Bring back the Sidebar in iTunes 12

jspsd, if your assessment reflects the view of countless iTunes users, then countless users don't take the time to try to find out what the new iTunes can and can not do, and they don't make the effort to read these forums, before the start whining here, after they found out things don't work as they used to, making a few clicks in the new program.

The fact that you can't see your device wireless is an un-fixed bug. It's been pointed out in this forum over and over again. This bug is known to Apple and no doubt it will be fixed in the next updates.

Apple has not decreased any functionality in iTunes. There have been made some changes in presentation and process. But you still can drag a song or movie from the mac to the sidebar drop it on whatever your device you want it on. As long as the bug is not fixed you have to connect your device with a wire to your Mac, otherwise you won't be able to see the device in the sidebar.

So at this moment the function of presenting an iDevice wireless in iTunes is broken. It probably will be fixed soon.

But functionality of the sidebar you mention is not broken at all, as you will find out for yourself when you link your iDevice with a wire to your Mac. The device will show up in the sidebar and you will be able to add music and movies to your device as you were used to in iTunes 11.

Bring back the sidebar.

It is the only place where you can easily navigate ALL your items, music, podcasts, playlists etc.

I really don't get apples obsession with hiding things away under multiple layers making them more difficult and slower to find.

You can't see your podcasts or your devices or your books from the same view. I hate it!

Sir,

By virtue of the fact that this so called 'known bug' is preventing the wi-fi side of iTunes not to work, in my book it certainly counts as a loss of functionality. By definition, loss of functionality is something that worked before, and which doesn't work now, so I stand by my previous personal analysis of the new version of iTunes until said funtionality is restored. Untill you can demonstrate that the new version of iTunes can do everything the old one could do before the 'upgrade' and more, then my previous comments are vindicated. I for one don't like wires hanging out of my iMac, its keyboard, mouse and trackpad are all W-I-R-E-L-E-S-S, so I have a nice clean desk - thats why I bought it - for its clean lines! Your suggestion that I should just plug in a wire for my iOS devices although it would work, is simply unacceptable in my view.

You are most likely correct however, in that countless thousands of people who like myself are not compelled to go trolling through the forums on a daily basis, were blissfully unaware there was a 'known bug' lurking out there preventing 'some' functionality in iTunes. I would put this down to most of us actually having a life I think, or perhaps we just enjoy a good whinge now and then?? Bottom line, I'm an end-user, not a researcher!

Regardless, I feel sure we shall all look forward to the day when Apple rolls out something resembling what we had before, and more importanly, something which actually works the way its expected to. For the moment at least, we shall all twiddle our thumbs and wait in eager anticipation that Apple can make the necessary repairs..., to something which didn't need fixing in the first place!

think I'll go and do a wi-fi transfer of some music to my iPad.........., oh ****, I can't....

Don't know if this will give you what your looking for, but if you plug your phone in, then when the phone icon comes up on the top bar, click it. This will give you the menu side bar that is not available the old way. Just found it by accident!

It gives you the options for encrypted backup etc, like the old menu.

Not like it used to be!! It's a shame they took out the sidebar option and we have to just live with it? I do not agree that the playlist function is almost the same, you have none of the control you had with the sidebar and it's slower to boot!!!

I agree, please bring back the standard sidebar. Just need to find a DMG for the last version of iTunes 11 so I can go back to what I like.

What on earth are Apple playing at, if it isn't broken don't fix it, ridiculous, they are supposed to designing for the masses, what a mess.

thanks Jim, but no, that is not the sidebar. It has none of the functionality the old sidebar had, it just looks a little bit like the old sidebar.

I'm sorry, but I disagree (with the main concensus of this forum). I had a smilier conversation with my father last night about this very thing. He insisted that It was so much harder now to do the same stuff, and that you can't even view albums as lists etc.. Then I screened shared with him I was able to show him in less than 2 minutes how to do everything he was able to do with his sidebar iTunes 11. First, the sidebar is really still there. You just have to turn on Playlist view to see it. Secondly, when not in this view, you can drag an album, or individual song, or movie to the left and as you do, it will appear on the left as usual and you can add it to a playlist that way. Apple has added the media icons that used to be on the sidebar permanently to the top. All of the functionality (that was in 11) is still there. It DOES make more sense this way as you click on what you want to browse in iTunes. Music, Movies, TV shows Podcasts, etc (and you can edit what you want , if you want to anchor Podcasts there for example). Then from each section you can always choose playlist for the sidebar coming out. Why do I need my sidebar out if I'm simply browsing my Albums by looking at the album art??? I don't. But if I need the sidebar, it's there. I really don't understand so much fuss over a change like this. I mean are we a computer generation or do we have to be in a box that says we can never changer???

This is NOT the same comparison as Microsoft removing the start menu. The start menu was really the only way in windows to access applications. That's because in Windows they didn't have the Programs bundled like the Mac did. The Mac's traditional way was growing the hard drive and double clicking on the applications icon. Window, you couldn't browse the hard drive for programs. You had to browse for Documents only so the Start Menu was a Must. Microsoft removed the start menu but didn't replace it with something more useable. That's the problem. But if people are just going to fuss about the start menu when something as good or better was in place, then we have a problem with people who are not willing to learn something new.

This is Minor change in iTunes

For those who think this is counterintuitive and not and Apple kind of thing.. Apple has always been more about streamlining and showing options WHEN NEEDED as opposed to always having options in front of your face.

I know this post will ruffle feathers, it's not meant to but I would say to you to try it for 2-3 months. After that time I challenge you to feel as strongly about it as you do now. When you think about it, it is a minor cosmetic change. No functionality has been removed and you'll see that you can pretty still accomplish the same things in the same way.

Not sure exactly what's missing here, but when I enable Playlist view, I can expand my device above my playlists by clicking on the triangle. Then i can see Podcasts, Books, Audiobooks and the playlists that on the device. Can see the same thing by click on the devices icon at the top (it appears when plugged in). Just like the old sidebar. You can't expand each, you will have to highlight it to view each selection but you certainly can see all the info.

Now if you're referring to seeing what's JUST in iTunes and not on your device then instead of toggling the view on the sidebar for each, you have to toggle the media you want to look at, at the top, but it's essentially the same thing. Note that you can add the podcast icon to the menu bar atop. You can do the same for books etc.. so you don't have to dig down into the menu to do it. It's apple's to Oranges here but if I recall you couldn't see the podcasts and Movies and music at the exact same time even with the Sidebar, you still had to select podcast, or select movie and the window would show you what's in. Now you simply select it at top just below the the playback controls.

jsphd wrote:

Well said Joe, and I'm sure it reflects the views of countless thousands of iTunes users (including myself) who are annoyed that Apple has at a stroke, decreased the funtionality of iTunes in general.

Please sir, can we have our sidebar back??

To illustrate how devided user are about the question how they rate the quality of iTunes, here's a poll on one of the websites:

....about 55% votes good-very good-excellent. Almost 21% rates the app to be "Fair". And over 24% thinks the quality of iTunes is "Poor".

Awesome, Rusty! It was ridiculously simple. Don't know why I didn't try that. Yay sidebar!

So tell me, where's the list of my Ringtones (purchased from iTunes, no less) when I click on "Tones" in the new sidebar under "Settings". No list, just the option to Sync Tones (and no, I don't want to erase everything and re-sync all my music, etc.). They're not listed in the Music category, either. And I have had zero luck trying to use the "Add to Library" to copy them from my iPhone file to my iPad file. Grrrrrr. I have just written a detailed email to Apple Support about this problem - there's no way to redownload them, either, even though my purchase history clearly documents the purchases, but within the purchasing portion of the Store they don't show as having been purchased. This whole thing is such a mess.

This is not helpful.
Users should not have to trawl fora to find out about known bugs. away familiar

Apple should not take away familiar features such as the ability to see Podcasts and Music on the sidebar at the same time. By all means alter the default if that's what observational psychologists advise, but don't make it impossible to restore the status quo ante.