What are your thoughts on the New iTunes 11?

getting to the original post...and since i know nothing of the inner workings of apple or steve jobs i'll just stick to what i know....i'm a dj and i when i first started using itunes to organize my music files it was a god send. now it's just a jumbled load of crap that makes it hard for me to filter by artist, album, song name. i'm pretty sure no one from apple reads this type of negative feedback. people often don't want to hear what's wrong..they would rather have us pat them on the back for all of the hours they spent materializing....nothing.

David Hicks3 wrote:

i'm pretty sure no one from apple reads this type of negative feedback.

I think they won't admit to reading this sort of feedback but if they're not monitoring a thread with a title like this one, they're even more stupid than I thought.

Oh well.

Hey, so I'm thinking of going back to 10.7 but I've been running 11 now for a few weeks, and have bought music since. Will going back require me restoring the old library?

RogerOut wrote:

Hey, so I'm thinking of going back to 10.7 but I've been running 11 now for a few weeks, and have bought music since. Will going back require me restoring the old library?

You can revert at any time, just follow the directions. The trick will be getting the new music to show up in the iTunes library. If you know what music you have added since the upgrade, its pretty easy to do.

In another one of Apple's genius design decisions, you cannot simply scan your computer for music that is not included in the iTunes library (itl/xml) once you've done it on your original set up, which was probably years ago. The only way to re-add music to the library without losing all your associated data is to drag the music back into the library once you have reverted.

So, what will work for you. Start by documenting what songs you've added/edited since the new version was installed. Then, back up the system, install Pacifist/iTunes 10.7, recopy the backed up library file, and once its running, go into your iTunes Music folder and sort by date.

You will see the artist files updated since the 11 "upgrade". You will have to manually drag the folders or song files into iTunes and re-edit any metadata (like ratings) you have.

Once you're done, you'll be back on 10.7 and your iTunes library will have the new music you added.

Excellent. Thanks Saki!

I think this is a resonable Mac way to revert…

double_ohh7's post at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4666718?answerId=20791469022#20791469022

There are many other methods listed in other posts here.

Just to clarify Saki GT's points, make the restoring easier by using a smart playlist to find items added since {date you updated}. It doesn't need to be precise, just save that playlist as a text File > Library > Export playlist. Once you have deleted 11 & reinstalled 10.7, use the last pre-11 library backup. Then import the playlist file. It should import those items based on the file locations in the the 11 library. You can make & export a playlist of the entrire iTunes 11 library so if any files have the dreaded ⚠ icon in iTunes 10 you can use that file to hunt down the files locations (either import it or read in a text editor to find indivual file paths).

Playcounts for the new content won't be imported.

You may also want to drag & drop the ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Mobile Applications/ or Podcasts folder into iTunes, to reimport items that were not added because they didn't get caught in the playlist.

I'd suggest a backup before you start and maybe 'organise the library' from the File > Library menu once you have gone back to 10.7 & checked the Library is OK. Artwork may be missing, so login to the store & get iTunes to redownload it.

One small caveat - iTunes reads & plays files in the trash, so take care when deleting stuff, iTunes makes it look like it's OK to empty the trash even though doing so will nuke the only copy of your files.

"One small caveat - iTunes reads & plays files in the trash, so take care when deleting stuff, iTunes makes it look like it's OK to empty the trash even though doing so will nuke the only copy of your files."

Wow, I didn't realize that was true, as I always figured if I delete a file while it's playing, and it's still playing, then I do have it in my library folder! How else can we check that doesn't happen?

I tend to go into paranoid mode when doing any major housecleaning in iTunes.

Dump everything to be deleted into the Trash. Once you are ready to empty the trash select the items hold alt + drag the items all to an external disk, a USB thumb drive is OK. 'Alt dragging' makes copies of the files, you can now empty the Trash & see if iTunes has been affected. You can restore files from the USB disk if you need to do so.

Time Machine makes this somewhat redundant if you can find the filenames in the backup, however I really wish iTunes made it clear that files in the Trash are actually in limbo, a lot of other apps demand you remove files to open them if they are in the Trash, iTunes is a special (basket) case.

The iTunes info dialog will also point out the files are in the Trash, but that is less than ideal for more than a few files.

For everyone running a mac and are interested in making it stop prompting to install a certain update (such as itunes):

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2357

..... Cause I got tired of saying "not now"....

That and going into itunes > preferences > general > turned off "check for new versions"

I totally hate it and I can really feel the affects of the loss of Steve Jobs now. R.I.P. I can't figure out how to choose between playing my itunes on my laptop or my apple tv anymore. It used to be a simple button at the bottom of the screen. I hate how everything is spread all over the place. It makes it really difficult to organize my library. I"m now using my Scratch Live to organize files since Itunes is such a mess. I don't know why we need so many updates. It seems like every week there is a new update but this latest version is a complete fail. I wish I knew how to get the old interface back. Everyone that I've spoken to, totally hates this new update. This makes my itunes completely useless. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

iTunes11 wasn't causing my sync problem. The faulty HD in the new iPod classic 160GB did cause my sync problems and was replaced by Apple for a new one under warranty. Tnx Apple. Sync with iT11 works ok for me now. Problem solved.

Yesterday I ran across a common CD ripping problem that spurred me to do a screen-capture video about it. In the video, I touch on one area in which iTunes 11 is weak because of the loss of Cover Flow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HheulVpNX0c

For more on linking things together in iTunes see Grouping tracks into albums.

tt2

I hate the new Itunes it took all of my 7 years of music I had stored and my playlists. I am not a computer officianado so I don't know how to restore my playlists or my music. When I tried to go back to version 10.7 my computer wouldn't let me. I will never buy anything from Itunes again.

Go back and read the 'revert posts' if you are serious about going back to iTunes 10.7. It is possible to do if you follow the guides. I linked to a good thread a few posts back.

Hi GolfGal722

Drew Reece is right - I used the advice from double-ohh7 on page 1 of this thread - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4666718?start=0&tstart=0

and it worked perfectly - on my old MacMini and on my new iMac.

as far as losing your songs goes - try this.. (and sorry if you already know all this..)

open a new finder window (click on the desktop and type Command-N)

a new window appears.

in the top right hand corner is a Search field, - type in the name of one of your lost songs

a list appears in the window, and hopefully one of the items in the list says the name of the song, probably with .m4a or .mp3 after it.

click once on the name of the song and a list of folders will appear along the bottom of the window.

you might have to expand the window so you can read the folder names, but you will see that

(a) the song hasn't been deleted, it still exists

(b) if you double click the song name, that song will start playing, and is now visible in iTunes

and

(c) if you follow the list of folders, you can see where it (and all your other songs) are.