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Techies that find iTunes so frustrating do amuse me. My iTunes library has been located in a non-default location since the original iTunes for OS 9. External

Techies that find iTunes so frustrating do amuse me. My iTunes library has been located in a non-default location since the original iTunes for OS 9. External drives, network locations, internal secondary drives, over the years my needs and requirements have changed. iTunes has worked in all those locations. My current library has a creation date of 2009. Initial import does take quite some time. Good thing I haven't had to do it since... well 2009 I guess. iTunes isn't the black box people make it out to be. iOS device management through iTunes is, I'm not even going to touch that one. However the regular library functions of iTunes are quite simple and keeping a library from being destroyed isn't difficult. > Good riddance. Still the best library based jukebox for OS X. I'm willing to put it up against any other option.

ImprovedSilence 15y ago
I've never had freezing/crashing/apocalyptic issues with iTunes on Win or OSX, but for a company that prides itself on user experience, iTunes leaves a lot to be desired. I pine for the day when a real Winamp gets on OSX, and not in that half assed form they came out with a few months ago. But maybe thats just cuz I'm old and set in my ways. Or maybe I just like a simple way to queue up some songs, or the ability to see 50 songs in my playlist, while only taking up a narrow side of my screen. But that's just the retro grouch in me... Your right as far as I know on your last point, not that I've done much searching, but I can hope there's something out there someday.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
drivebyacct2 15y ago
Yes, many people have no problems with iTunes. However I find it amusing that people think the large population of the rest of us to be 'crazy' or some such because we all seem to experience the same problems and can reproduce them very easily. Itunes is the very definition of a black box. If you have an even slightly large library, it becomes a slow behemoth writing it's awkward binary-xml-shit files every time a change is made. And no offense, you did not move your library across all those spots without issue. It's frankly not possible. Moving those files causes iTunes to lose it's absolute references to them and you have to do a reimport.
- shinratdr 15y ago
  > However I find it amusing that people think the large population of the rest of us to be 'crazy' or some such because we all seem to experience the same problems and can reproduce them very easily. That's not the reason. It's because you choose to bitch about them instead of attempting to solve them, even though they are completely solvable problems that don't happen in a clean setup. Reproducing means nothing, except that you didn't bother to try and solve the problem. > If you have an even slightly large library, it becomes a slow behemoth writing it's awkward binary-xml-shit files every time a change is made. This is just patently false. See my other comment for a detailed explanation. Long and short of it is iTunes doesn't even use the XML file, it exists for 3rd party apps to use. If your machine locks up every time a 30MB file is written (written, not even accessed) then there is something wrong with your storage media, not iTunes. Perhaps you have some sort of 3rd party syncing app that immediately accesses the iTunes XML every time it is re-written? That's more likely than Apple not noticing that their media player locks up every time when accessing a large library. > And no offense, you did not move your library across all those spots without issue. Hard to take offence to something I didn't say. My iTunes library has existed on all of those locations at one time or another, it wasn't the same library every time. Like I said, last time I recreated it was in 2009. It still existed in those locations and didn't randomly reset itself as you claim. > It's frankly not possible. Moving those files causes iTunes to lose it's absolute references to them and you have to do a reimport. Oh no! Exclamation marks everywhere! Click the song, browse to the song, iTunes asks if you want to check the folder for any other references. 5 minute scan later, all pointers are fixed. It's not only possible, it's dead simple. It's almost like you could have discovered that with a simple Google search. Or hell, just actually trying instead of jumping immediately to whining.
  - drivebyacct2 15y ago
    Again, I love the fact that you, just like the people I talked about in my first fucking comment, treat me like I'm stupid, despite the fact that I know what I'm doing (hell, enough to reproduce 90% of iTunes's features in my own media library/player). You even imply that I run to whinning instead of Googling. Why don't you Google these issues. You'll find dozens of other people with the exact same issue. You wasted a lot of effort typing that reply. One of my more infuriating replies I've gotten here. edit: Annnnnd a quick look at your other comments in this thread tell me everything I need to know. You're even running around telling other people describing the exact same problem and acting like they're crazy. You realize that something working for you doesn't mean it's bug free, right? My media library takes an arbitrary number of sources, takes 2 minutes to parse my library, works with more file formats, doesn't store an incomprehensible, incompatible format that no one else can write, doesn't require inane Terms of Service and more. I'm very, very happy that iTunes works for you. For a ton of people, it's a damn headache.
batista 15y ago
>Techies that find iTunes so frustrating do amuse me. Probably outliers with music libraries in the multi TB range
- shinratdr 15y ago
  That's what I would have expected, but OP says his library is 200GB hence why I made the argument. My library is 115GB and doesn't come close to experiencing these issues, and it's accessed from seven different Macs, all with different hardware, software and of different generations.

ImprovedSilence 15y ago

I've never had freezing/crashing/apocalyptic issues with iTunes on Win or OSX, but for a company that prides itself on user experience, iTunes leaves a lot to be desired. I pine for the day when a real Winamp gets on OSX, and not in that half assed form they came out with a few months ago. But maybe thats just cuz I'm old and set in my ways. Or maybe I just like a simple way to queue up some songs, or the ability to see 50 songs in my playlist, while only taking up a narrow side of my screen. But that's just the retro grouch in me... Your right as far as I know on your last point, not that I've done much searching, but I can hope there's something out there someday.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

drivebyacct2 15y ago

Yes, many people have no problems with iTunes. However I find it amusing that people think the large population of the rest of us to be 'crazy' or some such because we all seem to experience the same problems and can reproduce them very easily. Itunes is the very definition of a black box. If you have an even slightly large library, it becomes a slow behemoth writing it's awkward binary-xml-shit files every time a change is made. And no offense, you did not move your library across all those spots without issue. It's frankly not possible. Moving those files causes iTunes to lose it's absolute references to them and you have to do a reimport.

shinratdr 15y ago
> However I find it amusing that people think the large population of the rest of us to be 'crazy' or some such because we all seem to experience the same problems and can reproduce them very easily. That's not the reason. It's because you choose to bitch about them instead of attempting to solve them, even though they are completely solvable problems that don't happen in a clean setup. Reproducing means nothing, except that you didn't bother to try and solve the problem. > If you have an even slightly large library, it becomes a slow behemoth writing it's awkward binary-xml-shit files every time a change is made. This is just patently false. See my other comment for a detailed explanation. Long and short of it is iTunes doesn't even use the XML file, it exists for 3rd party apps to use. If your machine locks up every time a 30MB file is written (written, not even accessed) then there is something wrong with your storage media, not iTunes. Perhaps you have some sort of 3rd party syncing app that immediately accesses the iTunes XML every time it is re-written? That's more likely than Apple not noticing that their media player locks up every time when accessing a large library. > And no offense, you did not move your library across all those spots without issue. Hard to take offence to something I didn't say. My iTunes library has existed on all of those locations at one time or another, it wasn't the same library every time. Like I said, last time I recreated it was in 2009. It still existed in those locations and didn't randomly reset itself as you claim. > It's frankly not possible. Moving those files causes iTunes to lose it's absolute references to them and you have to do a reimport. Oh no! Exclamation marks everywhere! Click the song, browse to the song, iTunes asks if you want to check the folder for any other references. 5 minute scan later, all pointers are fixed. It's not only possible, it's dead simple. It's almost like you could have discovered that with a simple Google search. Or hell, just actually trying instead of jumping immediately to whining.
- drivebyacct2 15y ago
  Again, I love the fact that you, just like the people I talked about in my first fucking comment, treat me like I'm stupid, despite the fact that I know what I'm doing (hell, enough to reproduce 90% of iTunes's features in my own media library/player). You even imply that I run to whinning instead of Googling. Why don't you Google these issues. You'll find dozens of other people with the exact same issue. You wasted a lot of effort typing that reply. One of my more infuriating replies I've gotten here. edit: Annnnnd a quick look at your other comments in this thread tell me everything I need to know. You're even running around telling other people describing the exact same problem and acting like they're crazy. You realize that something working for you doesn't mean it's bug free, right? My media library takes an arbitrary number of sources, takes 2 minutes to parse my library, works with more file formats, doesn't store an incomprehensible, incompatible format that no one else can write, doesn't require inane Terms of Service and more. I'm very, very happy that iTunes works for you. For a ton of people, it's a damn headache.

batista 15y ago

>Techies that find iTunes so frustrating do amuse me. Probably outliers with music libraries in the multi TB range

shinratdr 15y ago
That's what I would have expected, but OP says his library is 200GB hence why I made the argument. My library is 115GB and doesn't come close to experiencing these issues, and it's accessed from seven different Macs, all with different hardware, software and of different generations.