Where is option to have side bar in iTunes 12 ?

I noticed that it kept going missing, prior to v12. It was extremely annoying to have to re-enable the sidebar. I thought it looked horrible and was a much less functional piece of software without it. I think that was Apple trying to get us used to it being gone. Now, its permanent. No, the replacement is not the sidebar.

steveh46 wrote:

Yes and that's the problem. iTunes used to be a great little program for managing music content. Now it's a rotten media manager.

So what do you propose as an alternative? Half a dozen different apps, each devoted to one media type? How many of the hundreds of millions of iTunes users do you think would prefer that, vs. how many would complain about lost functionality, needless complexity, change for the sake of change, etc.?

No matter what Apple has done or will do with iTunes, there will always be those who think it was or is the worst possible choice. Yet despite this, not only is the iTunes user base amazingly large, it is growing at an accelerating rate: just one year ago the user account number was about 540 million, now it is at 800 million, & there is little doubt it will exceed one billion in the upcoming year.

If it really is as rotten a media manager as you say it is, how do you explain that?

Its extra steps. Prior to this forcing of my hand it was just there. It just worked. Things are slowly but surely no longer "just working" anymore and they're becoming more and more like Microsoft's stuff. And I've used and developed/programmed MS stuff since the early 80's as well as Apple's. The ugly user interface aside, v12 is less functional without that sidebar and thats that.

The code for the old sidebar may have been written and rewritten over the years, but if I were a betting man I'd put my money on it that the A LOT of the code for v12 is ground-up new AND that old sidebar code has been shelved with the prior version..

I do feel that the reason that its uptake is large is because there is no choice. Youngsters aways want the latest as we live in a spin/bling society where faster and faster is the byword.

R C-R wrote:

.... the iTunes user base amazingly large, it is growing at an accelerating rate: just one year ago the user account number was about 540 million, now it is at 800 million, & there is little doubt it will exceed one billion in the upcoming year.

If it really is as rotten a media manager as you say it is, how do you explain that?

Well, for one thing, Apple started selling in China, a market 4 times larger than the USA. Secondly, there is no alternative to iTunes. The market growth is not due to how great iTunes is or is not. Correlation is not cause.

Apple made a mistake by removing the v11 sidebar design. They should fix it. But they won't. They don't care. Been a Mac user since 1984 and I regret to say that I have become almost entirely cynical when it comes to Apple. I just hope they don't ruin MacOS. Mavericks is one step closer to the edge, they need to step back...

RCR wrote:

"Yet despite this, not only is the iTunes user base amazingly large, it is growing at an accelerating rate: just one year ago the user account number was about 540 million, now it is at 800 million, & there is little doubt it will exceed one billion in the upcoming year.

"If it really is as rotten a media manager as you say it is, how do you explain that?"

If the base keeps growing, why are iTunes sales falling?

"Music sales at Apple’s iTunes Store have fallen 13% to 14% world-wide since the start of the year, according to people familiar with the matter. The decline is stark compared with a much shallower dip last year."

I won't buy anything via iTunes anymore because of the pain of use. When I do a search in the iTunes store for "Splinter" do you think I want to see results for Movies, TV shows, podcasts, songs, group names, audiobooks, and any other format Apple wants to sell me stuff? I don't. Does anyone? I'd like a music service not a department store trying to force stuff on me I don't want.

And yes, I can think of better alternatives. I used iTunes for music. It was terrific at that. (Not version 11 which already was a significant downgrade from earlier versions.) I don't want to purchase movies, books, apps, etc. through iTunes. I don't want to have to manage iOS devices with iTunes. If there was an alternative to managing my iPhone and iPad, I would use it. As it is, I'll never buy another iPad partly because it imposes the use of iTunes.

iTunes really, really is bad and if you think saying just wait until they add more bloat to an already bloated piece of kludgeware is going to excite me, you're wrong.

The code for the old sidebar may have been written and rewritten over the years, but if I were a betting man I'd put my money on it that the A LOT of the code for v12 is ground-up new AND that old sidebar code has been shelved.

Well................. just wait. 👿

I wont purchase anything that goes from .99 cents to 1.29..... out of principle. My salary didnt increase 30% so I cant justify buying what used to cost .99 and now costs 1.29. But I digress......... I got used to the v11 sidebar but you're right - the product was much better some versions ago. Now its this flat fugly user interface with less functionality. I've spoken my peace here. I've notified Apple. I hope others do too. I doubt it will help, though.

"Now its this flat fugly user interface with less functionality."

I agree, it's painful to look at it. It's shocking how it's gone from a pleasant interface to an gratingly ugly piece of software.

Unfortunately this is what global companies and governments do. You agree on one thing and by stealth more and more changes creep in so that in the end you are in a whole different ball-game to the one that you originally agreed to. It's down to basic integrity.

steveh46 wrote:

If the base keeps growing, why are iTunes sales falling?

Because iTunes offers a lot more than just buying or renting music, TV shows, movies, etc. through the iTunes stores & because there are more competing sources than ever before for all those things.

And contrary to what some of the other-the-top comments made here imply, Apple isn't forcing you or anybody else using iTunes to spend a dime at any of its iTunes Stores. That's completely voluntary, as is the choice to use other apps to play & manage one's personal collection of music, videos, ebooks, & so on. True, you need iTunes to manage iDevices but for everything else there are alternatives. They are not very popular for some fairly obvious reasons, like because they aren't free or just because it is simpler to use one 'jack-of-all-trades' app than half a dozen specialized ones.

Spin it any way you want, but ultimately this isn't about Apple forcing anything on anybody. It is about what the vast majority of users & content providers around the world are willing to support. If you want to change that, I wish you luck but frankly I think there is nothing you can say or do that will make much difference. Most people just don't seem even remotely as upset about the changes to iTunes as the tiny fraction represented here & on all the other sites devoted to such things.

Maybe over-the-top was what you were looking for? It's an interesting post but the notion that Apple are not social manipulators is naive. If Apple offer no choice other than a one-size fits all for their devices then their spin is just coercing everyone into believing their hype. True, it is supported by millions around the world but that is just simple addiction created by clever marketing and good, attractive, highly functional engineering and iTunes stores are just virtual supermarkets which makes them convenient but not necessarily that ethical. True, Apple devices link up and Apple's structure is solid but Android and PC's are far more flexible. If Apple were flexible things would possibly be far more interesting and user friendly. Every organisation wants to take over the world and Apple are highly successful at quality engineering and exploiting cheap markets to create high profit margins so, we get expensive exclusivity by poor people being exploited. Neat.

"Most people just don't seem even remotely as upset about the changes to iTunes as the tiny fraction represented here & on all the other sites devoted to such things."

Oh no no no no no...... Most people dont ever speak up. Period. If there is nothing else that I've learned in this 60 something years of my life, its that. Most people are silent. In my circles, everyone hates this v12 flat, fugly interface with missing and/or harder to find functionality. BUT only a fraction will ever get on the boards and say something. Thats what Apple banks on. They'll just fly swat us and the rest sit there and take it BOHICA.