why does itunes update so often? it seems thats' all it does. it certainly has not resolved any issues i have submitted.

I suspect it is because of the level of complexity of the program now with trying to support so many features. It used to just be a music player. Now it is a music player, a movie player, an interface for a store, an interface between computers and multiple formats of igadgets. Unfortunately they included it all in one package so if one thing needs tweaking you need to replace the whole thing. With more things in there, the more likely it is something will need tweaking.

As for resolving your particular issue, it's hard to say. If it's something only you are seeing then, frankly, it's not worth their time. Or it may be something they cannot reproduce. Each computer configuration is unique. If it's a feature request, then again they probably have to decide if there is enough interest to put it in.

By the way, you posted in the "Older Hardware" forum which usually means truly ancient Mac equipment, not iTunes for Windows which is where this should have been posted.

Yes - I get update fatigue. What is the best alternative to iTunes?

These are a few free alternatives to iTunes (March, 2014). There may be others, including commercial DJ software. You should review them but I doubt any offer syncing support to Apple i-devices.

aTunes* - http://www.atunes.org/?page_id=6 Check about additional components required for full features.

Songbird (no longer updated, see Nightingale) - http://sourceforge.net/projects/songbird.mirror/

Nightingale - http://getnightingale.com

Jajuk* - http://jajuk.info/index.php/Mac_OS_installation_guide

*Run under Java 6 which may be slower.

Are they better? I haven't tried them but I don't hear about people flocking to them. Of course if you want/need to sync to an iDevice you have to use iTunes, no alternative. For me the best so far is iTunes 7.5 which I still use. 🙂

Thanks for the response. Sorry about my ignorance on this. I am using version 11.2 - If I reinstall 7.5 somehow, does this mean I would no longer get frequent updates? The issue with updates is that they require a restart, and I typically keep my Mac running with multiple things happening and it is such a drag to restart. The syncing isn't important - I have an iPad now, but will probably get an Android tablet next time. The Apple ecosystem is getting too complex.