Why is iTunes so complicated?

This No wizard

This is for the person that sent me useful info recently.

Unfortunately I was in a hurry and only scanned your explanation, thinking I could go back to refer and make notes and then complete the survey. When returned the info was gone but the survey remained. I answered the survey, but could not give a positive response the last question, because I didn't get a chance to try out what directions I was given.

If you could re-respond (new English word :-)) I would like to try what you suggested.

Thanks eh.

I really think the original poster has a very valid point. No everyone these days is a tech head or an expert, but most now are simple " Mom and Pop " people ( like me !) who likes technology ( have to keep up to date for the kids) but who find the method and wording of this technology ( like iTunes) totally baffling. Understandable, yes, but we don't all have hours to sit and organise our playlists, "sync" all our playlists, etc etc. why can't there be a real simple ITunes created ( just like they do with cars!) where there is Music, with simple instructions on how to transfer 1 song, 2 songs etc onto another device, without having to mass click, then unclick, then make new playlist, then transfer to ipad, where you find you don't like playlist but you can't easily delete it etc.

iTunes might be a Ferrari or a Porsche but some of us just want to drive a Toyota ( no offence Toyota). Nearly same speed just easier to drive.

Vorsich

I think you're right on. I also wonder if the developers of some of these programmes get all fancy like just because they can. Are they doing it for simpletons like me, to show how clever they are to the techies or to keep or increase the amount of control ($) Apple has over their stuff?

As for cars, gotta love those Toyotas -- have two.

No Wizard

Vorsich Glas:

Whether the original poster (OP) has a point or not isn't really relevant, especially if what you want to do is find out how to do what you want.

If the OP had wanted to get the best out of iTunes, then he/she would have taken on board the various points and suggestions etc. etc. that were made by diesel vdub, varjak paw and myself. Instead, the moaning kept on and on, and was joined by others who also wanted to moan, rather than discover how to get what they wanted, from iTunes.

Note - to get what they wanted from iTunes. This applies to you also.

• You do not have to be techie, or an expert to use iTunes or an iPod.
• The more points a user has to their name, the more other users have been helped by their advice. That should indicate to you how useful and accurate any poster's advice is.
• You do not have to organise Playlists - ever... if you don't want to.
• To add just one song to an iPod (and the music that is already on there) is easy. There is no need to "mass click" (whatever that means), unclick, or make any Playlists, unless that's what you want (i.e. a Playlist).

So - if you actually want help, then answer the following points:

1. Do you already have music in your iTunes Library, that you are using?
2. Have you put your Library, either in whole or in part, onto an iPod?
3. Did you use the Sync feature to put the music onto the iPod? (It really is the easiest way to manage an iPod.)
4. Have you added more music to your iTunes Library that you now want to put on the iPod?
5. Is it at this point (point 4) that you are having trouble, or is it something else?

You can also answer this: how do you prefer to listen to your music? Is it:

• one album at a time then choose another?
• shuffle albums. So a random choice of album then another album randomly chosen?
• songs, chosen at random by the iPod (just like a radio station, no idea what's coming next)?
• various songs, from various albums, played in the order you want them?
• something else?

Here's a "heads up" to begin with; to add new or additional songs to an iPod, one simply adds the music to the Library and then connects the iPod to the computer and allow a Sync to take place. Once that's done, safely disconnect the iPod from iTunes and then unplug it from the computer.

Job done!

• If there is anything I've said that you do not understand (including technical terms), then ask for clarification.
• If you do not respond, it will be assumed that you don't want help at all. That's fine - your choice!

Reply to the fiend

Thank you for your remarks.

I guess I don't like the new iTunes because I am not savy enough to work my way through this intuitively. I liked the old version because I understood it and could make it work for me. I had some false starts initially (old version) with the sync feature and ended up kicking out songs I wanted and putting in songs I didn't want (into the iPod). I was ready to throw myself in front of a cougar! I have much more music on my lap top than I could ever get into the iPod. You say the sync feature is the easiest way to manage an iPod. In my experience as I outlined above it isn't so I am loath to use that feature. I have a dread of linking up to the lap top to add or subtract and end up with a frustrating mess that I have to try to redo. I don't spend a lot of time tweaking my playlists now because generally I like what's there and I don't want to spend time deciding what songs should go and what should replace them. I, at some point, would like to get a 64 iPod to put more songs on. Music is what I use the iPod for, nothing else.

The other thing that nags at me is the difficulty in putting in album art that Gracenotes doesn't have. I have downloaded music from my own collection and with the old version it was relatively easy to find and to attach the art to the album. No longer. Can you explain why it was necessary to make that change?

I also preferred the old version's way of organizing I don't even know what you call it -- the way the playlists or whatever it was, was set up. Easier to manipulate for me.

Also I would like to be able to buy music from iTunes that can be downloaded with Lossless. I fancy myself an amateur audiophile and would like to have the best sound I can get.

I hope you can see where I'm coming from. I just don't see how the new and improved version is better than the old one. All technology I suppose can always use a bit of tweaking but to my uninformed brain the new iTunes went beyond a bit.

I would like, if I could, to replace the new version with the old. I just don't see any benefit for me with improved version.

This is not being written in anger so don't misunderstand and start shooting from the hip.

I'm giving you the response you rtequested so that you understand my view.

Thanks eh.

No Wizard

No wizard wrote:

I would like, if I could, to replace the new version with the old. I just don't see any benefit for me with improved version.

This is not being written in anger so don't misunderstand and start shooting from the hip.

I'm giving you the response you rtequested so that you understand my view.

That's a very informative post. We may well get somewhere.

Consider the following, read it through, go away and make a cup of tea and then come back and read through it again.

Without knowing which aspects of the previous iTunes that you like, I'm going to guess. So correct me if I'm wrong. The various things people usually want are as follows:

• The top menu bar - use CTRL+B to display it. (This has Add Folder to Library on it)
• The sidebar - use CTRL+S to turn it on
• The status bar, at the bottom of the iTunes window, with information on size of Library, Playlists etc. - use CTRL+/ to turn that on. This may be very useful to you in a minute.

No wizard wrote:

The other thing that nags at me is the difficulty in putting in album art that Gracenotes doesn't have. I have downloaded music from my own collection and with the old version it was relatively easy to find and to attach the art to the album. No longer. Can you explain why it was necessary to make that change?

I can't explain it (and Apple "prefer" us not to second guess them by the way) and personally, I see no difference to the way I did it before. However, since you do; the way I add artwork to an album that doesn't have it is to copy an image (roughly 300x300 up to 500x500) from Amazon or Google and paste it in to the album's artwork box. In the Songs view, you need to select all the songs on the album; in the Albums view, select the album and use File/Get Info (from that top bar menu we turned on) and as the screenshot below suggests:

Two things to note:

1. If there is only one song on the album, the artwork box is on a separate tab, named Artwork, and not on the Info tab as seen here.
2. Since you do not use Sync to manage your iPod, you will need to remove the album from the iPod, and then add it back again now that it has its artwork. If you do use Sync, the next Sync of the iPod with its Library will add the artwork to the iPod without you doing anything else except letting the Sync take place. It's magic!

No wizard wrote:

I have much more music on my lap top than I could ever get into the iPod. You say the sync feature is the easiest way to manage an iPod. In my experience as I outlined above it isn't so I am loath to use that feature. I have a dread of linking up to the lap top to add or subtract and end up with a frustrating mess that I have to try to redo. I don't spend a lot of time tweaking my playlists now because generally I like what's there and I don't want to spend time deciding what songs should go and what should replace them. I, at some point, would like to get a 64 iPod to put more songs on.

Ah!

There is an easy way to manage an iPod that cannot hold all your music. That is - a Smart Playlist. Yes, another playlist. But this one manages itself according to the rules you set it up with - it does the work for you...

You already have to remove and then add music yourself, because your iPod doesn't have the capacity to hold your complete Library, and - you use Playlists. The idea is to create a Playlist which limits its size so that you can put all of that Playlist onto your iPod. The Playlist then updates itself every time you Sync with your Library, removing songs played recently and adding back songs that have not been played for the time you set (in my case, 10 months). Compare the three screenshots below. In the first one (of 112GB), it's set to include every song in the Library. In my Library, I don't want unticked songs on my iPod, but I want them to stay in the Library:

Just ticking the box has removed 3GB of songs from the Playlist, but watch what happens if I put in a new rule:

The Playlist is now only 76GB, instead of 112GB. Didn't I say that status bar at the bottom of the window would be useful? In each case, note the number of "items" (songs) that will be in the list.

Obviously, because of the large Library I have, the exclusion time is 10 months in order to reduce the size of the Playlist to the size I need. Just by changing the exclusion time, I can then see at the bottom of the window when I have reached the size that will fit on my iPod.

Again, two things to note:

1. This is an example only list. This list will also exclude recently played songs, which consequently will be removed at the next Sync. But it is possible to create a Playlist which includes recently played songs, so that you can play them again. When you get bored of playing them and they are no longer recenly played, a Sync will remove them, for 10 months!
2. For this Playlist to be updated, according to what you have played on the iPod, it requires you to use Sync to manage the iPod. But then, that's the whole point - to do it all automatically, according to your rules.

You can create this Playlist in your iTunes Library right now and alter the rules to see how they work. It doesn't affect what else you are doing now. If that setup doesn't suit you, see what other options are available in Smart Playlists that might suit you. Or ask here.

Some may say that a Smart Playlist does not allow the to decide what goes on the iPod. This is simply a matter of how one looks at the situation. If your iPod isn't large enough to hold all your music, then you already do not have full control of what is on it. But currently you have to make a decision every time about what to put on and take off and then spend time looking for those songs that you now want to add of remove. What a faff! In fact, your description of this process was;

No wizard wrote:

I have a dread of linking up to the lap top to add or subtract and end up with a frustrating mess that I have to try to redo. I don't spend a lot of time tweaking my playlists now because generally I like what's there and I don't want to spend time deciding what songs should go and what should replace them.

Undelining is my emphasis.

Then let a Smart Playlist do it for you. It may not be perfect, but why spend your time doing what a Smart Playlist can do for you?

How are you getting on (with the Smart Playlist? 😉 )

... and any other point.

Oh! one last thing.

If this Smart Playlist is the only playlist you add to your iPod, you can still look for and play - an album, or a song as you do now, on the artist menu, album menu etc. You will find that an album may be missing a song or two, because you have played them on them own and they are now excluded. But so what? If you do have songs that you want to be on your iPod all the time, regardless of when they were last played, they can be added to a Regular Playlist which is always included on the iPod.

Syncing can be:

• All music
• All ticked music
• Selected Playlists, Artists Albums, for example, "A Smart Playlist for No wizard", another Smart Playlist that does something else, some Regular Playlists, a particular artist and so on.

On the original theme of complication, I have had recently to reimage by laptop and have been looking to transfer my purchases back onto it. So begins a trail of frustration - some of my purchases do not show as such, when I look for support I get 404 and other non informative messages, there is no way to talk to humans. Basically it reminds me of NTL in the worst of times. Now, I am not Apple hater - I have ipod, itouch, itunes and acknowledge the way they have stormed the market through innovation and simplicity. However every release I have had of iTunes is worse than the last. It seems that they have run out of ideas and are simply doing stuff to do stuff. More complication, less utility. And tonights desperate attempt to get a simple activity to complete...well, enought to turn 'phile to 'phobe.

See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.

tt2

Thanks for your info. You have a much better understanding of how iTunes works than I do (is all that info in a manual or an info cache somewhere?) and when I decide to take the time to modify my playlists I will use your advice to plod through it.

You said that the way to import art work hasn't changed for you. You must be using a different method than I, because I can't make it work the same way. It sounds like we're on the same page as far as importing artwork goes but when I tried it with the latest iTunes I couldn't make it happen. Maybe I wasn't holding my mouth right!

I do know that to make art work, that was previously absent, appear on the iPod meant having to delete the album from the iPod and then re-import it with the newly present artwork. That makes sense!

As to my remarks re syncing. I don't listen to my iPod daily, sometimes not even monthly! We use it when we travel for long stays so it's not that important to me that the songs are refreshed. Having said that I do need to do some editing to remove and replace. Perhaps I'll even try the Smart Playlist thing.

Thanks eh.

No wizard wrote:

Thanks for your info. ...(is all that info in a manual or an info cache somewhere?)

Not really, no. There are online articles, for example this page http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/library/ has several about iTunes. But that's the value of this forum. To guage how useful the poster's information may be, look for the number of points that a user has, the more points, the more people (who originated the thread) have acknowledged their help. (I'm not seeking points by the way, you cannot give me or anyone else points in this thread, because you didn't start it)

No wizard wrote:

You said that the way to import art work hasn't changed for you. You must be using a different method than I, because I can't make it work the same way. It sounds like we're on the same page as far as importing artwork goes but when I tried it with the latest iTunes I couldn't make it happen.

One thing I didn't mention before... if you select multiple items and look at the Info tab, the artwork box will be blank every time (iTunes glitch!). Check individual songs. If you still cannot sort it out, follow my previous instruction and then post back with detail about which step fails.

No wizard wrote:

As to my remarks re syncing. I don't listen to my iPod daily, sometimes not even monthly! We use it when we travel for long stays so it's not that important to me that the songs are refreshed. Having said that I do need to do some editing to remove and replace. Perhaps I'll even try the Smart Playlist thing.

Okay, but you still have the issue of more songs than you have room for on your iPod. I still say Smart Playlists that remove and add back songs on your behalf is the way to go. I'm sure that tt2 (who has contributed to this thread) was the one who brought Playlists (and Smart ones) to my attention as a good way to manage the iPod. Now that I've found them and worked out how to use them to my advantage, I use them all the time. For your situation, all you need to do is make the exclusion-from-a-playlist times longer. Another thing you could do is create Playlists for specific trips etc. and then Sync by Playlists. Then simply remove one Playlist and add another - ones that you have used before even.

No wizard wrote:

Thanks eh.

🙂

(additional text added)

Message was edited by: the fiend

Dear Fiend

Thanks for your help, but, the artwork thing still doesn't happen for me even when I follow the aid you posted.

This is what I did

1 Found the album in Amazon

2 Right clicked and copied image

3 Returned to my iTunes library

4 Went to "file", get info and

5 Highlighted the artwork box

6 Right clicked to paste

7 NOTHING happened

8 Picked up my laptop in order to skip it across the lawn (it's wet here today)

9 Controlled my emotions

10Came back to the "Forum"

Why doesn't it work?

NW

1. The very first thing to do is paste this artwork into another programme, for example, a document. This will confirm that your clipboard does have the artwork in it.
2. If it does paste it in, try pasting that into the artwork box of the album in your iTunes Library.
3. If that doesn't appear to work, try pasting the artwork into one song on the album.
4. If that doesn't work, check the song's file properties in Windows Explorer (or the Mac equivalent). You're looking for two separate things:
   1. to make sure that the file is not Read-only. If it is, that's the problem and you need to turn off Read-only.
   2. The media type - i.e. MP3, AAC or something else. What is it?

This really isn't an insurmountable problem.

... I think that TheyCallMeShine has killed himself by now.

But in all fairness, getting rid of the drap and drop option was probably the stupidest thing ever decided by mankind.

Cause Lord knows Apple doesn't have enough money to provide real support... LOL!

Those of you beating up on the poster for not reading the directions are missing the point. In this day and age, good software/programs for MASS RETAIL markets should not require instructions. The reason the IPhone became so popular is because it was simple to use without reading instructions. In other words, it was intuitive. I have LEARNED how to use ITUNES but it is quirky, things are not obvious, and it gets an "F" rating for simplicity compared to the IPhone. We are the customers and Apple and the other software producers should be making their program adapt to us, not the other way around. That really is what made the introduction of Windows so popular compared to DOS. In this day and age, ITunes should be so easy to operate that no further instruction is required. By the standards Apple has set for itself with the IPhone, ITunes is a failure and should be gutted and redesigned from the consumer's mind set, not in a bubble tested by above average computer users, engineers, and programmers. Apple can do way better and should.