iTunes SUCK (some peoples opinion)

[ravenvii]

I agree that iTunes sucks.

It is slow, bloated and unwieldy. While it has not crashed on me on the Mac, nor does it give me significant problems, I tolerate it because I have to.

The problem is, it just tries to do way too much. It needs to be broken up into at least three apps - for syncing, the Store and media organization.

 

[-aggie-]

When you think about it, iTunes didn’t really become a problem until the iPhone. First Apple didn’t allow you to use the iPhone like an iPod, which confused a lot of people familiar with iPods and just copying stuff onto and off the iPod. Then Apple stopped doing incremental backups, which has screwed lots of people who don’t that little fact.

 

[ctbear]

Yes...probably the worst thing about iDevices is iTunes...
Why do I have to use it for (pretty much) everything? It's slow and unreliable and mostly unnecessary...I can't even remember how many times it deleted *all* my apps just because I choose to sync some wallpapers to my iPad
As a music player it is fantastic though

 

[Rodimus Prime]

iTunes on Mac is a completely different animal than iTunes on Windows. That being said people blow its problems completely out of proportion. You'd be hard pressed to find another program that does what iTunes does on the market.

define what items you are referring to.

If you are talking about a media library system with good library and play list support there are quite a few pieces of software that come to mind off the top of my head.

For windows
You have WMP which in its current form is pretty good. It has lost the bloat and dead wait of WMP of the past.
You have double twist
Zune player

All 3 of those I have used and see they are pretty good. My biggest problem with switching is how I have everything set up in iTunes. I have seen right off the bat that all 3 of those are better than iTunes but not enough better to make it worth switching.

iTunes used to be a lot nicer but has become so heavy and bloated on windows over the years that I dread updating it because of some new bloated POS apple forced down on us (for example Ping)
iTunes has never really handled my movies on my computer and at this point it NEVER will touch them as I have always had better software on my computer to handle those.

As for on a mac I have really looked for anything better as iTunes works pretty well so I have not bothered really looking but then again my macbook never has really handled much media for me as it was always my PC tower than handled that load.

 

[BrHop156]

I wouldn't say windows is bloated, not anymore, it's fairly sprightly on minimal hardware. As or iTunes, there is no reason why photoshop opens faster, even my computer boots up faster than iTunes loads! I have a library of under 500 items as well.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk!

 

[Goaliegeek]

Are you're friends using Windows? Thats the problem.
My philosophy:

Apple software (iTunes, QuickTime) runs like crap on Windows platforms
Microsoft software (Office) runs like crap on OS X platforms

Apple software w/ Apple OS ^_^
same goes for Windows.

I also hated iTunes when I was still using a PC, but then once I got a mbp and OS X, iTunes was/is amazing.

 

[Jordan921]

Had issues with it on windows but since switching to mac I haven't had any problems.

 

[jake4ever]

It's honestly not as bad as everyone says. Like every application, there are bugs... Just iTunes has a lot of them.

 

[BrHop156]

Office for Mac runs fine, at least 2011


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk!

 

[LizKat]

I have used Macs since the 80s and iTunes since it first showed up. I love iTunes for Mac, generally more with each version, but I do have to say the syncs to mobile devices have become sort of kludgy in some respects as time has moved on, particularly if you have multiple devices, multiple iTunes libraries, keep movies on external disks with a separate library on your computer, etc. Plus I'm not thrilled with the options offered for automatic sync of stuff.

I think that's one of the reasons Apple is moving now to the wireless sync and cloud storage of purchase history.

Anyway currently I use all manual syncs because I never want "everything" and don't see how the choices for automatic syncs necessarily match up with what I would pick. Like for podcasts. So I just do everything manually. It takes some time especially when I decide to wipe one of the pods and start over from scratch, which I do periodically.

I'm a big enthusiast of foldering playlists in iTunes. It reduces clutter but lets me save playlists I've liked in the past and might like to rotate back onto an iPod now and then.

More on sync: I have not liked that "transfer purchases" didn't come with an option to say which ones. There can be good reasons not to transfer all your purchases from an iPod to the main library's itunes data. One of them is if you keep movies on an external drive and don't happen to have the drive mounted when you mount the iPod to sync to your library. The software doesn't see the iPod's flicks present on the iTunes side of things, so if you want to upgrade the iPod software, it starts carrying on about how you haven't transferred all your purchases. Makes me nuts! I end up deleting the darn movies and figure I'll hook up the external drive later and copy them (or a new selection) back to the iPod after I do the upgrade. Takes time, ticks me off, makes me want a notebook with a 2TB drive and do away with the separate drive for my purchased movie data...

On the bright side, going forward, i am excited about being able to reference my purchase history via the cloud. I back up my stuff but am always concerned that I'll forget to transfer the occasional purchase made directly onto an Ipod or iPhone. I would not be a frequent wireless sync user since my DSL is not fast, but it will be nice to be able to get the odd one or two tracks redownloaded to my main machine sometimes.

As far as iTunes itself is concerned: I have found it wonderful to use --especially as software bundled with the price of the OS, for heaven's sake. When I think back to the price of some of the much less broadly useful software I've bought... wow! I make lots of playlists, rework how I select or sort displays of stuff in the browser 20 times a day, love to option-shuffle playlists and then save that play order if I like it, use smart playlists all the time on the main library and on iPods as well, think on the go playlists are fun timesavers. The Genius feature gets better and better, that really is wonderful. I have a bunch of older but still useful iPods and lots of different playlists and can folder separately in itunes the playlists I like to use for each one.

Sure it takes a little while to explore any software and try different features. For me it has been worth slowing down enough to do that with iTunes. I now maintain separate libraries for classical music and operas, versus my other iTunes library with everything else in it. I use the option-open command and choose the library I want to use when I launch the iTunes program. This works pretty well for me although I guess it could confuse or annoy some people. I like it because the way I search for, sort, view and listen to the classical works is very diffferent from how I use my other iTunes data. So having multiple libraries seemed like the only way to go, I'm glad I don't have to keep them in separate user accounts.

 

[tbayrgs]

"Decent software" doesn't wipe your data through a supposedly simple sync, yet it happens regularly. There's half a dozen new posts here each day on the subject.

"Decent software" doesn't require that I buy other software to back my phone up before allowing it near iTunes. (Thank God for PhoneView--worth five times what I paid for it just in peace of mind alone.)

"Decent software" doesn't have a UI that requires you to look up KB articles to figure out how to perform basic functions.

Even my husband--an Apple fanboy who worked in Cupertino for years--couldn't figure out some very basic things with iTunes on his newest iMac last night. (his old MacBook failed). And he asked me to back up his iPhone using PhoneView before he tries to sync with the new machine tonight "just in case". This isn't a technically incompent man, he's made his living in software for his entire adult life. Sorry, but that's a bad app.

I love my iPhone and iPad. I tolerate my Macs as a marginal improvement over Windows most of the time. I LOATHE iTunes as the single worst piece of software I've experienced ever. And I've had to deal with some pretty bad betas while working in the industry. iTunes eclipses them all.

I don't doubt that you've had problems using iTunes but there has to be something else contributing to these problems. I've used iTunes on 4 different Mac of varying capabilities (core 2 duo MacBook and Mini up to recent MBP with an i7 CPU and have had none of the problems you describe over the past few years (including syncing of all 4 iPhone versions and multiple iPods/iPads). Any chance other software you're usings doesn't play nice with iTunes?

And granted, iTunes is far from the best software around but inability to figure out basic functions? What exactly is so complicated about option tabs with checkboxes? My 62 yr old mother is barely able to surf the web and check her email and she can muddle through syncing her iPhone.

iTunes on my iMac works great with multiple Apple TVs (old and new), multiple iPhones and my iPad. I have a giant iTunes library and it serves me very well.

Same here--I sync 2 iPad, 2 iPhone, 3 iPods and a first gen TV, as well as stream to 2 TV 2 using 3 and 4 year old Macs with zero issues.

iTunes on Mac is a completely different animal than iTunes on Windows. That being said people blow its problems completely out of proportion. You'd be hard pressed to find another program that does what iTunes does on the market.

From everything i've read it seems like the windows version is a real pain in the a$$ do I sympathize with my fellow forum members using windows. I've always read these types of threads/post quite surprised considering how well iTunes has worked for me over the years.

 

[s15119]

I have 4 friends now that dumped their iPhone not because of the iPhone, but because of iTunes.

I am also amazed that iPhone does not use the memory in the SIM card to save contacts, nor do you have the option too (need expensive 3ed party apps, maybe needing to jailbreak the phone too).

The last friend to dump iPhone, with extreme prejudice, happened because almost all of his contacts vanished after a sync and iOS update.


Personally iTunes is not as easy to use as I would expect from an Apple product, but it hasn't given me any serious issue.

Is Apple failing with iTunes?

I've had big problems with the Windows version - but no trouble at all with the Mac version.

Yeah, I think that Apple has made a bit of a mess with iTunes.

 

[ajvizzgamer101]

It is ok. If it wasn't called iTunes (really Apple? It does more than Music now) and wasn't so slow and buggy... it would be more awesome.

 

[Prodo123]

I use foobar2k and iTunes, on PC and Mac. iTunes on Mac is an entirely different program from the Windows counterpart. It's actually SPEEDY! Interface is friendly and looks decent. Although it lacks in extra components and file support, it's OK. It's the default music player, after all. All I need is dbpoweramp and iTunes.
On Windows, the thing is a POS indeed. It's a bloated slow program. f2k is MUCH MUCH better. FLAC support, better audio quality, better plugins, and with certain add-ons it becomes fully customizable down to the core. Only things I hate are the lack of a good search engine and tagging.

However, when you have a very, very big library like mine, you absolutely need the search tool.

Also, the power of iTunes shines only when your home is networked with Apple devices. You don't necessarily need an Airport Express or an Apple TV, but streaming to other PCs and Macs running iTunes from a centralized server is where it's good at. By enabling Home Sharing and keeping iTunes on a stationary computer (e.g. a tower or an iMac), you transform that computer into a media server able to stream music and movies to devices without the need to sync. Got 4 seasons of House in 720p and you wanna watch it on your iPad? Home Share stream it.
Not only that, but also in syncing multiple libraries. Through Home Sharing you can keep two libraries in sync fairly easily.

But strictly music-wise, iTunes does suck. In every other thing, iTunes is either good or decent.

 

[Sedrick]

It's honestly not as bad as everyone says.

That's for me to decide. It's the slowest loading, least responsive program I've ever used and I use all the graphic heavy weights including CS5, C4D, 3DVIA and CATIA to name a few.

I do have to admit that CS5 does give iTunes a run for it's money though. Both have become bloated slabs of dung.

 

[PNutts]

No issues from a long time Windows user (both 32 bit and x64). The people I know that have problems with iTunes don't come from a Windows background and try to tweak it. Here's the instructions: 1. Install it; 2. Use it. Just that simple. Don't condem the software because of your system issues or inability to manage it. </cranky>

 

[stevensr123]

it's the worst piece of bloat ware i have ever seen on my xp laptop, on my macbook pro it's a bit slow and slightly buggy but not as bad as windows.


btw is there away to sync with two completely different laptops? i did a sync with my 2008 macbook pro, but it broke last year and havent done a sync since.


why? every time i try to sync with my new macbook pro, it says syncing will delete all my music, video, photo's etc which is simply not ****ing acceptable and the biggest joke going for IOS products.

all i want to do is access the music on the phone and copy it to my new samsung galaxy s2, why is that so hard?

 

[007bond]

Honestly, it does. I just connected my phone to sync a few hours ago. Apparently, it just randomly decided to delete all of my contacts on the phone AND Address Book. I can't wait for iCloud...

 

[Prodo123]

Don't condem the software because of your system issues or inability to manage it.

You might wanna turn spellcheck on

 

[007bond]

it's the worst piece of bloat ware i have ever seen on my xp laptop, on my macbook pro it's a bit slow and slightly buggy but not as bad as windows.


btw is there away to sync with two completely different laptops? i did a sync with my 2008 macbook pro, but it broke last year and havent done a sync since.


why? every time i try to sync with my new macbook pro, it says syncing will delete all my music, video, photo's etc which is simply not ****ing acceptable and the biggest joke going for IOS products.

all i want to do is access the music on the phone and copy it to my new samsung galaxy s2, why is that so hard?

If you are willing to spend a little money, try using PhoneView for Mac. I used it to get my music off of my phone when I switched computers.

 

[Alaerian]

bloat ware

 

[stevensr123]

Ok i just did a jail break, i know this is the wrong thread but can i now access all my pictures and music without itunes?

 

[stupidm4n]

Would be good to see real computer specs people are using on windows and running applications in the task bar who have issues. Mine's running windows 7 on a dell dimension 3100 with 2Gb Ram and 8mb graphics. Only issue I have really is HD movies but that's because computer crap. Loading time is a little longer than google chrome loading up

 

[decafjava]

Never had problems with it-now for those who lost contacts where did you have itunes save them? In my case (Windows 7) it saves them to outlook so you might want to check there.

 

[TheSideshow]

I dont use the iPod adapter in my car anymore because I dont want to install iTunes and sync my iPod.

The fact Im choosing CD's and radio over steering wheel controlled iPods says a lot for iTunes.