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Why do I find iTunes so incredibly complicated?

iTunes mystifies me, too. I'm never quite sure what's going to be on my iDevice after a sync, even when I've set it to manually manage content.

I've been syncing my iPad to my windows PC, and now that I have a MacBook Air, I'd like to sync to that, too, but the warnings that I get make me think that I'll lose everything. It seems that I can't sync to two devices, I think.:confused:
 
It's sort of ironic to have a win doze user complaining because their apple devices are not windows-like enough.

Why get an iPad then? Get the xoom or some other hardware build for the non-apple universe. It is no mistake that apple products tend to be very vertically integrated.

I used to be in the pc world, always having to fiddle with codecs, with dozens of filetypes to deal with, buggy shareware hell... It actually wasn't that convenient.

I haven't considered a WMV file for years.
 
jaimeastin said:
You are actually wrong yourself. It will see all music and play it, but because of copy protection/ drm it will not let u move that same music to your iOS device.

So, smarty pants go try it. And when u do, I won't even look for an apology
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No, you're wrong. My whole iTunes library is on an network share and I can sync everything to my iPad and iPhone with no issues.

Also all the music on iTunes is now DRM free.
 
If you are not sure what's happening with syncs, then it's probably time to RTFM. Create a playlist, create dozens of them if you like, select which ones to copy to your iDevice and go to town. Add songs from the library to The playlist and thats it. If you add or subtract songs from that playlist in the future, the iDevice will update accordingly during sync. I've never not had things sync as expected, I wouldn't even know how to make that happen on purpose.
 
anjinha said:
No, you're wrong. My whole iTunes library is on an network share and I can sync everything to my iPad and iPhone with no issues.

Also all the music on iTunes is now DRM free.
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Hmmm... Ok... Maybe I am wrong.... Maybe something has changed over the last 6 months or I just was not setting it up right... But if you are on a Mac, I want u the check and make sure that your so called copied music is not also on your Mac as well. When you confirm that I will be satisfied.

I am more willing to believe that it works this way with windows 7 as you can add networked shares to your libraries and have them indexed.

My home network is no sloutch. I have a beautiful setup and would love for it to work as you and so&so claim it does. I tried my best to get it to work. If you all have it workingas descriped, hack free please do tell. I hope your idea is not home sharing. Home sharing was a complete joke. Home shared items cannot be copied to iOS devices period. And every time I set my network share as the library it seemed to work fine... But what every music and other content I moved to my iOS device, it also copied the media to my Mac...

So, I am going by my memory and will correct all my wrong if u can confirm that you have not media on your Mac after sync...

As far as drm and iTunes, I would never consider buying music from them in the first place. That is what amazon is for :). I know they finally started selling drM, free music but by then, it was way too late...
 
Agree 100% , iTunes syncing is a mystery to many.

A simple drag and drop folder approach would be so much better.

Incidentally , that's how it is done with android devices and works on any computer, not just one like iTunes.
 
jaimeastin said:
Hmmm... Ok... Maybe I am wrong.... Maybe something has changed over the last 6 months or I just was not setting it up right... But if you are on a Mac, I want u the check and make sure that your so called copied music is not also on your Mac as well. When you confirm that I will be satisfied.

I am more willing to believe that it works this way with windows 7 as you can add networked shares to your libraries and have them indexed.

I tried my best to get it to work. Home sharing was a complete joke. Home shared items cannot be copied to iOS devices period. And every time I set my network share as the library it seemed to work fine... But what every music and other content I moved to my iOS device, it also copied the media to my Mac...

So, I am going by my memory and will correct all my wrong if u can confirm that you have not media on your Mac after sync...

As far as drm and iTunes, I would never consider buying music from them in the firmest place. That is what amazon is for :). I know they finally started selling dr, free music but by then, it was way too late...
Click to expand...

Maybe instead of not waiting for an apology, you could figure out iTunes.
 
Carouser said:
All content on your computer, from a .txt to a .bmp to a .pdf to a .mkv are media, by definition. It is unreasonable to expect iTunes to be a media center if by 'media center' you mean something which can play all media, since it would have to play every possible file. It is unreasonable, even, to expect something like iTunes to play all files which are for audio and video. Every program will have formats it cannot handle.

iTunes is clear about which formats it handles. Use iTunes to manage these formats. Use another appropriate program for other formats. Easy. Done.
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Actually, with the design of Mac OS X, this is fundamentally incorrect. I can trick iTunes into playing ogg files and even wmvs. All you have to do is put the needed plugin modules in the appropriate locations (usually with one of those icky installer package things) and the codec will magically become part of QuickTime's repertoire. iTunes is based on QuickTime, so it will not care about the particulars of a format, just handle it like normal.

Lamentably, at present, iThings are still wrapped up tighter than a crab's simile, so you have no non-jb means of installing plugins for alternate codecs (as far as I know). However, and I have not tried this, if iTunes recognises an outlier format via plugin, you might be able to convince it to convert it into a file that your iThing will accept.
 
iVeBeenDrinkin' said:
Maybe instead of not waiting for an apology, you could figure out iTunes.
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My friend, I have it figured out. But if you have to go through this much trouble, I wish you would help me out and tell your infinite itunes wisdom. I see you only challenged me with this subject so I do want you to correct me where I am wrong. Other than that your post is useless.

I do not mind correcting my post. As I said before, this is my experience and struggle. My home network make many people have wet dreams at night, so help me o pal fix this... That is unless you are jus assuming and speaking with non knowledge ofnthe subject.
 
jaimeastin said:
My friend, I have it figured out. But if you have to go through this much trouble, I wish you would help me out and tell your infinite itunes wisdom. I see you only challenged me with this subject so I do want you to correct me where I am wrong. Other than that your post is useless.

I do not mind correcting my post. As I said before, this is my experience and struggle. My home network make many people have wet dreams at night, so help me o pal fix this... That is unless you are jus assuming and speaking with non knowledge ofnthe subject.
Click to expand...

You want me to help you network your porn collection? Um, no.
 
Sydde said:
Actually, with the design of Mac OS X, this is fundamentally incorrect. I can trick iTunes into playing ogg files and even wmvs. All you have to do is put the needed plugin modules in the appropriate locations (usually with one of those icky installer package things) and the codec will magically become part of QuickTime's repertoire. iTunes is based on QuickTime, so it will not care about the particulars of a format, just handle it like normal.

Lamentably, at present, iThings are still wrapped up tighter than a crab's simile, so you have no non-jb means of installing plugins for alternate codecs (as far as I know). However, and I have not tried this, if iTunes recognises an outlier format via plugin, you might be able to convince it to convert it into a file that your iThing will accept.
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It is not unreasonable to expect this "default" media software not to play files which others donso easily. I do have plug-ins installed to help this little engine out. No reason you should have to jump applications to play media... This is the exact reason I would never by an apple tv. Why when so many others do so much better and offer more.
 
iVeBeenDrinkin' said:
You want me to help you network your porn collection? Um, no.
Click to expand...

Porn or not, stop ur useless posting because I still have no proof to your current bogus claims. In have been all over different boards looking for this answer. Now if you want to try to insult or create a joke, you failed. Stop dodging and say something worthy of being posted.

At would gawk at what My network could and does do. I don't watch porn, porn watches me you sill rabbit.

And, no I don't house porn. Getting women has never in my life been an issue, now for u... You could probably pass on many sad stories of getting phone sex frogwomen who sorry for you.
 
Op, sorry to thread jack... The show is over... I hope you find a solution that works best for you. Check out copy trans and all of Thierry software for help if you still find trouble with iTunes.. Shoot I think copytrans is windows only... If you can, try it.
 
jaimeastin said:
Porn or not, stop ur useless posting because I still have no proof to your current bogus claims. In have been all over different boards looking for this answer. Now if you want to try to insult or create a joke, you failed. Stop dodging and say something worthy of being posted.

At would gawk at what My network could and does do. I don't watch porn, porn watches me you sill rabbit.
Click to expand...

How about you google setting up an iTunes network drive? I'm not going to argue with you about something when I know you're wrong. I have even split my iTunes library into two. I have all my music on my Mac's HDD, and all my movies, tv shows, and podcasts on a networked drive. I am able to seamlessly sync all my media to my iDevices. Whether they are on the actual Mac drive, or the networked drive.

It's a shame that you can't figure out how to do what you want to do, but that doesn't mean it's not possible.
 
iTunes is old, tired, and just needs to die in a fire. It's horribly inefficient & slow with larger music libraries, needs to be updated almost as often as an Adobe product, and insists on processing (for what, who knows) my entire library every time one of these frequent upgrades take place.
 
iVeBeenDrinkin' said:
How about you google setting up an iTunes network drive? I'm not going to argue with you about something when I know you're wrong. I have even split my iTunes library into two. I have all my music on my Mac's HDD, and all my movies, tv shows, and podcasts on a networked drive. I am able to seamlessly sync all my media to my iDevices. Whether they are on the actual Mac drive, or the networked drive.

It's a shame that you can't figure out how to do what you want to do, but that doesn't mean it's not possible.
Click to expand...

U win. Thanks for all you help. Maybe my network structure is not capable. And I said my last staw was that I could not get it to work, not that it did not work. It might be a shame more that I wasted my time typing back and forth on this forum. Boo hoo. Thanks for playing
 
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jaimeastin said:
I was being sarcastic :)
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So has anyone confirmed that after syncing, the synced media was not also copied on to the Mac????

This the thing that I am claiming is broken... My network shares work fine... Hopefully u all can answer that question?
 
jaimeastin said:
U win. Thanks for all you help. Maybe my network structure is not capable. And I said my last staw was that I could not get it to work, not that it did not work. It might be a shame more that I wasted my time typing back and forth on this forum. Boo hoo. Thanks for playing
Click to expand...

Here's a great little tutorial, just for you.
 
iVeBeenDrinkin' said:
Read the tutorial.
Click to expand...

Thanks... I guess I missed a check mark somewhere... I will get it working non the less since everyone else has it working. Mr drinking, thank you. I trus your argument and really glad to be wrong. This is after all what I want.


Thank you all.
 
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