I am getting really frustrated with iTunes because of all the little problems. Here is a short list of problems I have had:
1. It takes a while to start up.
2. It won't automatically add all my music to its library - I told it to search my disc and add all compatible files, but it only added about 75% of them. There was no pattern to what it left behind. I told it to add each of my music folders separately, and that got about 50% of the remainder. I tried again, and it found a few more files. Then I gave up - I am not willing to play this game where it asymptotically approaches having all my music.
3. If there is a flaw in an MP3, it just skips to the next track. I have many files that play with minor audio glitches in Foobar2000, but iTunes just skips to the next track when it hits the glitch. If I drag the seek bar to some point in the song after the glitch, iTunes will play the rest of the song fine. But this takes work, and it artificially inflates the playcount (iTunes counts 2 plays if you do this, because the playcounter increments every time it thinks it has finished the track).
4. One time I let iTunes organize my music - never again! It did several annoying things, including cropped any filenames that were too long for its little brain.
5. It is not very good at changing the ID3 tags of multiple files at once, and it lacks intelligent ID3 tagging tools, but I suppose iTunes wasn't built for that. (I like being able to write a little script that turns the filename 05 - Lynyrd Skynyrd - Tuesday's Gone.mp3 into the appropriate tag, etc)
6. It understands how to "Show Duplicates," but now it needs an option to "Never include duplicates on iPod." I like having duplicates on my hard disc where space is abundant, because sometimes there are different recorded versions of a song, and other times I just have two copies of the file. However, I really don't need all those duplicates on my iPhone where space is at a premium, and I can't easily look at the file info and track length to determine which version I want to listen to of the choices. My iPhone includes both live and studio versions of many songs, but I can't tell which is which, so I might as well only have one version on the phone.
7. I manually manage the music transferred to my iPhone and iPod, but because I do this, there is no easy way to get the On-The-Go playlists off of the iPod and onto the computer. Apple could fix that so easily, because it is already possible if you manage music automatically.
8. I made smart playlists which would randomly choose up to 100 MB of music from a particular artist, and then synced those playlists to my iPhone. That way I have a nice variety on my iPhone. Unfortunately, the smart playlists never "reshuffle" and choose different random songs. Is there a way to make them reshuffle, and perform their selection algorithm again? What I have been doing is "Edit Smart Playlist," then change any one of the selection criteria, then "OK," then "Edit Smart Playlist" again, then change the criterion back to normal. It is a waste of time, especially when you have many smart playlists, and considering the fact that they are allegedly "smart." Come on, Apple, give us a "perform selection algorithm again" option.
9. It gathers play count information from the iPod, that is good. Now, if only it stored play count information in the ID3 tag. Where does it store the play count information, and is there any way to copy it to the ID3 tag of the relevant file? That is exactly what file metadata was created for - use the damn tags, Apple!
10. This is just a feature I want: A little equalizer and volume control, separate from the normal volume control. When a song is quieter than every other song, or is poorly equalized, you can manually adjust the volume and equalizer, and iTunes saves those settings to the metadata of the particular song you were listening to. When you hear the song again, it uses those equalizer and volume settings again, but only for that particular song. You could also do it on an album-by-album basis. This would be a great feature for bands like the Pixies, because all their studio albums are pretty quiet compared to average music, and there are other band that use way too much bass. Some bands produce their albums with a ton of bass because they expect people to listen to them on crappy headphones, but this sounds terrible when you actually have a subwoofer.
The following are problems with the music player on the iPhone, not iTunes in general:
11. If I select an artist, I am then required to select an album, I cannot select "All Albums" and see all the songs by that particular artist. iPods used to have an "All Albums" option (called simply "All"). This is a hassle, because I often know who performs the song I want to hear, but I don't remember which album it was on. Do the new iPods still have this button?
12. I cannot save multiple On-The-Go playlists, like I could with an iPod. Do the new iPods still have this feature?
13. This is a feature request: Create a "Randomize order" button on the iPod and iPhone which will randomize the play order of any playlist, and save that order. This would be especially useful for the On-The-Go playlist. I almost always listen to playlists in "Shuffle" mode, but what happens if I listen to half the playlist, take a break, then want to come back to it? The iPod will play songs I haven't heard interspersed with songs that I just listened to, because it reshuffles the playlist. That is why instead of randomizing on the fly, the iPod should give the option of randomizing the order and saving that order. Then I could just queue up the first song I hadn't heard, and let it play, without needing to skip every other track.
14. I don't like the split screen on the new iPods. Is this a configurable option? I would want text to fill the screen, no damn album art! First of all, some songs have long names which require a wide screen to display, and second, I just don't like it. It reminds me of the posters for the movie Terminator, and it is so asymmetrical. What do you all think?
Please, add more complaints to my list! Give me suggestions, recommend fixes, tell me I am being a crybaby. Blindly defend Apple. Oh, and one more thing,
15. Can I transfer playcount data from one computer to another? What about from a PC to a Mac? How can I avoid accidentally erasing playcount data (I did that once)? Is there some way to merge playcount data from two computers? Do any other music players manage playcount data right? What about individual song volume and equalizer settings?
I think that's the longest single post I've ever seen, much less written. If anyone can provide a link to a longer post, I congratulate you.
1. It takes a while to start up.
2. It won't automatically add all my music to its library - I told it to search my disc and add all compatible files, but it only added about 75% of them. There was no pattern to what it left behind. I told it to add each of my music folders separately, and that got about 50% of the remainder. I tried again, and it found a few more files. Then I gave up - I am not willing to play this game where it asymptotically approaches having all my music.
3. If there is a flaw in an MP3, it just skips to the next track. I have many files that play with minor audio glitches in Foobar2000, but iTunes just skips to the next track when it hits the glitch. If I drag the seek bar to some point in the song after the glitch, iTunes will play the rest of the song fine. But this takes work, and it artificially inflates the playcount (iTunes counts 2 plays if you do this, because the playcounter increments every time it thinks it has finished the track).
4. One time I let iTunes organize my music - never again! It did several annoying things, including cropped any filenames that were too long for its little brain.
5. It is not very good at changing the ID3 tags of multiple files at once, and it lacks intelligent ID3 tagging tools, but I suppose iTunes wasn't built for that. (I like being able to write a little script that turns the filename 05 - Lynyrd Skynyrd - Tuesday's Gone.mp3 into the appropriate tag, etc)
6. It understands how to "Show Duplicates," but now it needs an option to "Never include duplicates on iPod." I like having duplicates on my hard disc where space is abundant, because sometimes there are different recorded versions of a song, and other times I just have two copies of the file. However, I really don't need all those duplicates on my iPhone where space is at a premium, and I can't easily look at the file info and track length to determine which version I want to listen to of the choices. My iPhone includes both live and studio versions of many songs, but I can't tell which is which, so I might as well only have one version on the phone.
7. I manually manage the music transferred to my iPhone and iPod, but because I do this, there is no easy way to get the On-The-Go playlists off of the iPod and onto the computer. Apple could fix that so easily, because it is already possible if you manage music automatically.
8. I made smart playlists which would randomly choose up to 100 MB of music from a particular artist, and then synced those playlists to my iPhone. That way I have a nice variety on my iPhone. Unfortunately, the smart playlists never "reshuffle" and choose different random songs. Is there a way to make them reshuffle, and perform their selection algorithm again? What I have been doing is "Edit Smart Playlist," then change any one of the selection criteria, then "OK," then "Edit Smart Playlist" again, then change the criterion back to normal. It is a waste of time, especially when you have many smart playlists, and considering the fact that they are allegedly "smart." Come on, Apple, give us a "perform selection algorithm again" option.
9. It gathers play count information from the iPod, that is good. Now, if only it stored play count information in the ID3 tag. Where does it store the play count information, and is there any way to copy it to the ID3 tag of the relevant file? That is exactly what file metadata was created for - use the damn tags, Apple!
10. This is just a feature I want: A little equalizer and volume control, separate from the normal volume control. When a song is quieter than every other song, or is poorly equalized, you can manually adjust the volume and equalizer, and iTunes saves those settings to the metadata of the particular song you were listening to. When you hear the song again, it uses those equalizer and volume settings again, but only for that particular song. You could also do it on an album-by-album basis. This would be a great feature for bands like the Pixies, because all their studio albums are pretty quiet compared to average music, and there are other band that use way too much bass. Some bands produce their albums with a ton of bass because they expect people to listen to them on crappy headphones, but this sounds terrible when you actually have a subwoofer.
The following are problems with the music player on the iPhone, not iTunes in general:
11. If I select an artist, I am then required to select an album, I cannot select "All Albums" and see all the songs by that particular artist. iPods used to have an "All Albums" option (called simply "All"). This is a hassle, because I often know who performs the song I want to hear, but I don't remember which album it was on. Do the new iPods still have this button?
12. I cannot save multiple On-The-Go playlists, like I could with an iPod. Do the new iPods still have this feature?
13. This is a feature request: Create a "Randomize order" button on the iPod and iPhone which will randomize the play order of any playlist, and save that order. This would be especially useful for the On-The-Go playlist. I almost always listen to playlists in "Shuffle" mode, but what happens if I listen to half the playlist, take a break, then want to come back to it? The iPod will play songs I haven't heard interspersed with songs that I just listened to, because it reshuffles the playlist. That is why instead of randomizing on the fly, the iPod should give the option of randomizing the order and saving that order. Then I could just queue up the first song I hadn't heard, and let it play, without needing to skip every other track.
14. I don't like the split screen on the new iPods. Is this a configurable option? I would want text to fill the screen, no damn album art! First of all, some songs have long names which require a wide screen to display, and second, I just don't like it. It reminds me of the posters for the movie Terminator, and it is so asymmetrical. What do you all think?
Please, add more complaints to my list! Give me suggestions, recommend fixes, tell me I am being a crybaby. Blindly defend Apple. Oh, and one more thing,
15. Can I transfer playcount data from one computer to another? What about from a PC to a Mac? How can I avoid accidentally erasing playcount data (I did that once)? Is there some way to merge playcount data from two computers? Do any other music players manage playcount data right? What about individual song volume and equalizer settings?
I think that's the longest single post I've ever seen, much less written. If anyone can provide a link to a longer post, I congratulate you.
