What are your thoughts on the New iTunes 11?

The impression I get is that before iTMS, iTunes was designed by passionate music lovers. They addressed a few core use cases, then filled in the feature set with things that were important to the music lovers and collectors who were maintaining the product.

iTunes 11 seems to have been a complete overhaul pivoting around a few use cases involving buying music and other media, subscribing to Apple's online services, playing media, and managing existing media. Features are slowly being added again in that order of priority.

It also reeks of the kind of redesign many UIs go through where a "usability expert" steps in and promises to reflow everything for new user acquisition without even understanding that they're stepping on the toes of the users they already have. Complaints like those seen in the previous 98 pages of posts are received as people being "change averse" with the assumption that they'll simply get used to it after a while and shut up. Many do, but often the surprise ending is that the outflow of old users outpaces the influx of new users.

For the first time since iTunes existed, I'm spending most of my music playing time with a different app. It's not as good as iTunes 10, but for my uses it's better than iTunes 11.

iTunes 10.7 is still available on Apple.com

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1576

I have been keeping a copy on my dropbox in case of emergencies.

McGroarty wrote:

...For the first time since iTunes existed, I'm spending most of my music playing time with a different app. It's not as good as iTunes 10, but for my uses it's better than iTunes 11.

Are you using JRiver? How do you like it? It's a bloated pig of an app also, but visually it looks much more appealing than iTunes. The 3D album view looks great, and certainly can be considered a nice alternative to CoverFlow. When I get a chance, I'm going to try it to see if the database and sorting functions of JRiver are any good.

As to iTunes 11, I'm running it on my laptop, while keeping iTunes 10.7 on my Mac Mini music server. I have not had any problems with 11, other than it's less good as a music player than iTunes 10.7, and the Playlist syncing is iffy with my 1st gereration iPad (which cannot being updated past iOS 5.1.1). The complexities that Apple has added in over the years, the latest being Radio, pretty much stay out of the way when I'm playing music. The handling of Podcasts is improved over 10.7. The expanded Albums view is nice, although JRiver does something similar, and perhaps even better.

The big issue: Apple is no longer innovating with iTunes. In the past, Apple has picked things that already existed but weren't being done well, then improved them by leaps and bounds. That was certainly the case with music players -- buying the SoundJam app, transforming it into iTunes and coming out with the iPod. Not so with iTunes 11. It's 1 step forward, 2 steps back. It seems like JRiver is trying to innovate, while iTunes is just limping along.

Not naming the other app was deliberate. As I understand it, that's not allowed here. More importantly, I'm not sure it's helpful in urging Apple to reevaluate their development approach, or to ensure there's an ombudsman for the media collectors and power users who speaks as a stakeholder when planning sweeping changes.

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that's for the Windows version, right? I didn't see a mac version (other than PPC)

I'm currently at SL and iTunes 11.0.5. Besides internet radio (and being able to update to iOS 7), is there any reason to update to 11.1.1? Does the latest version even change the UI from 11.0.5?

Thank you, Drew... I have it now! that will save me a bunch of searching on a bunch 2TB pocket drives (over 30 of them).

I tried to reply earlier, but couldn't display the page with your post. I finally logged in with another browser and was show it fine. (Another issue all to itself!)

I couldn't spot it at first either, PowerBook1701. The link in the list is apparently broken. Simply click the download button at the top for OS-X

to be frank:

iTunes 11 is worst thing that happened to iTunes since iTunes!

cowpokebob,

Apple changed most of the default view settings in 11, turning off list view, sidebar etc. Most of them are still around but have to be enabled. You have to enable list view for all media under iTunes / Preferences / General to be able to select the column browser and its view settings. Also, the right-click often has additional options not listed elsewhere.

Next and Previous Buttons when editing: They are gone under Music when in Artists view (oddly only if you select an individual artist, they are still showing when "All Artists" stays selected), but they are still available in List, Album, and the other browse tabs under Music. They are also gone in Movies but available in Books and Podcasts.

Switching between iTunes media is buggy and highly inconsistent. Once you play a song in a certain view, the location setting is preserved when switching around, but it is inconsistent, simply selecting a song is not enough. This still needs some major bug fixing.

Book genres are called Categories and are available after selecting "list view in all media" and enabling the column browser.

Regarding enhancing the visual experience, under iTunes/Preferences/General check the box for "use custom colors for open albums, movies..". See for yourself.

I have submitted a load of feedback regarding the issues in iTunes 11, few of them have been fixed.

Timbuktu wrote:

cowpokebob,

Apple changed most of the default view settings in 11, turning off list view, sidebar etc. Most of them are still around but have to be enabled.

Good post. This needs to be reiterated over and over. The default UI in iTunes 11 is weird -- not simple, but rather needlesslessly simple-minded. However, once configured to look like iTunes 10, the new version works pretty much the same as the old version. The real differences are modest, actually. Most of the vaunted "rethinking" of the iTunes interface was merely a matter of burying useful views and features deep in the Preferences menu, making iTunes 11 a very unimaginiative "reimagination." (In fairness, the DJ feature was truly rethought, for better or worse.) However, the lack of CoverFlow and multiple windows makes iTunes 11 significantly less usable for many people (like me). As you pointed out, it also has a couple of apparent bugs that should have been corrected way before now. Not sure why the iTunes developers are sitting on their hands. The team seems lazy to me, although I'm sure they put in long hours and would take issue with that characterization.

any workflow in iTunes has more steps as before to get it done

the redisigned workflow ist tailored from a certeain perspective

... but certainly not from somt just to listen music

Stay with iTunes 11.0.5 for now until they work out some of the bugs.

Once you upgrade there is no going back. PPC is the only Mac exception. My guess is because it did not come with the original OS, and so was not so deeply embedded into the heart of the OS.

Yes, Radio and being able to sync to iOS 7 are the major new features, but both are having their issues also. Just read the discussions. Also read them & take notes for when you do upgrade, so we don't have to repeat all the popular tweaks and new gestures and hidden features.

Right now, since upgrading to iTunes 11.1.1 and iOS 7.0.2 I can not sync audiobooks to my iPhone 4s, and many people are having issues with podcasts.

Wait awhile while they make some more bug fixes and the early adopters work out some of the work arounds. Usually a couple of weeks is enough, but not this time.

Reese, from your profile, I see your running a Power Mac G4.

Read again what is available for the PPC on that page. It is iTunes 10.6.3, not 10.7.

So according to your profile, you can't even install iTunes 11. My G4 Quicksilver dual 1.33 GHz (aftermarket CPU) runs OS X 10.5.8 and thankfully can't install any iTunes past 10.6.3. But you need iTunes 11 or better to sync with an iDevice running iOS 7 or better, so it does me no good for my iPhone 4S, since I updated it to iOS 7.

My "daily driver" is a early 2008 MBP running 10.7.5, that I saidly updated to iTunes 11. So right now I can not sync my iPhone, because of bugs.

How does your post contribute to the conversation about iTunes 11? Other than to those who use iTunes with Windows, which you did not list in your profile?