What are your thoughts on the New iTunes 11?

Ok, so this happened a few days ago with 11.1.3 and my iToy Phone 4s on OS7.

The memory use bar on the summary page showed plenty of space to do a sync (about 1 gig). It began the sync then stopped because iTunes said there was not enough room on the phone to complete the sync. So, I unchecked some items to free up another 1GB or so, then tried again. It never was able to finish the sync, it just stayed on step 5 of 5 without end. I let it go for an hour then gave up. I tried to simply uninstall a single song and still the sync would never finish. I ended up restoring to factory settings and then started fresh installing apps, music, etc.. (Did not do a restore from backup)

Phone and sync working normally again.

Ugly bug.

First of all, I'm not a Mac newbie - been a fangirl for over 20 years. The last couple of so-called "upgrades" - including Mavericks, iOS7, and especially iTunes have me reconsidering.

The last iTunes upgrade has been a disaster. I have NEVER had to restore any of devices before this "upgrade" happened. I've had to do it several times with my iPhone 4S and my 5 ever since. Trying to figure out a way to use my phone without having to deal with cellular data is totally un-Maclike and very nonintuitive. Do they have Windows moles on their development teams?

Very unhappy with the current state of Apple's upgrade paths. iTunes is just one symptom.

Apparently, apple pushed a new version (11.1.4) today (http://www.macrumors.com/2014/01/22/itunes-11-1-4/)...

... Improved support for Hebrew and Arabic, along with being able to see your "wishlist" while viewing your library and "additional stability improvements"..

first two don't apply to me as I don't understand either of those languages, the wishlist is something I don't use and may never encounter, which leaves stability improvements....

Anybody out there brave enough yet to put that last claim to the test? Does it by any chance improve ios 7 syncing? If not or if it still crashes as often as 11.13, I might skip this release.

Just downloaded, one of the features that was missing seems to be restored - the ability to use iTunes as a batch audio file convertor. If you hold down the "option" key while looking at the drop down menu to the right of"Create New Version", it will switch from "Create New Version" to "Convert to..."

This lets you import songs into iTunes using the format you specify under "Import Settings". It's a hidden feature that disappeared when iTunes 11 came out, after existing in every version as far back as iTunes 3.

Gee, any chance they restored Coverflow? That's what I'm waiting for. Can someone check around in the settings to see if it's an option again. I'm sticking with 10.7 for now.

Massive pity party.

verbcrunch wrote:

... If you hold down the "option" key while looking at the drop down menu to the right of"Create New Version", it will switch from "Create New Version" to "Convert to..."

...

I'm not sure I understand the difference between "Create New" and "Convert." I see that if I select a file in iTunes I can use the Option key to select "Convert," but what will iTunes do? Does it do a transcode and not save the original? That seems dangerous. What I want to do in all cases is leave the original file untouched and create a new version. I didn't realize that "Convert" in iTunes 10 did anything different from "Create New" in iTunes 11. My assumption was that Apple renamed the command to make it clear what was going to happen.

As to Cover Flow, sadly there are no visual improvements in iTunes 11.1.4.

For file convert, try XLD. Freeware. Will convert your file to most any format. Leaves the original. Fast.

Overall HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, user experience with the new iTunes. Apple will not listen to their users on how bad it is. I just posted on the community board and Apple deleted my post because they will not even let someone post the truth about iTunes 11. I am a long time Apple supporter and have been using Macs since 1990. I have been in the graphic design and interactive design field for almost 20 years and under stand user experience design very well. After almost 1 year of trying to use the total disaster that is iTunes 11 I spent 3 days rebuilding my system just so I could go back to ITunes 10. I have a top 25 list of the major problems with iTunes 11 but Apple will not let me post it.

So unbeleivablly bad!!!!! I guess I will not even be able to upgrade my OS because of the fear of being stuck with iTunes 11.

macsrule89 wrote:

So unbeleivablly bad!!!!! I guess I will not even be able to upgrade my OS because of the fear of being stuck with iTunes 11.

Welcome to the growing number of people in upgrade limbo...waiting for a better iTunes while staying put with what worked better before. Apple, wake up. You're losing fans. Fix iTunes.

Please give Apple feedback:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

Hi Glassix

I have posted my top 25 list on the Apple feedback site approximately 30 times. It's so sad that Apple does not care about their user anymore.

I'm another person sticking with Mountain Lion beacaus of iTunes 11. I'll wait as long as possible before going to Mavericks (with its mandatory iTunes 11).

I just want my covert art in the corner back!

I have faith that Apple will release a better iTunes in the future, but they're being REALLY SLOW about it. I'm glad you're keeping them posted with your dislikes. I send feedback about once a week too. Gotta keep hoping (while also keeping an eye on viable alternatives).

macsrule89 wrote:

Hi Glassix

I have posted my top 25 list on the Apple feedback site approximately 30 times. It's so sad that Apple does not care about their user anymore.

I was yesterday in an Apple Store Munich. And boy lot's of user are unhappy with the new strategy of Apple. The guy at the Genuis Bar are going to hear nearly on every Apple product more complains he ever heard before.

Apple wake up !

Mark Block wrote:

I'm not sure I understand the difference between "Create New" and "Convert." I see that if I select a file in iTunes I can use the Option key to select "Convert," but what will iTunes do? Does it do a transcode and not save the original? That seems dangerous.

If you "Create New" iTunes will leave the original file in while creating a new version in another format. This essentially leaves you with a duplicate songs, and you have to pay attention to which is mp3 vs mp4 vs lossless, etc.

If you "Convert" (by hitting the option key), then select an audio file (or folders full of audio files) anywhere on your computer or network, iTunes will import those into your library after converting to the format you've set. This way you don't get a duplicate copy. If you're dealing with a lot of audio files it's a real timesaver.

I do college radio shows and have to familiarize myself with hundreds of songs that are in Apple's Lossless format, which use up a lot of disc space, so I end up converting them to mp3 anyway. The ability to import them once instead of twice is nice, I'm glad Apple chose to restore this hidden and unobtrusive feature that didn't negatively impact anyone else's user experience.

The three other features I'd like to see brought back are the option to see album art preview in the lower right hand corner, the abillity to open a playlist in a seperate window, and iTunes DJ.

I have iTunes 11 on my MacBook, and find iTunes DJ is superior to "Up Next" in that the playlist is less volatile - if you close and reopen iTunes - your "Up Next" selections will be gone, while iTunes DJ selections will remain. I like "Up Next", especially the ability to cherry pick from Genius suggestions, but using "up next" many times I accidently blew out away a bunch of songs I had queued up. This doesn't happen with iTunes DJ, so I'm still sticking with iTunes 10.7