iPad is Great, iTunes is not.

[Ripplinghurst]

Just a question: is it possible for searching for duplicates in the library (not just displaying them), by more than one criteria (ex. name, file contents, file size)?

Does it automatically updates the library if you rename or add album art to a file? O change tags using another editor?

Does it keep tracks of deletes and addition, not only for music, but books, videos, etc.?

Because the Windows version does none of those things. It sucks. That's why I use Media Monkey.

 

[pallentx]

I dont know if its a windows only thing, but itunes is just terrible. It doesnt auto update the library, it doesnt find most of my album art work, It can only handle a couple of music formats. The interface is awkward with settings buried all over the place. It needs a serious redesign.

Apple could learn a lot from Microsoft's Zune software (I know that's heresy here) The Zune software will show any file of any type that windows can play in your library. It will convert seamlessly in the background when it syncs to the device if its an unsupported file type. If you copy a folder of music into your music folder, the software automatically picks it up and adds it to your library. It looks great too. Its also very easy in the Zune software to exclude individual files or albums, pictures, folders of pictures, videos, etc. You just right-click the item in your library and tell it not to sync it. When your device is connected you can browse the items on your device and remove them individually as well.

 

[ipadfans]

i totally agree, itune is too chunky and many functions are not needed

 

[Fotonutz]

Hope some of the Apple iTunes developers are here in this forum reading our suggestions so that they can consider our needs for the next iTunes release.

I'd really hope we can drag and drop songs, videos and photos into the iPhone or iPad like the WinMobile devices.

 

[Bremen]

Hope some of the Apple iTunes developers are here in this forum reading our suggestions so that they can consider our needs for the next iTunes release.

I'd really hope we can drag and drop songs, videos and photos into the iPhone or iPad like the WinMobile devices.

I drag and drop music to my iPad all the time, why would you think you couldn't?

 

[Fotonutz]

Hi Bremen

It works! I didn't know you can actually drag and drop songs via iTunes until I saw your reply and started to figure out how.
It was my little monster who showed me how to do it!

However, I didn't hv a chance to try photos yet. Will try that later and see if I can do that.

Thanks!!

 

[pallentx]

Yes, I can drag and drop music to the iPad, but its very complicated to selectively not sync certain individual songs from your library, and photos were even more difficult to deal with. ITunes also couldnt get a lot of my album art, so I opened the Zune software to get all that info and then used the album art from Zune to manually add in iTunes. (Which is also not a very intuitive process).

 

[iPadCharlie]

I had to go out and buy a second hard drive just for my iPad converted movies.

I have a TV tuner in my PC and bought a 1tb drive for something like $80 about a year ago (and that was from BestBuy!) to record TV shows. Its getting to the point (now don't start singing "Suite Judy Blue Eyes") where I am seriously considering buying another drive. NewEgg has a Western Digital 1tb drive for $59.99 + FREEE shipping! It is only a 5400 rpm drive, but they also have an Hitachi 7200 rpm drive for $69.99 + FREE shipping! There is no reason NOT to have have at least one additional hard drive!

 

[MacMattpc]

I've only ever had 2 itunes problems when I had to use a PC. bother were related to hardware drivers.

 

[col.bris]

Something does not make sense I have m

any users running windows iTunes using xp , vista and 7 the only customers that have had problems are those whom have virus issues and poor hard drives ie fragmented Many of the issues seem to link back to USB ports on older computers however in saying that my customers have laptops and or desktops with in 2 years.
I personally use Mac only so unable to test issues

 

[Ripplinghurst]

I don't know when poor hard drives came into discussion. This is has nothing to do with how poorly written iTunes is, for reasons already mentioned. It's one of the worse media management programs available.

Even Windows Media Player is better: more formats supported from the get go, better library maintenance and update.

My 6 hard drives are perfect (including my raptors and my SSD), thank you, and I know where my issues come from: itunes.

 

[RobotRock]

I must be the only person here that couldn't live without iTunes. Been using it on PC since I got my first iPod and I love it. Even during the period when I didn't have any iPods I had looked at different replacements and couldn't find one I love as much as iTunes. I think it does everything perfectly, and have never had a problem with it. I love the way it manages my music as well. I just drag the files into the 'automatically add to iTunes folder' and it sorts each artist in their own individual folder.

 

[pallentx]

I must be the only person here that couldn't live without iTunes. Been using it on PC since I got my first iPod and I love it. Even during the period when I didn't have any iPods I had looked at different replacements and couldn't find one I love as much as iTunes. I think it does everything perfectly, and have never had a problem with it. I love the way it manages my music as well. I just drag the files into the 'automatically add to iTunes folder' and it sorts each artist in their own individual folder.

I think if you have been using it a long time and know it well, its fine. What's important is that you have something that works for you. As a new user coming from newer versions of Windows Media and the Zune software, I found it awkward and not very intuitive, which is surprising for an Apple product. I think a lot of your experience depends on what music you have. iTunes couldnt get album art and song info for a lot of my music. It even split some albums into multiple albums and weird stuff like that. Luckily, I only needed to use it long enough to get my ipad up and running and I havent had to go back into iTunes since.

 

[Ripplinghurst]

I'm glad it works for you, but it's because it happens to fill your needs.

It works with what? 5 or 6 file types? AAC, mp3, wav aiff, Apple lossless and mov? ACC is useless for me, since I refuse to use the iTunes store restricted and badly compressed files (last time I checked). So it's a MEDIA MANAGEMENT software that only works with mp3 and wav, basically.

It does not play or recognize tag on many many more music and video formats. Even if you have ALL the codecs that makes Windows Media Player or other play them, it won't work. You can't just drop an .mkv or .flac file into it, even if you have the codecs. It won't even convert them.

And it's not only about media management eigther. Even the Application management to sync with your iPad is poor.

Suppose you have 218 apps to choose from, what to sync on your iPhone, somebody else's and the iPad. You want to organize and delete apps. You want to use your big wide screen monitor: will it work? No it won't. It doesn't matter if you're using a 19" screen, a 24" or a 32": it won't scale. You can't make iTunes scale the iPhone mock up display and show more stuff so that it's easier to grab and organize things for instance. Just now on the iOS4 we have folders to organize apps. Really?


Using and navigating around iTunes is like web browsing the webpages with frames around 2002, don't you think?

iTunes needs more flexibility and a better design, I believe Apple can do a better job, or I wouldn't complain.

 

[RobotRock]

Well, I'm still waiting for my iPad to arrive (longest wait ever) but once I get it I'll post my iPad-iTunes experience. For music though, I love iTunes. I have over 4,000 songs and I just like the way iTunes organises them. I don't really use it for movies, maybe that's where it lacks functionality.