How to remove ping from itunes (Version10)

I have no wish to be social about music (or much else for that matter. I've sent feedback via iTunes but may as well add another poster to the list of users who want Ping to be a choice not a condition.

Until then, byebye itunes store.

Apple dont care what users want. I want an option to diable it playing anything if I accidently click on something, but no, it has to try to take over as master everything. In fact I dont even want iTunes but it's the only way of upgrading & backing up my iPhone OS.

So, this is essentially what sunk products like Siebel CRM and why MS Word has so many detractors. Adding "features" that the user doesn't need or want or asked for. And polluting the entire user experience by removing control of the experience from the hands of the user. This is not uncommon for Apple products.

Ping might be great, but I for one have enough Social networking memberships to choke a horse and I don't want Ping. I also don't want my kids using Ping, but I do allow them access to the iTunes store. I want the same capability that I have for showing and hiding categories in my library in the STORE section.

A simple user focus group would have avoided this whole thing. Mine is a love/hate relationship with Apple, and the scales are tipping back toward hate.

Meh

I agree we shouldn't expect user customization from Apple. This is the reason I don't even look at Apple computers. I've had the iPod Touch since January 2010 and am frustrated about the lack of customization. This has given me a peek into the restricted Apple world and I want no further part of it.

There are some very basic things that I wish I could do. For example the Touch will go into standby after a set period of time. I have to click the button then slide the lock on the screen to get back in even if all I want to do is pause what is playing. I wish I could have it sleep without the lock so all I would have to do is touch the screen to bring it back to life. There are times when it is just sitting on a counter or on the seat of my car so there is no danger of the screen coming back on and burning up the battery. I think this should be a choice I can make but NO...

jdonalds wrote:
the Touch will go into standby after a set period of time. I have to click the button then slide the lock on the screen to get back in even if all I want to do is pause what is playing.

You know, that's dumb. Just press twice the home button while a song is playing. Even with the screen locked (turned off), on-screen buttons will appear to control the music.

My last post on this thread was deleted by Apple.
So I am reposting parts of it, only this time have left out most of my personal opinions related to the value of Ping and the integrity of Ping's marketing.

The reason you cannot remove Ping from the side bar without also removing the Music Store from the side bar, as I'm sure others have stated more eloquently, is that Ping is not simply a discrete social network for music (operating at the iTunes application level).

Rather, Ping's inextricable integration into the +Music Store+ indicates that Ping is instead a socially-based method of finding songs to buy, and as such it operates at the iTunes Music Store level.

I concede that the marketing gives a nod to this fact when they conclude their pitch with the term "...and downloading" in:

"Follow your favorite artists and friends to discover the music they're talking about, listening to, and downloading."

But I agree with you. All said - once enough iTunes app users have upgraded to 10 and been relatedly forced to notice Ping in the side bar - and enough users experiment with it such that an adoption trend is confirmed, Apple will probably then offer the checkbox you (but certainly not me, because I am offering no opinion of Ping) want.

I thought I was going to be clever and raise an old iTunes version from the dead via my Time Machine, but when I tried with 9.2.1, I got the message: "The file "iTunes Library" cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes." I guess when I upgraded to v 10 it made it so that it can't be used by another older version.

I went ahead and disabled the store, which is a good thing anyway because it seems that when I buy a season of a tv show, it's more expensive than the DVDs at Amazon and have a lot fewer options. (I also do not like the new colorless look of v. 10).

Thanks for the suggestion on blocking the store!!

Dave in Maine

I plan on doing that when I get home Dave, you will have to actually restore the entire library from time machine however, not just the application. At least I think that should work. I use the store quite a bit so I'd rather not just turn that off.

If that fails I will just delete it from my laptop and pull everything off of my desktop which I have yet to upgrade. Not only is the Ping bar incredibly annoying, I don't like the lack of color either. I've only had it for 10 minutes though so that might be fixable, idk yet.

you will have to actually restore the entire library from time machine however, not just the application.

No.
You only need to restore the application and the /Music/iTunes/ iTunes library file.

Dear Mr Jobs,

I'm sure you think it'll be awesome, and have faith in the whatever it is that your programmers have created, but I just don't want Ping. I don't want or need another social network, least of all a specialised one designed to sell me stuff. I'm not going to use it. I'd like to apologise to the programmers who have, no doubt, done a fine piece of work, but I'm not going to use it.

I like iTunes, a lot, but please let me remove Ping from my sidebar like I have the other features I don't need or use.

Lots of love,

Most of us xxx

I downgraded to 9.2.1 by uninstalling 10, then restoring my last backup of 9.2.1 via TM. Then I also got the 'cannot access iTunes library because it was created by a newer version....' but I got around this by simply restoring my last backup of my iTunes library via TM. Easy.

I will not be upgrading to 10 until they give an easy option to disable Pong, restore some colour and allow freely customizable album art resizing, viz 9, at the absolute least. 10 stinks. PONG!

Dear Mr Jobs,

This is user to user support forum.
Send suggestions here -> http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

I could live with those stupid, useless Ping buttons on the left and in the store (I DO want to get rid of them, too) but the thing that breaks the camel's back is that I have a stupid Ping button IN EVERY ROW OF MY LIBRARY. I don't ever want to tell others what I listen to, nor do I want to hear about this dumbest idea from Apple, ever.

I'll keep asking for a solution until one is provided. I've sent feedback and I will keep doing it until I get a response I like - which is a checkbox in the preferences allowing me to completely disable Ping. Keep it in the store for all I care, but my library is my library, and no ping is coming to screw it up for me.

I purchased a 1-month Spotify membership - I'll be using it for the duration because I can't be arsed to use iTunes as long as the Ping buttons mess it all up. If it's fixed, I may come back. If not, I'll just find something that actually works. :P

I HATE the Ping button that shows up to the left of every Artist! What is the matter with Apple?!? I have no desire my music likes with anyone else.

I have filed a message with Apple iTunes feedback. I hope that they listen to this one.

This will remove the ping button. Just copy and paste in terminal.

defaults write com.apple.itunes hide-ping-dropdown -bool YES