Button to switch to miniplayer mode in iTunes?

[macrem]

There's a button to expand the iTunes miniplayer (rectangle below "x"); however, once expanded I don't see a button anywhere within the expanded window to switch back to the miniplayer, so I have been opening a new miniplayer then closing the expanded window. Am I missing something? If so, please advise.

Thanks!

 

[CaffeinatedNoms]

Whoa, I'd not noticed that at all - I'm a keyboard guy so I just use the shortcuts.

But I've had a good look and you're right, I can't find a switch-to-miniplayer button anywhere at all in the main window. I tried a couple of 'maybe' things like option-click minimise, double-clicking the title bar (with the title bar minimise option off) and nope...

 

[barkmonster]

Apple are obsessed with change for the sake of it removal of features in iTunes.

 

[n-evo]

Apple are obsessed with change for the sake of it removal of features in iTunes.

iTunes is a testing ground for new interface concepts for OS X. Always has been.

 

[CaffeinatedNoms]

iTunes is a testing ground for new interface concepts for OS X. Always has been.

Ugh, can you remember the doom mongering that happened when the iTunes sidebar lost it's colour icons? People seemed terrified that the next release of MacOS would be blue-white monochrome!

 

[n-evo]

Ugh, can you remember the doom mongering that happened when the iTunes sidebar lost it's colour icons? People seemed terrified that the next release of MacOS would be blue-white monochrome!

I remember the mass-hysteria before every new OS X release that featured changes:

Mac OS X Panther (2003)
Mac OS X Leopard (2007)
OS X Lion (2011)
OS X Yosemite (2014)

 

[barkmonster]

iTunes is a testing ground for new interface concepts for OS X. Always has been.

Removal of useful features and forcing of unintuitive default views along with progressively more bloat aren't features iTunes has influenced Mac OS X with, they're flaws that made iTunes worse.

 

[bbfc]

There's a button to expand the iTunes miniplayer (rectangle below "x"); however, once expanded I don't see a button anywhere within the expanded window to switch back to the miniplayer, so I have been opening a new miniplayer then closing the expanded window. Am I missing something? If so, please advise.

Thanks!

Maybe they haven't implemented one yet. iTunes 12 is still in beta so they may add one later.

 

[CaffeinatedNoms]

Maybe they haven't implemented one yet. iTunes 12 is still in beta so they may add one later.

A blue traffic light next to the green one

(Actually, if it was the right shade of blue, that would probably work. Now to invent uses for the extra button!)

 

[xcetra]

The solution

I found out how to switch from the main iTunes window to the MiniPlayer by clicking. In the iTunes window, to the right of the volume control just into the "display" an icon will appear once you hover over it showing 2 boxes. If an audio track is playing, it's the same area where the album artwork is. Click on that and the whole window goes to MiniPlayer.

Phew. I was sending Apple a complaint then found this out.

 

[petsounds]

I found out how to switch from the main iTunes window to the MiniPlayer by clicking. In the iTunes window, to the right of the volume control just into the "display" an icon will appear once you hover over it showing 2 boxes. If an audio track is playing, it's the same area where the album artwork is. Click on that and the whole window goes to MiniPlayer.

Thanks for finding that. That's awful UI. It also doesn't even activate if you roll over that button while iTunes is in the background. There also doesn't seem to be any way to expand the Miniplayer back to the "normal" window other than via Command-Shift-M. I've never really understood why Miniplayer is even a separate window from the normal window, instead of just being a toggle state. Does anyone really use both at the same time? Somehow I always end up causing the normal window to reappear alongside the Miniplayer and it feels broken.

 

[KALLT]

There also doesn't seem to be any way to expand the Miniplayer back to the "normal" window other than via Command-Shift-M.

If you click on the X button in the Mini Player, you return the main view. The button underneath it toggles the size of the Mini Player.

That's awful UI.

I agree. It’s as if they gave interns the task to design the UI for iTunes. It’s the one app that never seems to abide by Apple’s own UI guidelines.

 

[petsounds]

If you click on the X button in the Mini Player, you return the main view. The button underneath it toggles the size of the Mini Player.

Ah thanks, I didn't realize that button was contextual -- if the Miniplayer is the only thing open, it closes itself and opens the main window, but if the main window is already open it just closes the Miniplayer. I also wouldn't think that a close button means "expand to normal view", but this is iTunes Land and we're deep in the rabbit hole of UI surprises.

Also, if I click that weird Shrink-to-Miniplayer button, it actually pops up the Miniplayer on my other monitor, whereas the key shortcut keeps it on the correct monitor. Probably another "Displays Have Separate Spaces" bug that I'm constantly dealing with.

 

[bmac89]

A blue traffic light next to the green one

Or they could really simplify the whole look and just have 1 traffic light button that functions for everything rather than 3 buttons.

Press the red button = close,
red button + option = zoom,
red button +control = fullscreen,
red button + shift + m = mini player,
red button + control + shift= minimize
and finally red button + shift + h = help navigating the button.

(End of my off-topic post)

 

[KitShicker]

I found out how to switch from the main iTunes window to the MiniPlayer by clicking. In the iTunes window, to the right of the volume control just into the "display" an icon will appear once you hover over it showing 2 boxes. If an audio track is playing, it's the same area where the album artwork is. Click on that and the whole window goes to MiniPlayer.

If you click on the X button in the Mini Player, you return the main view. The button underneath it toggles the size of the Mini Player.

Thanks xcetra & KALLT. Would've taken a lot of putzing around before accidentally stumbling on how that feature works again without your posts! What was wrong with the dual-purpose full/miniplayer arrow button in version 11 anyway? I should've checked into the new UI before updating; going from the coverflow days was a big enough shock before the entirely new Yosemite OS stylings!