but I was was referring to the iPhone "Music" app, which wasn't evident in the quote, but was when he quoted my OP.

And yes, the iTunes 12 UX is horrid, but you're right, not for that specific reason.

 

[Rodster]

Is there a way to get the album art in the widget? If not I may stick with the mini player.

 

[Brenster]

No such problems ever, not even on my current iPhone 6 128GB.
(Current versions of OS X and iOS.)

It sounds as if some tracks or your music library database might be damaged somehow so iTunes chokes at some point and runs into trouble.

Have you tried deleting all iTunes data files in your home folder (including the iTunes Preferences and the database files) and then re-imported your music into it? Unless it's actually a particular "toxic" music file, that might resolve a corruption in the metadata. (Of course have a Time Machine backup at hand in case that this doesn't help.)

That remains the nuclear option. There'd be quite a bit of work involved in backing up/exporting all of the playlists first in order to recreate them once all of the music (circa 96GB worth) has been reimported.

Assuming that there is the potential for a corrupted or malformed .m4a or .mp3 file to corrupt the music database on either the phone and/or iTunes, I'm assuming that iTunes would 'validate' the imported music files before indexing them in its own database?

And yes, I'm fastidious about backing up via Time Machine to both a Time Capsule router and a Time Machine capable WD NAS.

Annoyingly this hasn't happened with prior iPhones nor with my iPods I continue to use in parallel with the iP6. Anyone happen to know of any utilities that might be able to check the integrity of music files, the iTunes library database and the links between them? Something like the Option+CMD launch of iPhoto for a database repair would be good here, just to be sure before starting anew with iTunes and a reimport of 96GB of music.

 

[Trinite]

That one looks great. I really like the bluish white 'frosty' effect going on in the background. Very cool!

Here's the one I did - mine wasn't exactly a complicated effort, as I just replaced the salmon gradient with a blue one:

Thanks!!

 

[Steve121178]

Well, that was timely. 212MB.

Why do people list the download size for app updates/OS X updates etc? We are not on dial-up, so I don't care if its 10MB, 500MB or 1GB.

The file size isn't an indication of anything relevant. If you want relevant, see change logs.

 

[jeremiah239]

Ineed. Syncing is broken since... ever... or at least since they brought wifi-syncing. I never even use that, but even with the cable I always have to reboot both mac and iPhone to even have a chance to sync. As soon as you have some apps and some pics to sync, it gets harsh.

Really? Wow I've never had an issue syncing using the cable ever with any iDevice with iTunes. The only time I had problems was when they first came out with wifi sync it often times wouldn't connect but recently even that's been solid!