Apple Releases iTunes 12.7.4 With New Music Video Features for Apple Music

[Tozovac]

You need to get off the unnecessary-update train. Go install 12.6.3.6, which is an offshoot from the normal releases and will let you have you own on-computer copies of apps to manage, and then that's it. Don't update after that.

I'm running that on my Macbook and can still browse/buy from the App store with it. I'm staying on 10.7 on my main computer for music listening.

I was not planning on "updating" to iTunes 12 on my MBA but accidentally did so at some point.

Do you know of any way to download and truly update back to pre-iTunes 12 iTunes apps for OSX?

PS - the article linked in your sig file is great except for the part where Apple threw away its didn't-need-redone UI and took the worst aspects of Android and Google's Material Design drek, making much of iOS and even OSX look un-Apple Android-like, a change much for the worse.

 

[CLS727]

iTunes used to be a great library app. Now it’s just a mess. It is a textbook example of the wisdom of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. The same is also true of iOS and MacOS in many ways too. In the case of the Mac, I feel nothing has been as solid as Snow Leopard once was.

It just needs to be broken up.

iTunes was music >
then it was to sync your iPod >
then it was to sync your iPhone >
then it needed the App Store >
then it needed Movies, TV Shows >
etc.

Now that pretty much all iOS device sync is done via iCloud... you can remove that functionality from iTunes.

Honestly what I would do is just have a macOS Music app, that has your library and Apple Music.

Then do a separate Apple TV app, that has your Movies, TV Shows, and all the TV apps same as your Apple TV.

And a separate iCloud App for device management.

 

[Tozovac]

It just needs to be broken up.

iTunes was music >
then it was to sync your iPod >
then it was to sync your iPhone >
then it needed the App Store >
then it needed Movies, TV Shows >
etc.

Now that pretty much all iOS device sync is done via iCloud... you can remove that functionality from iTunes.

Honestly what I would do is just have a macOS Music app, that has your library and Apple Music.

Then do a separate Apple TV app, that has your Movies, TV Shows, and all the TV apps same as your Apple TV.

And a separate iCloud App for device management.

I'd tend to disagree only because I find it's *VASTLY* easier and more enjoyable to browse & download music using iTunes on a laptop or desktop. Plus, and this is another of many examples of Apple really screwing the pooch since 2012: for some reason it seems iTunes/Music App etc. likes to segregate between what was purchased on a mobile device vs. what was purchased on a desk/laptop via iTunes. I'm constantly fighting trying to "remove" items in the Music app on my phone that I apparently purchased on my phone but which I don't want to see when I scroll thru the Music app. Argh, it annoys me just thinking about it vs. how effortless using Apple software/iTunes was before. So, for those of us who don't stream music and prefer having "our" files left on our devices and not zapped so they're streamed, I surely hope Apple doesn't break up iTunes further.

 

[CLS727]

I'd tend to disagree only because I find it's *VASTLY* easier and more enjoyable to browse & download music using iTunes on a laptop or desktop. Plus, and this is another of many examples of Apple really screwing the pooch since 2012: for some reason it seems iTunes/Music App etc. likes to segregate between what was purchased on a mobile device vs. what was purchased on a desk/laptop via iTunes. I'm constantly fighting trying to "remove" items in the Music app on my phone that I apparently purchased on my phone but which I don't want to see when I scroll thru the Music app. Argh, it annoys me just thinking about it vs. how effortless using Apple software/iTunes was before. So, for those of us who don't stream music and prefer having "our" files left on our devices and not zapped so they're streamed, I surely hope Apple doesn't break up iTunes further.

That's different issue though. I also have a lot of non-iTunes purchased music in my library as well as some stuff in my "purchase" history that I don't want to see in my library anymore. I know the frustration of deleting the same song again and again only for it to automatically re-download. I have the cloud stuff turned off and I've tried to delete it from my purchase history... works for the most part until I'm on another computer with a fresh iTunes install.

I still think

MUSIC should be one app with just my library + Apple Music streaming (optional).

APPLE TV should mirror the Apps on my Apple TV 4 so I can watch my CBS, Netflix, etc... and rent/purchase stuff directly from Apple right there.

iCLOUD then is a stand-alone device management app for preferences, manual syncing, backups, etc.

 

[tywebb13]

Never mind.
Instead of checking through iTunes 'check for updates'..

check using the Apple Software Update tool.
it comes up

Yes I have the links now for windows too.

for mac:

https://secure-appldnld.apple.com/i...-32EB-11E8-9560-CEB2B071F5CF/iTunes12.7.4.dmg

for windows:

32 bit: https://secure-appldnld.apple.com/i...2-32F7-11E8-993D-9ABAB071F5CF/iTunesSetup.exe

64 bit: https://secure-appldnld.apple.com/i...32F7-11E8-A675-99BAB071F5CF/iTunes64Setup.exe

 

[Shirasaki]

You need to get off the unnecessary-update train. Go install 12.6.3.6, which is an offshoot from the normal releases and will let you have you own on-computer copies of apps to manage, and then that's it. Don't update after that.

I'm running that on my Macbook and can still browse/buy from the App store with it. I'm staying on 10.7 on my main computer for music listening.

Well, that is exactly what I am doing. What I worry is updating iOS would break iTunes compatibility, which is somehow required if I want to use new version of watchOS.

 

[Tozovac]

That's different issue though. I also have a lot of non-iTunes purchased music in my library as well as some stuff in my "purchase" history that I don't want to see in my library anymore. I know the frustration of deleting the same song again and again only for it to automatically re-download. I have the cloud stuff turned off and I've tried to delete it from my purchase history... works for the most part until I'm on another computer with a fresh iTunes install.

I still think

MUSIC should be one app with just my library + Apple Music streaming (optional).

APPLE TV should mirror the Apps on my Apple TV 4 so I can watch my CBS, Netflix, etc... and rent/purchase stuff directly from Apple right there.

iCLOUD then is a stand-alone device management app for preferences, manual syncing, backups, etc.

Aha, glad you followed up, I misinterpreted your earlier post, my bad. Given the absolute mess that iTunes 12 is, I would tolerate some separation, especially since file management thru iTunes is so clunky for certain Apps (UnrealBook music App especially). I didn't mind iTunes being the all-in-one syncing & backup hub for music, movies, podcasts, ringtones, Apps, etc. back when iTunes was a good application with a top-notch UI, not the bloated mess with awful UI it is today (that's looking even worse with the "update" described above). But what can we expect from a company which after 10 years still hasn't yet found a way to let users combine their older iTunes account ID with their newer MobileMe/iCloud ID (so frustrating), or download text or attachments from lengthy iOS text messages. Instead, I've resorted to buying a $20 3rd-party App to access text message data and for easy mobile device backups independent from iTunes.

Apple's not divorcing App file management from iTunes only strengthens my fear they're kicking the can down the road and hard at work on their next grandly unnecessary reinvention: Morphing OSX & iOS to be alike apps across platforms, sure to have an advertised "benefit" of moving syncing to the Apps themselves while almost certainly to result in worsening the OSX experience like iTunes 12 ruined iTunes, Yosemite ruined OSX, and iOS 11 ruined the native Podcast app.

 

[SeaFox]

Do you know of any way to download and truly update back to pre-iTunes 12 iTunes apps for OSX?

Unfortunately I don't. I always assumed that OSX would refuse to run bundled apps that were older than the version that shipped with the major OS release. My main desktop machine is a Windows computer. I've run iTunes 10 on Windows XP x64 through 8.1 Pro (where I am now). I only lost access to the iTunes Music/App Store on it recently, when Apple made the 2FA thing mandatory.

I don't plan to continue with Windows on the desktop after 8.1 support ends in 2023, so I don't know what I'll be doing then. I like having a desktop computer I can actually upgrade myself, and already dabble with Linux Mint, but I'd like to be able to keep using Photoshop, so I might go to macOS.

PS - the article linked in your sig file is great except for the part where Apple threw away its didn't-need-redone UI and took the worst aspects of Android and Google's Material Design drek, making much of iOS and even OSX look un-Apple Android-like, a change much for the worse.

Same thing on web browsers. Mozilla throwing out its interface to adopt Google Chrome design, then depreciating most of the Extensions that made people (including me) use Firefox even though it was much slower than Chrome in actual performance. I'm on the ESR release now, but in June I'll have to decide what to do as the Extension framework change will be on that side, too. At some point Firefox becomes so much like a copy of Chrome, I wonder why I shouldn't just use the real thing. :-\

 

[dickie001x]

Even till today I often find myself tripping over the interface trying to get to where I need to be, it's so damn unnecessarily complex and "improved" from what used to just work, which was selecting your media just from the left-side menu, instantly and intuitively. In fact, for a day or so long ago after iTunes 12 poisoned my macbook air, I was panicked that iTunes deleted some videos of mine, only to discover they were hidden under "home movies," a sub-menu under videos or wherever (can't remember at the moment). WTH is wrong with Apple's software/UI team since ~2012/2013?

& remember Cover Flow? It's been downhill since they scrapped that IMO

 

[iGobbleoff]

This update killed my NAS libraries and now have to rebuild them all over again. Very disappointed

 

[Tozovac]

& remember Cover Flow? It's been downhill since they scrapped that IMO

Today's Apple after 2013 has an air of no longer being focused on providing things that users wind up seeing, using, wanting & loving. It's all about what Apple thinks users should want to use & love.

 

[idunn]

Do you know of any way to download and truly update back to pre-iTunes 12 iTunes apps for OSX?

If the question is can one revert to an earlier version of iTunes, then the answer is yes*.

As wary of links myself, I will not provide any. However doing a simple search for this topic will return a lot of applicable advice. One site I discovered—AoxoA, Downgrade Or Revert From ITunes 12 To ITunes 10.7—seems to cover this process fairly well.

Although I would recommend iTunes 10.7, some may wish only an incremental step back from iTunes 12 point something or other—and that is possible. This may also be a good time to mention that newer versions of iTunes will have features you may or not wish to do without.

One caveat (and why the asterisk on 'yes') is that reverting to a version of iTunes earlier than that originally installed on your Mac may either be impossible or prove problematic for some reason. As always the case, best to back up your system before proceeding; worst case scenario then is you'll just end up back where you started.

Apple in their warped wisdom doesn't make such a process simple, so you need to be your own IT department on this one. Nevertheless the steps are fairly straightforward and easy, once you know them. You'll also likely need to assemble a few software tools like Pacifist to best accomplish this.

For some reason I do not recall now I once suffered the unimaginable in inadvertently 'upgrading' to a newer version of iTunes. As that would never do I did some research and accomplished what you possibly have in mind—or back to iTunes 10.7, as myself and the Gods (if not Apple) intended. If this on a 2012 MacBook Pro, so software it was already familiar with and natively ran. So it IS possible. Although, as said, individual results may vary, depending.

All best luck in having the Apple experience you desire.

 

[Robdeajos]

It seems that the last iTunes update
12.7.4
caused music crossfade not to work

 

[miscend]

This is cool.... I've been saying for years that I want a streaming service like Spotify that plays the music video with every song.

Like old-school MTV.... or like sitting in a Hard Rock Cafe.

It's not like there's even much video content on it

 

[Tozovac]

If the question is can one revert to an earlier version of iTunes, then the answer is yes*.
....

All best luck in having the Apple experience you desire.

Thank you for the sobering guidance. I too found several "download old version xxx here" locations on the interwebs but of course I have no idea how much to trust downloading from Joe's Random Helpful Website, so I likely will not. The benefits here probably aren't outweighed by the risks for me at least. My bigger issue is the awful Music iOS app than iTunes, and I'm able to address Apple's poor software decisions by using the Audyssey app.

Sigh. Apple, what's happened to you?

 

[CPx]

It seems that the last iTunes update
12.7.4
caused music crossfade not to work

Yup I'm having the same issue with crossfade.