My iTunes gripes

To me, iTunes is by far the worst software I have currently running on any of my computers. By far. It is such a contrast with the slick iOS devices from the same company.

Forget multiple instances

Under Windows iTunes does not allow multiple instances under different user accounts. In other words, if a user is logged on and has iTunes running and another user logs on to the same machine and tries to start iTunes, it bluntly refuses to start:

Forget automatic monitoring of media folders

One of the major pros of using Windows Media Player is that it is very good in monitoring folders. All my music resides on a server on the home LAN and I manage my music manually. Yes, manually. That is just the way I like it. When I add, remove, relocate, rename or otherwise alter music files (album art, lyrics), WMP picks this up without my intervention.

Not iTunes. It complains about missing files, does not reflect changes to existing files, and does not care about added files.

iTunes will only monitor one single folder: C:\Users\Your Username\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Automatically Add to iTunes\ but this is not a viable solution for me, as I maintain my music on a central share. I don't want to have to copy files to all my machines.

Forget iOS updates without connecting

Every time there is an update, the device needs to be plugged in. Since iTunes already knows everything about my IOS device(s) it could simply tell me there is an iOS update and offer to start the download. Instead, I will only find out about updates after I have plugged the iOS device in. Once the download started, I can disconnect. Cumbersome.

Forget a consistent user experience

For the company that is so keen on the term "user experience" this is something I just don't get. I am a keyboard person. I know. Probably a left over from the days of DOS. In iTunes, with the iOS device selected from the sidebar, you cannot navigate the active pane on the right with the cursor keys up/down. Using the cursor keys there moves the focus in the side bar. This is inconsistent and annoying.

The strange thing is that this does work correctly in other parts of the side bar. For example, you can navigate the music just fine.

Forget skipping duplicates from the Camera Roll

Typically, when you copy files to a folder Windows will pause and ask to overwrite existing files. The options (Windows XP) are yes / yes to all / no. There is a handy undocumented feature. Click shift while clicking no for "no to all". However, for some reason this does not work for the Camera Roll folder. There is no other way than to click no for each file. Usually, I end up using overwriting everything but with large movie files this can get time-consuming.

Forget graceful media incompatibility detection

When syncing an iPod Touch (3rd generation) iTunes continuously crashed randomly during the sync process. After hours of troubleshooting, I discovered that the problem was caused by videos that were created with a camcorder. Typically, I run those through HandBrake to convert them to iPod and Iphone friendly formats. Instead of detecting issues and a warning, iTunes simply crashed.

Edit August 14, 2011: This may actually be a confirmed bug in iTunes. As long as no videos were added after the iTunes 10.4 update, there are no problems. Add any videos to the photo folder and the bug will manifest itself. The only viable work-around is to downgrade to 10.3.1.

Edit August 25, 2011: iTunes 10.4.1 still has this bug. I am unable to add videos to the photo folders. It works for the odd video but not for the majority.

Edit October 13, 2011: With iTunes 10.5 this bug has finally been resolved.

Forget consistent app updates

So iTunes indicates there are three app updates:

Library notification on the left.

The main pane is also indicating the same:

App store link in the main pane.

But... nothing:

Edit October 13, 2011: This can happen if apps are copied from another iTunes account. The solution is to log out and log in with the appropriate account, after which iTunes will show any updates for that account. It may be easier to update from the device since iTunes will simply ask for the correct credentials when needed. You would think iTunes would handle this more intelligently.

Forget correct language detection

Plugged in an iPhone 4 for the first time. The second screen came up in Russian, no less:

And yes, the iPhone was, of course, set up in the proper language (not Russian). I was able to guess what it wanted by pasting the text in Google Translate.

So...

iTunes is archaic software that simply does not fit the slick design of the iOS devices. At all. Sometimes, I hear "just switch to a Mac." Really? Let's not go there.

(At the time of writing, I am running iTunes 10.4 on a mix of Windows Xp Home and Professional, and Windows 7 Home and Ultimate, both 32- and 64-bit.)