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PFox78 Author

Level 1

44 points

iOS 7 Music App sorting issues

Hello there,

I'm starting this discussion to express my displeasure with some changes in the Music app that have removed some key functionalities that I had come to rely upon.

First of all, there are some artists in my library with many albums. In iOS 6, accessing those artist's albums was easy. You would click on the artist tab, go to the artist and it would show a list of the albums. Then, you could choose an album and go right to those songs. In iOS 7, this has completely changed. Now, there's no longer an albums view under artists. You have to scroll song by song to get to the newer releases.

For instance, I'm a huge fan of Pearl Jam and have 60 albums of theirs (9 studio, the rest all live records). Now, to get to the latest, I have to spend 30 seconds scrolling all the way down the list. That's not efficient at all. The way it was before — you get a list of albums once you click on the artist, then click on an album to get the songs — should never have been changed.

Second, I consider myself a power user and sort all my albums using the "sort album" tag in iTunes. Previously, that carried over both over syncing and iTunes Match. Now, it ignores it completely. Even my old, trusty iPod Classic still pays attention to this!

I understand that most people don't set their sort order, but for those of us who do — and have spent tons of time doing it — why is this no longer the case?

I spoke with a senior technician yesterday and let him know of these issues. He documented them and is sending them directly to a programming engineer at Apple. I have his name, phone number and contact info and intend to follow up.

He agreed that iOS 7 should be adding functionality — not taking it away! The other thing the senior technician said to me is that the more people call and complain about something, the greater the chance that it will be rectified.

I did so in a very calm, respectful manner and he was very receptive to my concerns. SO, is anyone else frustrated about this? IF so, please post here!

Also, my suggestion to anyone else who feels disappointed in this removed functionality is to call in to Apple Care support and express your concerns in much the same way i did.

That way, if we make our collective voices heard, they'll reintroduce the functionalities we had in the first place.

Posted on Sep 20, 2013 8:22 AM

Top-ranking reply

pd18

Level 1

0 points

Posted on Sep 20, 2013 8:34 AM

I have scheduled a call with a technician for this afternoon, and will discuss my concerns as well. Let's hope that if enough people raise the issue, it will be addressed. I will post a follow up once I've spoken with Apple.

View in context

445 replies

PCH54

Level 1

0 points

Nov 8, 2013 4:20 PM in response to frank135

I'm signed out, and I have no problems updating my apps.But yes, if you want to buy something on iTunes and download it to your phone, you'll have to sign in and sign out again. Small price to pay, I think, for keeping my son's rap music off my phone!

Nov 8, 2013 5:50 PM in response to PFox78

There are 2 options:

1. Apple don't care about our concerns... And/or don't care about artists's intends about their albums... And/or don't care even when we try communicate our concerns directly

2. They prefer to no respond to avoid too much press coverage, and, eventually, silently deliver an iOS update to fix a shameful design defect... No.. design mistake...

I just hope it is number 2.. At least,it would solve our problems with the Music App, but it's far from respecting their user base.. Maybe in the not so far 7.0.4 update?

Nov 8, 2013 9:19 PM in response to frank135

frank135 wrote:

…

I use a alternate music player called CarTunes. Now since iOS 7, it automatically displays all my non-downloaded music from the cloud within CarTunes, and get this, even with the iTunes & Appstore/Music setting to "show all music" disabled! And this is just not CarTunes, it is every app on my iphone in which I can access my music files, such as DJ apps, etc.. They all disobey that setting and continue to display my non-downloaded cloud music.

Hi Frank, just to provide some insight from my perspective as an app developer: I'm not sure why it changed, but you're right, prior to iOS 7 the media access APIs that developers use respected the system 'show all music' setting, and in iOS 7 those API's always return cloud music. I noticed this as soon as I first opened my (un-updated) app on iOS 7. Luckily developers can still easily filter out undownloaded/cloud music, it's just not something that needed to be done in the past. It looks like CarTunes hasn't been updated since before iOS 7 was released, which would explain why all of your cloud music is showing up. So the Apple rep you spoke to was right about it being a problem for the developer, but that's because of something that Apple changed.

Anyways (semi-shameless self-promotion time), you may be interested in checking out my app, Picky, which hides cloud music by default (but does provide a setting to show it). I've been getting some great feedback from people (including several from this forum) who like the enhancements I've made, and some of the pre-iOS7 behaviours I've restored. It might work well for you too 🙂.

– Charles

Nov 9, 2013 1:31 AM in response to PFox78

I just wanted people to know that there is an app called Ecoute, that works like a charm.

I have over 600 Metallica live-shows on my iPod touch, and it works awsomely.

Costs 3,50, but its worth it.

frank135

Level 1

11 points

Nov 9, 2013 11:07 AM in response to lessthanuthink

Hi Charles, thanks for your response! I would agree 100% that it's a developer's problem, but when it starts effecting the stock Apple Music app I still see it as an Apple problem somewhat. Here's my reason. When a song in the cloud is played within a 3rd party app, that song now shows up in the Apple Music app. Further more you are unable to swipe and delete it as you would a normal song. I must now turn the "show all music" setting back on, and then "download" the song again by clicking the cloud icon (which I think is a bug since it is already there). Only now are you finally allowed to swipe and delete the song. I agree with you that it is up to the developer to allow cloud music to show or not in their app, but when that effects the Apple Music app like this I feel like this is an Apple issue. A song in the cloud should only stream within the 3rd party app it is being accessed in and not effect other apps.

P.S. Semi-shameless self-promotion worked, nice app!

Nov 9, 2013 12:07 PM in response to frank135

Ah, that does sound really annoying. At the very least Apple should make those songs deletable without having to turn Show All Music back on – definitely sounds like a bug to me. And I'm glad you like the app! 🙂

PFox78 Author

Level 1

44 points

Nov 12, 2013 2:22 PM in response to Leigh Burne

Great question, Leigh, and sorry for taking a few days to respond. For some reason, I couldn't access these forums for a few days. It started working again today.

A week or so ago, I got a call out of the blue by an Apple representative asking about some other issues I had with the iOS 7 music app when the new OS launched (duplicate tracks showing, missing artwork, etc.). Although I fixed those issues by doing a restore, I informed the rep about this forum and all the issues we've been having.

He said he would have a look, pass this on and get back to me. I still haven't heard from him, but I will follow up within the next few days. Hopefully, the more noise they hear from us, the faster they'll make a change.

Having said that, I've absolutely been loving Picky. It's the best app. As I stated in a previous post in this thread, it's very similar to iOS 6 BUT with a more modern iOS 7 "look" and feel. The developer, Charles, who has posted in this thread, is also a great guy and very responsive. I've made a couple of requests and he's followed through on them and the app is even better now.

Believe me, it's worth way more than the 99¢ he's asking for it. Buy it without hesitation!

Nov 12, 2013 2:29 PM in response to PFox78

I too have been using Picky. It's much better thant the iOS 7 music app. But... It doesn't have the ratings view for an entire album like the iOS music app. I like to play an album with the ratings view open to make sure I've rated each track as I listen to it. It's also great for picking the track(s) you want to play from an album when you don't know a track by name, but know you've rated one of them from the album well in the past.

Cheers!

mchall38

Level 1

0 points

Nov 12, 2013 2:35 PM in response to Thrasher91604

I like to search for music by genre, artist, album. Can't do this with Picky or ios7 - you could with ios6! I am using Lagu which looks very much like the ios6 music app with added festure of creating queques. Apple really blew this one!

Carl

PFox78 Author

Level 1

44 points

Nov 12, 2013 2:36 PM in response to Thrasher91604

I see what you mean, Thrasher. This reflects the fact that we all used the old music app very differently. I have never assigned a star rating to any songs, so for me it's not an issue at all. However, I can understand how it would be for you. For me, having my artists in the order I set them and then having the ability to choose albums by artist without the horrible expanded view that is in the new stock app made all the difference.

Again, Charles is quite responsive. He included his email in this thread, so you may want to ask him if he would be able to implement this in a future update to Picky.

Nov 12, 2013 3:04 PM in response to PFox78

I like that view too. I used the iOS 6 music app in more than just one way. But the new iOS music app presents such poorer views that it's hard to believe it was purposeful. Does anyone do design reviews at Apple, with feature or function lists? Or is it just a beauty pageaant with no concern for function? Are they really that incompetent or did they contract it out? Or did bad management just screw up? I'd like to know how such a poor design made its way to implementation, much less out the door to us. For a company with the resources like Apple to screw up so badly, and drop the ball at so many possible checkpoints, makes me think something is seriously wrong with its leadership. They had the money and time to do it right.

Thom_D

Level 4

1,161 points

Nov 12, 2013 3:12 PM in response to PFox78

This has been posted in here before, but there is a free app called Lagu that is essentially the old iPhone Music App. Same exact look and feel.

Tap Artists, Scroll to the artists' name, tap All songs and the songs are all listed alphabetically. If you want a specific album just go back to the artists' name and select the album you want to listen to.

It recognizes all my songs and playlists.

PFox78 Author

Level 1

44 points

Nov 12, 2013 3:30 PM in response to Thom_D

Lagu is nice, but my complaints with it is that it has no support for cloud music, meaning that those of us who use iTunes Match are left out in the dark. Also, while it's exactly like the old music app, that's also part of the problem. Picky looks like the old music app, but modernized to feel like it belongs in iOS 7.

Otherwise, Thrasher, I totally hear you. In many ways, many of the new stock apps feel like they were rushed out the door and absolutely no attention was paid to the functionality. It's baffling. As you said, it borders on incompetence. How did they screw up a basic function so badly. Again, music was the foundation for the current Apple juggernaut, and to destroy the app as they did borders on lunacy when it worked perfectly ever since the first iPhone.

Yes, iOS 6 felt dated, but everything worked great. From all indications, Forstall was an ***, but he got the job done. Who else does that remind you of? Now, it's all a happy kumbaya family with no one taking the responsibility for the messes made with iOS 7.

I've met many, many people who haven't updated and refuse to because they don't like the new OS or things they've seen with it.

halo9

Level 1

4 points

Nov 12, 2013 3:34 PM in response to lessthanuthink

Hi Charles,

Just noticed something the last couple of days and not sure if it is just my car or something that has come up since the last update, but this is what is happening.

When I have my iphone 5 (ios7.0.3) running latest picky version conected to car stereo with ipod cable and I play music through it, once I hit skip forwards it starts playing the next track and then after 1-2 seconds jumps to a random song. I have reset, unplugged, replugged, restarted car, the lot and keeps happening. I try the stock app and it skips forwards and backwards fine, no isuues. Close that and go back to picky, play an album and as soon as I hit skip it plays next track and then jumps to a random song as if it is on shuffle. It is not on shuffle in either app nor the car stereo.

Could just be something with me, wondering if anyone else gets something similar?

I didn't notice this ont he pevious version but it could be I just never hit skip in the couple weeks I was running it before the update.

By the way, still love the app and it has its permanent spot on the bottom bar now. Good work.

Nov 12, 2013 5:37 PM in response to PFox78

Is there any way to roll back the OS to iOS 6 on an iPhone?

iOS 7 Music App sorting issues