It sure would be nice if every time an iTunes sync is interrupted I'm not left with billions of bytes of "Other", which never go away. I have so many issues with iTunes syncing anymore that it isn't even funny. Albums without artwork, etc. It's fine on my desktop but not phone.
Who else loves the eternal "Waiting for changes to be applied" status? What ever happened to useful progress bars???
My own problem with iTunes is that Match keeps losing track of things I should have in iCloud - some that I ripped,
but sometimes even stuff I bought in iTunes. Sometimes I can re-download, a couple of times I've had to re-rip.
So much for counting on the Cloud for fail-safe backup...at least, yet.
Yeah, that's probably more of a complaint about iCloud and iMatch, but iTunes is at the least a co-conspirator.
Other than that, navigation just seems to get weirder each update, but there, I at least think I can see a master plan evolving.
Who else loves the eternal "Waiting for changes to be applied" status? What ever happened to useful progress bars???
Thank you! It's what I have become to hate about Apple's approach. A minimalistic GUI that leaves you in the dark when something goes wrong. How hard can it be to show a progress bar, to let you know where the delay or problem is, and to show proper error messages. I know in the ideal Apple world this is not necessary because everything just works and you don't have to care, but the reality is far from that.
My top 3:
- I cannot use Home Sharing to watch videos on my iPad. My shared iTunes library gets stuck on loading. Why? No feedback.
- 20% of my videos and music have their artwork missing. Why? No feedback.
- I have iTunes match (I have no clue why anymore) and when clicking a song that needs to download on iOS, you don't get any feedback. Did you hit play or not, is it loading or not, ... You just don't have a clue.
I recently installed Deezer as a streaming service. After a week of using it, I opened iTunes 12 and realised how archaic it has become. Clunky, unintuitive, slow, bloated and expensive. I never believed the complaints, but once you step out into the world, you realize Apple has to speed up innovation. Fast.
It sure would be nice if every time an iTunes sync is interrupted I'm not left with billions of bytes of "Other", which never go away. I have so many issues with iTunes syncing anymore that it isn't even funny. Albums without artwork, etc. It's fine on my desktop but not phone.
Who else loves the eternal "Waiting for changes to be applied" status? What ever happened to useful progress bars???
My beef isn't just with the dreaded “Waiting for changes to be applied”, but especially its misleading counterpart, “Waiting for items to copy”, which feedback is insufficiently provided on the Music app's end instead (much like on iTunes, it does show the transfer progress on a per-item basis but, unlike its bug-addled desktop counterpart, the list focus doesn't scroll automatically to the song currently being processed, thus defeating its very purpose as, erm, “feedback” – can you really call it feedback if you have to scroll at random through thousands of songs or stare at the screen for an hour just to catch a glimpse of a track being transfered, just to be sure the iPod/iPhone/iPad didn't just hang on you?).
It's only after I forcibly interrupt said sync processes (on account of their blatant lack of feedback or just plain old clumsiness on my part – I did, on occasion, interrupt syncs because I changed some setting, thus eliciting a loud “d'oh!”) that I get the “Waiting for changes to be applied” message and have, invariably, to erase the whole thing – and I really mean the whole shebang, a full device restore from iCloud, and not just erasing the Music app library – and start anew.
I mean, are routine library syncs with an iOS device *still* that finicky? I dread the day I have to add the odd album, as it usually means I'll have to do a restore and let the iPhone plugged in overnight, sometimes being deprived of it if I have to go out or something. This is utter crap, and does remind me way too much of my Windoze days (I am quite the early switcher, having started with a G4 USB 2.0 17'' iMac running Jaguar and iTunes 4 – with which I synced a 3G 20GB iPod –, so… to say that the overall quality of Apple's software is, as of late, dismal would be an understatement, and this fact alone saddens me to no end).
It's really a very useful post. I especially like the introduction to the Notification Center widget. However, it's too short, and many other features are not shown. I read an article that lists all the new features of iTunes 12.1 in a detailed way. And I'd like to share it with you! Hope you will find it helpful as I do.
Comments
It sure would be nice if every time an iTunes sync is interrupted I'm not left with billions of bytes of "Other", which never go away. I have so many issues with iTunes syncing anymore that it isn't even funny. Albums without artwork, etc. It's fine on my desktop but not phone.
Who else loves the eternal "Waiting for changes to be applied" status? What ever happened to useful progress bars???
My own problem with iTunes is that Match keeps losing track of things I should have in iCloud - some that I ripped,
but sometimes even stuff I bought in iTunes. Sometimes I can re-download, a couple of times I've had to re-rip.
So much for counting on the Cloud for fail-safe backup...at least, yet.
Yeah, that's probably more of a complaint about iCloud and iMatch, but iTunes is at the least a co-conspirator.
Other than that, navigation just seems to get weirder each update, but there, I at least think I can see a master plan evolving.
Thank you! It's what I have become to hate about Apple's approach. A minimalistic GUI that leaves you in the dark when something goes wrong. How hard can it be to show a progress bar, to let you know where the delay or problem is, and to show proper error messages. I know in the ideal Apple world this is not necessary because everything just works and you don't have to care, but the reality is far from that.
My top 3:
- I cannot use Home Sharing to watch videos on my iPad. My shared iTunes library gets stuck on loading. Why? No feedback.
- 20% of my videos and music have their artwork missing. Why? No feedback.
- I have iTunes match (I have no clue why anymore) and when clicking a song that needs to download on iOS, you don't get any feedback. Did you hit play or not, is it loading or not, ... You just don't have a clue.
I recently installed Deezer as a streaming service. After a week of using it, I opened iTunes 12 and realised how archaic it has become. Clunky, unintuitive, slow, bloated and expensive. I never believed the complaints, but once you step out into the world, you realize Apple has to speed up innovation. Fast.
An ugly widget will not fix this.
It sure would be nice if every time an iTunes sync is interrupted I'm not left with billions of bytes of "Other", which never go away. I have so many issues with iTunes syncing anymore that it isn't even funny. Albums without artwork, etc. It's fine on my desktop but not phone.
Who else loves the eternal "Waiting for changes to be applied" status? What ever happened to useful progress bars???
My beef isn't just with the dreaded “Waiting for changes to be applied”, but especially its misleading counterpart, “Waiting for items to copy”, which feedback is insufficiently provided on the Music app's end instead (much like on iTunes, it does show the transfer progress on a per-item basis but, unlike its bug-addled desktop counterpart, the list focus doesn't scroll automatically to the song currently being processed, thus defeating its very purpose as, erm, “feedback” – can you really call it feedback if you have to scroll at random through thousands of songs or stare at the screen for an hour just to catch a glimpse of a track being transfered, just to be sure the iPod/iPhone/iPad didn't just hang on you?).
It's only after I forcibly interrupt said sync processes (on account of their blatant lack of feedback or just plain old clumsiness on my part – I did, on occasion, interrupt syncs because I changed some setting, thus eliciting a loud “d'oh!”) that I get the “Waiting for changes to be applied” message and have, invariably, to erase the whole thing – and I really mean the whole shebang, a full device restore from iCloud, and not just erasing the Music app library – and start anew.
I mean, are routine library syncs with an iOS device *still* that finicky? I dread the day I have to add the odd album, as it usually means I'll have to do a restore and let the iPhone plugged in overnight, sometimes being deprived of it if I have to go out or something. This is utter crap, and does remind me way too much of my Windoze days (I am quite the early switcher, having started with a G4 USB 2.0 17'' iMac running Jaguar and iTunes 4 – with which I synced a 3G 20GB iPod –, so… to say that the overall quality of Apple's software is, as of late, dismal would be an understatement, and this fact alone saddens me to no end).
I mean, Apple doesn't even monitor or utilize its own Support pages. It leaves that to Apple zealots.
Now I await someone saying "If you don't like it; use something else"...
I'm sure calling the people willing to help you "zealots" has a real positive impact on your experience. SMH
It's really a very useful post. I especially like the introduction to the Notification Center widget. However, it's too short, and many other features are not shown. I read an article that lists all the new features of iTunes 12.1 in a detailed way. And I'd like to share it with you! Hope you will find it helpful as I do.