RANT: The worst part of switching to Mac OS X is iTunes

Silverfish · Post by **Silverfish** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 6:19 pm

Holy Fuck, I HATE iTunes.

It won't watch folders.
It wants to "manage" them (i.e. fuck them beyond recognition)
It can't find "missing" files
It won't play FLAC, WMA, OGG, etc.
AAARGH.

I'm sure I missed some things I loathe, but Jesus Christ....

The only alternative I've found is songbird, which is really just a buggier version of iTunes.

Fuck, I miss Winamp.

/rant

duluxdog · Post by **duluxdog** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 6:22 pm

I converted over to Mac recently and also agree that iTunes is retarded. I like everything else on here about from iTunes.

How can I make it NOT copy music to the hard drive when I put an audio CD into the drive? I have ticked and un-ticked various boxes but it still insists on copying the audio every time. Does anyone know how to make it stop?

It is a shame because all the other built-in apps are great for my purposes.

fatrabbit · Post by **fatrabbit** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 6:30 pm

I used to be a Winamp person a few years ago and disliked iTunes when I started using it. I had a job which involved a lot of testing in iTunes so it helped me get used to it (but also using Windows Media Player which is a POS!). You can stop it organising your music folder and copying to the HD in the preferences.

Silverfish · Post by **Silverfish** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 6:32 pm

Yeah, I've unchecked all that stuff, and maybe my problem is I just need to be thorough about moving my music to external HD and labeling BEFORE I open it.

iTunes still blows hard on the trumpet of suck.

liveISlife · Post by **liveISlife** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 6:32 pm

@ Silverfish- to stop itunes from managing our library go to itunes/ prefrances/ advanced and click off "keep itunes music folder organized"

@ duluxdog go to itunes /prefrences/ general and go to where it says "when you insert a cd" select what you want itunes to do when you insert a cd.

john doe by choice · Post by **john doe by choice** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 6:33 pm

You can turn off file management by Itunes, and in fact, it is something you SHOULD do, because if you have itunes managing your files, it makes copies of everything you drop in it and puts it in it's library folder, thus you end up with two of everything and a whole lot of wasted space, on top of the fact that it makes separate folders for every artist on a compilation...just a pain in the ass, all the way around.

My personal situation is this: I just bought a 1TB drive for my Mac Pro, and copied everything from external drives to the TB drive, so I could put the externals in storage (I would lose it if I lost all my tunes to a dead drive). So, I had to start all over with Itunes, because all of my music was "lost" by the program. So, I turned off file management by itunes (uncheck "Keep Itunes music folder organized" and "Copy files to Itunes Music Folder when adding" under advanced in prefs), and then went into itunes and deleted all playlists...since itunes can't find the music that is supposed to be attached, it won't delete anything but the playlists, so you're safe. Then I go through the 300gb of tunes I've got, and add folders one by one...once you're done, everything will be in order for you, and itunes will see everything where it is, instead of making a mess you have to sort through later.

john doe by choice · Post by **john doe by choice** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 6:34 pm

liveISlife wrote:@ Silverfish- to stop itunes from managing our library go to itunes/ prefrances/ advanced and click off "keep itunes music folder organized"

@ duluxdog go to itunes /prefrences/ general and go to where it says "when you insert a cd" select what you want itunes to do when you insert a cd.

didn't see this

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:03 pm

Silverfish wrote:Holy Fuck, I HATE iTunes.

It won't watch folders.
It wants to "manage" them (i.e. fuck them beyond recognition)
It can't find "missing" files
It won't play FLAC, WMA, OGG, etc.
AAARGH.

I'm sure I missed some things I loathe, but Jesus Christ....

The only alternative I've found is songbird, which is really just a buggier version of iTunes.

Fuck, I miss Winamp.
/rant

totally disagreed, simply learn how to use it, set it up for your needs correctly...

a little tip check http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/

for tons of great scripts making using iTunes a charm...

i used to hate it myself, now i know iTunes pretty much indeptht and i can't imagine being without it. it has a great power organising very large libraries, also i love that stuff like Traktor and many others make use of iTunes created playlists.

just learn it... and you will see...

Silverfish · Post by **Silverfish** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:18 pm

lol @ SubFunk

Remember when Ableton decided the "edit" button needed to be somewhere else, and we all threw a fit before they changed it back to the way it was before? If someone told me to "simply learn how to use it", I'd flip a tit.

That being said, I'm still learning things about iTunes, although many of those things are hacks and workarounds and not actual program features.

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:24 pm

Silverfish wrote:lol @ SubFunk

Remember when Ableton decided the "edit" button needed to be somewhere else, and we all threw a fit before they changed it back to the way it was before? If someone told me to "simply learn how to use it", I'd flip a tit.

That being said, I'm still learning things about iTunes, although many of those things are hacks and workarounds and not actual program features.

!!!!!!!!!

Silverfish · Post by **Silverfish** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:33 pm

...

sorry if I frustrated you.

jonny72 · Post by **jonny72** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:38 pm

Most people who bitch about iTunes haven't bothered to check out the preferences and set them correctly for their own needs. A couple of years ago I checked out every music manager there was and nothing came close to iTunes, for my needs at least.

It was using iTunes on my PC that convinced me to get an iPod, and then a Mac.

Pretty certain you can get it to play Flac. But there is no real need for Flac - use Apple Lossless instead which is supported by as many if not more music apps.

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:38 pm

Silverfish wrote:... sorry if I frustrated you.

don't worry you didn't

keep ranting away... i am a happy user after i learned how to use it properly and what it is actually capable of...

and the fact that iTunes is scriptable is a bless. and not a hack.

and yes, i did had to learn it, just like many other things.

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:44 pm

jonny72 wrote:Most people who bitch about iTunes haven't bothered to check out the preferences and set them correctly for their own needs. A couple of years ago I checked out every music manager there was and nothing came close to iTunes, for my needs at least.

It was using iTunes on my PC that convinced me to get an iPod, and then a Mac.

Pretty certain you can get it to play Flac. But there is no real need for Flac - use Apple Lossless instead which is supported by as many if not more music apps.

very well said, i agree and i also love it because it plays the best sounding compressed audio format there is: AAC (and can convert into it!)

and any serious audio apps company, in my opinion should be ashamed to not support AAC files fully.

jah4life · Post by **jah4life** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:52 pm

i use itunes out of necessity. it's not that bad, but i agree the main shitty points are that it won't play many popular audio formats (ogg, flac, etc).

And the itunes store sucks because it only offers music in compressed formats. Lame.

RANT: The worst part of switching to Mac OS X is iTunes

RANT: The worst part of switching to Mac OS X is iTunes

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