Music Store link arrows in iTunes 5

Question

Level 1

16 points

Music Store link arrows in iTunes 5

I found a small bug in iTunes 5 regarding the Music Store arrow links.

If the new Search Bar is active in the Library, control-clicking an arrow in a playlist (including the Library, itself) will NOT display the associated song, artist or album! Instead, you are taken to the Library with absolutely no filtering! Turn off the Search Bar though, and everything works fine (like it did in iTunes 4)!

Posted on Sep 12, 2005 10:25 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Sep 12, 2005 10:56 PM in response to Jeff Nelson2

I think you mean Option+clicking the arrow don't you? A control+click gives me the contextual menu.

Command+clicking takes me to the Music Store Page for a particular Song, Artist, or Album. And Option+Clicking takes me to the particular Song, Artist, or Album in the Library.

Reply

Answer 2

Jeff Nelson2 Author

Level 1

16 points

Sep 13, 2005 7:22 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

Yes, I meant Option-clicking!

At any rate it doesn't work if the new Search Bar is turned on in the Library. This is true on both Mac (running OS X 10.3.9, and PC running iTunes 5 with Windows XP Pro), although I believe on the PC, it's ALT-click.

Reply

Answer 3

Sep 13, 2005 7:59 PM in response to Jeff Nelson2

Yes, I meant Option-clicking!

Right, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

But seriously, I do see what you mean, but I do not think this is a bug. How do you know this isn't how Option-clicking that arrow is supposed to work when the Search bar is visible? I suggest a search of the iTunes Knowledgebase is in order to try to find the answer.

Reply

Answer 4

Sep 13, 2005 9:44 PM in response to Jeff Nelson2

It works correctly for me. Running iTunes 5 and on 10.3.9.

Grant

Reply

Answer 5

Jeff Nelson2 Author

Level 1

16 points

Sep 13, 2005 9:49 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

Why would you want it to work that way? The whole point of option-clicking the arrow beside an artist's name (for example) is to display all of the songs by that artist. If I wanted to see all of the songs in the library, I'd just go to the library.

Reply

Answer 6

Sep 13, 2005 10:45 PM in response to Jeff Nelson2

I didn't say I wanted the feature to work the way it appears to work. I'm just asking the question: how do we know that is not how it is supposed to work? I do not presently know the answer to that question, and I have not been able to find any more information in the Apple KB, either.

Reply

Answer 7

Sep 13, 2005 10:52 PM in response to Jeff Nelson2

I was just messing around with this some more and it looks like Option+clicking does work correctly even with the Search Bar showing. But, if you have the Search Bar showing when viewing the main Library you get dumped into the unfiltered Library, though. I think I'm just not quite understanding how this Search Bar is supposed to work right now. But if I work with it some more I'll get it.

Reply

Answer 8

Sep 13, 2005 11:05 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

I'm not seeing any problem with or without the search bar showing. Now matter what, option-clicking takes me to a filtered window with just the artist/album that I clicked.

Grant

Reply

Answer 9

Sep 13, 2005 11:13 PM in response to Grant Greene

Grant, if you don't mind, give this a try.

Highlight your Library, then in the main window Option+click an artist. This should filter the contents of the window so that you only see that artist. So far so good.

Now make sure you are viewing your entire Library again with no filtering, then turn on the Search Bar and Option+click an artist. The Library does not get filtered for me.

Reply

Answer 10

Sep 14, 2005 8:28 AM in response to Michael Allbritton

Michael,

It works correctly for me with and without the search bar activated. So I really don't know why you guys are seeing this problem. I've tried it several ways and I get the same results everytime.

Grant

Reply

Answer 11

Sep 14, 2005 8:41 AM in response to Grant Greene

Works correctly for me too, but - I have "flipped the arrows" - plain clicking takes me to my Library and a browse window, option+clicking takes me to that artist/album in the iTMS.

Lita

Reply

Answer 12

Sep 14, 2005 8:48 AM in response to Lita Kaufman

Interesting. Although it does not bother me all that much since I really don't ever use that feature, it is a bit odd that we are seeing different results. Thanks for looking at it, both of you.

Reply

Answer 13

Jeff Nelson2 Author

Level 1

16 points

Sep 14, 2005 3:55 PM in response to Jeff Nelson2

To clarify: This problem only occurs if the Search Bar is turned on in the Library. It doesn't matter if it is turned on in another playlist.

If you've "flipped" your link arrows to work in reverse (which I have on my Mac, not my PC - I don't know if/how you can do it on a PC), the problem still exists, only you don't have to option-click (just click) the arrows.

For this example, I'll assume that the link arrows are in their default mode (not flipped):

Suppose you're in the Library folder and the search bar is turned on. You now click on a playlist called Favorites. In this playlist, you option-click on one of the link arrows, you are taken back to the main library, with Browse mode turned on (as well as the search bar which was already on). All 3 catagories of the Browse section (Genre, Artist, and Album) are showing "all" and the entire contents of the Library are listed below. It doesn't matter whether or not the search bar was displayed in the Favorites playlist window; the fact that it was turned on in the main library folder causes the problem.

Now, turn off the search bar in the Library folder (you can turn Browse mode off, or leave it on - it doesn't really matter). Click on the playlist again (Favorites, in my example). Then, click on the link arrow beside an artist (for example). Now, you are taken back to the Library folder in Browse mode, showing all songs by that artist in your library.

Reply

Answer 14

Sep 14, 2005 9:08 PM in response to Jeff Nelson2

O.K. Sorry to say, I do exhibit this weird behavior. What I was doing before was activating the search bar by typing something in the search field and letting the Search Bar activate that way. Funny thing is, it works that way. Not so funny thing is, is that if you activate the search bar by Shift-Command-B, it doesn't work. I'd definitely call that inconsistent behavior(or a bug).

Grant

Reply

Answer 15

Sep 15, 2005 12:01 PM in response to Jeff Nelson2

I've got the same behavior/bug here. I was stressing out over this all morning and then remembered to come here and it seems I'm not alone. I don't really understand how you even use the right side of the search bar anyway; All, Artist, Album, Name. Any insight as to how these are even used?

Reply