Apple releases iTunes 12.5.5 with minor performance improvements

AppleInsider · January 23, 2017 11:06PM

Continuing Apple's big day of software releases, the company on Monday issued a minor iTunes update that delivers bug fixes and performance improvements to Mac and Windows users.

According to Apple, iTunes 12.5.5 is a minor update to the company's flagship digital content storefront. Accompanying software release notes fail to mention specific changes, saying only that the download package contains performance enhancements.

The iTunes release arrives just hours after Apple issued point updates for its major platforms, including iOS 10.2.1, macOS 10.12.3, watchOS 3.1.3 and tvOS 10.11. Today's macOS Sierra update incorporates a fix for a Safari bug discovered by Consumer Reports last month that could in some cases lead to severe battery drain.

Apple last updated iTunes in December with a set of fairly substantial feature additions including support for the new TV app, a streaming app hub that serves as a first step toward unifying the over-the-top viewing experience. The December update also brought enhanced Touch Bar support for Apple's latest MacBook Pro.

Apple's iTunes 12.5.5 update comes in at 116MB and can be downloaded for free from the Mac App Store.

lkrupp · January 23, 2017 11:58PM

iTunes working perfectly. I strongly disagree with those who claim it is a bloated mess. iTunes does what it was designed is advertised to do. I have no issues with it and I’m probably in the majority. As usual the perpetually dissatisfied crowd constantly bashes it while most us just go about using and enjoying it.

lukifer · January 24, 2017 12:23AM

In other news, world hunger is solved, because you had enough to eat today.

Alas, just updated, and it still takes upwards of 15-20 seconds of beach-balling to text filter for a specific artist.

iTunes <10 used to do it near instantaneously, even with a library of 25k tracks. (And this is all-SSD, 16g RAM, blah blah blah.)

edited January 2017

razormaid · January 24, 2017 12:27AM

I'm right there with ya. I've used It since inception and love it. One thing that happened in iTunes 12 I didn't like was in playlists as a record company who sells music to DJ's was the apparent loss of the info nned d by DJ's. But one call to the beta department and they gave it back in the way of the pulldown.

In your playlist:
hold down Command + J
(Control + J for PC users)
a small window appears
swith from the current setting (playlist) -> SONG
suddenly all the "add" options are back including BPM, Bit Rate, Key, tagged alternating art work, etc exactly as we embedded each track originally when we sold it
Voila!! It's all back

anantksundaram · January 24, 2017 12:59AM

Thanks!

Long, tiring day, and I needed a good laugh. :-D

anome · January 24, 2017 1:51AM

iTunes as an app to access media, and play stuff back is fine. However, it's now having to manage music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, audiobooks, and iOS apps. It did have to manage books, but they got moved to their own app, which also manages audiobooks. As well as iTunes managing them.

It also does the management of content for your iOS devices, and synchronisation of iOS devices, backup, iOS updates, and a number of other things I've probably forgotten.

I think Apple do need to split out some of that functionality into a separate app, or a series of separate apps. It looked like they might be going that way when they split out iBooks, and there was talk of allowing other content apps to manage content on iOS, but we're still stuck with iTunes.

I'm not saying it's an easy job to break up iTunes, and shift to a new system. If they only had to worry about macOS, it might be easier, but they have Windows users to support as well, and Windows support for anything is expensive.

unbeliever2 · January 24, 2017 2:15AM

I just wish it would only sync exactly what I tell it to, and not add stuff to my device that *it* thinks I want, like "recently added" tracks.

lorin schultz · January 24, 2017 3:26AM

This the second time in a week you've come in swinging with no one to fight. I don't know who you're lashing out against, since you didn't quote whatever it is that's got you itchin' and no one said anything negative. I know how you love a good scrap, but your battles with imaginary enemies are freaking out the dog and have your mom worried. Maybe lay off the cough syrup for a while, stay lucid for a few days and see how things go.

rezwits · January 24, 2017 7:07AM

It's getting like this with everything in America (or the world even maybe): Whatever TOPIC you decide, if there are 1 Million people there are 1,000 bad Apples... so in that case 999,000 happy customers... my latest is 999,000 non-racists and 1,000 racists of whichever RACE you pick. This will never end. We are not living in a UTOPIA (and life sucks because people REALLY want to live in a Utopia boo f-ing hoo)! Where everything is 100% perfect. Just like Crime! We can't get rid of these things 100% The only way we get passed these things is when life confronts us with a minimal 0.1% and someone wants to argue or talk about how EVERYTHING or EVERYBODY is messed up, we just have to MOVE ALONG, MOVE ALONG - obi-wan Kenobi, or some storm trooper... oh and a yeah iTunes ROCKS! when people say Apple should re-build it they are FREAKING PSYCHO! That's the bread and butter gravy whatever you want to call it for Apple... and it DOES work!

edited January 2017

rayz2016 · January 24, 2017 8:17AM

I think he's preempting the obligatory "issue" posts before they show up.

"Well, I hope they've FINALLY fixed the bruised banana issue that affects me and ten billion others (my estimate by counting the complaints on AI and multiplying by the number of people who'll be on this planet by 2028)."

appex · January 24, 2017 8:22AM

It is iTunes 12.5.5.5. And still no resume playback!

fastasleep · January 24, 2017 8:46AM

It doesn't, unless you tell it to. You're probably doing it wrong.

dolphin0611 · January 24, 2017 9:31AM

Lucky you eh! I don't often make comments on AI but in this case, you have no issues, really? Gosh. My situation is not meant to represent the majority but I have problems with the latest build daily. Since updating I often have to force quit the application because it fails to respond. As far as I can remember I didn't have this issue with previous versions, only after I chose to update. Actually, I regret updating as this problem is really annoying. It seems to happen when my computer goes to sleep and when it wakes up I find iTunes is not responding. My other applications seem to work fine when my computer wakes up. Yes, I could change the settings to prevent my computer from sleeping. But iTunes should work properly. And in the past I've had several other issues with iTunes but for now I won't go there. I can say, though, that when it works it works quite well.

One other quirk that is somewhat irritating in the later versions is that I can't pause iTunes playback or skip tracks using the pause key and arrow shortcuts on F7, F8 and F9 keys when iTunes is in miniplayer mode unless miniplayer is on top of other applications, which I don't always want. Often I like listening to music while I'm doing other stuff and I don't want the miniplayer getting in the way. My workaround is not to use miniplayer and minimize the iTunes window, but this is not ideal for my situation. A firstworld problem, yes, but this didn't used to be a problem in earlier builds. So 2 examples that tells me iTunes could do with some improvements.

tryd · January 24, 2017 10:15AM

Or you could look for something else that might cause the problem, Dolphin0611. I have none of the problems you describe, and I use iTunes much the same way that you do. My problem with iTunes is the speed of searches when the library gets big. In my case the library file is about 70 MB, the XML-file is about 350 MB, and the library it self is close to 4 TB (220 000 items).

soli · January 24, 2017 12:41PM

I did have an issue with the previous update where editing metadata in Get Info would take upwards of 5 minute to complete. I hope that this is resolved for me in this update.

edit: Issue still exists. I wonder if it's because I used CoreServices to encrypt an external RAID of HDDs in which my iTunes Library resides.

edited January 2017

crowley · January 24, 2017 12:58PM

Remember iSync?

I always found it a bit weird that devices ended up in iTunes. I suppose when it was purely about music with iPods it made a bit of sense, but I think that putting those functions into iSync, later as a front end for Sync Services, with hooks into iTunes, Photos, Address Book, etc might have been better.

mike1 · January 24, 2017 1:42PM

Agreed. All the issues I was having with Airplay seemed to have been resolved a few updates ago. Just seems to work every time now.

imat · January 24, 2017 2:11PM

Updates... And yet:

- we still don't have Siri for AppleTV for some obscure reason (italian speaking part of Switzerland). Whilst on iPhone and AppleWatch Siri works just fine.
- we don't have the TV app for the same obscure reasons (which escape me).

All in all we are treated like "b series" customers. And yet we pay the same price as all the others. But I have a button on my Apple Remote which has no use at all.

Apple. Wake up.

imat · January 24, 2017 2:12PM

And, before I forget, we also don't have the "news app" on our iPhones...

Come on. This is really getting ridiculous.

melodyof1974 · January 24, 2017 4:01PM

Stuck at work all day on a Dell and iTunes Store is a disaster on a PC.

fairwweather · January 24, 2017 7:37PM

I dont' know about the "working perfectly" thing. I use dual monitors - and old 24 cinema next to a 27. If I accidentally drag the window a little too wide it displays a message about incompatible resolution and blows up.

The REALLY big issue for me (and thousands of others) that goes back a full TEN years is the nonsense about double-downloads. The app should be intelligent enough to know what movies I have in my library and not keep trying to download duplicate copies. Apple has known about this issue for many years but, being Apple, their focus is on two things: new and shiny, and not much else.

Apple releases iTunes 12.5.5 with minor performance improvements

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