Pretty straight forward question. I hate iTunes with a passion and would like to find an easier/more efficent way to sync/back-up & transfer all of my music and videos. I’d also like to be able to transfer content from both my iPhone & iPad to my computer.
In short, is there any program out there that basically treats iPhones & iPads as just another drive? One where you can simply transfer said videos and music to their respective folder (or even open new ones) without going through the maze that iTunes has become?
If so, which one do you use and/or recommend?
Obviously the best price is “free”…but I’d consider shelling out some cash if a substitute program would satisfy my needs. Again, something that makes my Apple devices as close to an extra drive as possible.
I’m assuming you’re a Windows user? There are other apps you can use, just Google ‘alternatives to itunes’ to find some, free and paid. I can’t give any first hand reviews, except that once I tried a free app a while back and although it did seem to work, it corrupted my album art database (mixed up all the covers). Only thing I could do was reload the whole library which takes hours, so needless to say I wasn’t much interested in trying any others. Of course there’s also the whole world of jailbreaking.
Unlike Windows, Apple does not use a ‘file/folder’ centric model for iOS (at least not from the user’s POV). Consequently some things which are dead simple to do on a PC can be maddeningly frustrating, sometimes impossible, to do on an iOS device. Also Apple really doesn’t like you directly moving anything (other than pictures) off the iPhone back onto a computer, audio files in particular (to prevent piracy). So it isn’t easy for desktop software to ‘see’ a connected iOS device as simply a ‘drive’. Also a reason iPhones have (amazingly) never had an SD slot.
Even though I’m strictly a Windows/PC guy I’ve gotten used to my iPhone and iTunes and am able to get it to do what I need (though at first I nearly threw it out the window a few times!) If you’re really unhappy with it I would suggest you seriously consider an Android phone next time you can upgrade.
I use Dropbox quite a bit to move doc, spreadsheet, PDF, ePub quite a bit. It has decent viewers and offers an ‘Open with’ option that allows you to view/edit a copy in the appropriate Apps.
Because of the restrictions on music and video files (Apple has to keep the labels and studios happy) - I don’t think Dropbox can offer up a music or video file with an ‘Open with’ option.
Since iOS Apps ‘own’ files rather than a general purpose file system, simple access to an iOS device as a drive is problematic.
If you really have to do this, I suggest you look into Jail Breaking or a switch to Android.
Appreciate the responses. I am indeed a Windows user since W3, a paltry 24 years ago. I’m on my second iPhone & have a 2nd generation iPad – I like them enough but I have nowhere the expertise with iOS that I do with windows, so no doubt I am hardly using either gadget to their full capacity. That said, whatever basic stuff I use them for, I am quite happy with. Be it using whatsapp, Kindle app and a couple of social networks on iPhone (plus I am one of those rare types that actually uses the regular phone a lot, and I like how it performs a lot) and iPad, basically for Netflix & an HD player app I purchased that allows me to watch all movies in my huge collection.
But my main gripe as Hail Ants mentions, is that I am constantly frustrated by the simplicity I was used to when I had a Sansa MP/video player. Without even using their proprietary software it would show on “My Computer” as a removable drive and just go ahead and C&P and song/s movies/s I wanted and put them in their respective folders amd boom! play them! Amazing stuff.
On iTunes, half the time I don’t know what I am doing as I find nothing “intuitive” about it – so many times I end up with stuff on either my iPhone or iPad that I never wanted there in the first place. And to remove it is a pain. After much reading I’ve figured out a way – making empty folder on my desktop and fooling iTunes to sync from there – but I don’t always manage to get rid of just unnecessary content; sometimes it might wipe my whole, say music collection…and then its start over from there.
So yes, I guess I’ll do a Google search an see what’s out there in term of both improving functionality and providing an easier interface. Hopefully there’s something as I already ordered my iPad Air – though the iPad is not that big a deal seeing the basic use I have for it.
Might have to take a look @ the Androids as my trade-up with the phone company is due soon – love my 4s iPhone, but the iTunes experience ruins it for me. It’s just not set-up like I want it to be and it’ll likely never be thanks to iTunes.
It’s not really very complicated…
If you let iTunes sync your music to the iPhone, all you have to do is to create a playlist (or lists) and tell it to sync those - they will end up on the phone, and all other music will be deleted. After you create the lists, it’s only one click have all the changes reflected on the iPhone.
Meant to say that the backup problem can go away if you set iOS up to do iCloud backups instead of using iTunes.
As far as syncing music and videos, the cloud is fine too - as long as you are talking about stuff you purchased from Apple.
iTunes is a huge mess, but once I stopped trying to make it do what I wanted (as a software developer with full understanding of how computer file systems worked) it got easier. There actually is some logic behind the way iTunes manages files for iOS - but certainly not intuitive. It is designed for naive users and sometimes knowing too much about computers can get in your way.
Thanks for both of your posts, but the bolded part of this one is exactly my biggest gripe. I’ve bought quite a few apps from the Apple store, but ALL my music and movies are not from Apple; I’ve purchased or downloaded then somewhere else. And since I paid Apple over $2,000.00 between my phone & pad – with another 1,000+ on the way with the new iPad --, I don't see why they require any more " loyalty" from me.
I don’t know what “cloud” jasg is talking about, but iTunes Match (which is $29/year) works with ALL music - purchased or not. Out of the 10,000+ songs in my iTunes library, I’ve only purchased a handful - the rest were ripped by me (painstakingly) from my CDs. These get uploaded to the “cloud” and are available on all my devices.
I meant iCloud but mistyped. I agree that iTunes Match works with any music (but not videos) after you get it into iTunes, but if the goal is to eliminate iTunes there is a bit of a problem for the OP.
I’ve been checking some substitute software for iTunes on the web, and yes, Media Monkey is usually ranked near the top.
I’ll also add, for anyone that’s interested, that I did purchase this app a couple of years ago for watching my movie collection on the iPad – and I love it. Plays all formats and I can tranfer to the app folder directly from iTunes. Life-saver when I travel.
Must say, HD playback is impeccable and it also allows for adding subs. Highly recommended in order to bypass Apple’s ridiculous “firewall” of exclusivity.
Hello, I just found you guys. I was looking for info on what the Japanese teach about WW2 to their students and found this great site.
On the issue of Media Players, I am biased. I have been a drummer for 25+ years and would say I know music pretty well. I use absolutely nothing by Apple (you could not give it to me). Good music players are not easy to find. #1 has some cool stuff, but #2 has this and that, it goes on and on. Right now I use Foobar 2000, mainly because of the sound quality and I have music on multiple hard drives and WMP would not search for my new stuff. Still, it has issues I do not like as well. Just a suggestion and good luck.
I know you want to get rid of iTunes, Redfury, but may I second this suggestion?
iTunes syncs what you tell it to sync, so just dump everything you want into a playlist and snyc that. You don’t have to use it as a playlist on your phone, it’s just a way of easily telling iTunes what you want and what you don’t. iTunes is also pretty good at organizing your music nicely on your computer (which is partly why I like it, despite being pretty anti-Apple). Drag and drop files to iTunes, drag the songs you want to your playlist, and sync.
I can third the above. About 3 years ago when I first got an iPhone I too found iTunes sync to be maddeningly frustrating. I posted here and someone suggested exactly the above, to use Playlists for syncing. I have one Playlist called ‘My iPhone’ which contains everything. Then I just create sub-playlists for music, comedy etc. to use for actual selective playing (i.e. a true Playlist). Works great.
Whatever you do, DO NOT check the Manage My Music Manually box! If you do that and click Apply it will delete all your music from the phone! IOW it doesn’t mean ‘from this point on’ manage things manually (which is what I thought), it means start over with nothing.
Except, they are correct.
iTunes Syncs (Synchronizes) the playlists on the iPhone/iPod with those in iTunes. Any songs that have been added, get added. Any that have been deleted, get deleted.
Question: There’s basically ONE folder where I keep most/all the music I want on my iPhone. It’s called Heart Rock and it has eight subfolders each containing a CD which is part of the collection. That’s over 130 songs or close to 9 hours of music. Pretty much all I want in my phone as music is really not that much of a priority to me – great to have some there for hotel stays and such, but I much prefer movies on my iPad (which as I posted above, is an issue I’ve managed to solve with the PlayerXtreme HD app & Netflix.)
So the question is: Can I drag the main “Heart Rock” folder and boom! it’ll just sync just that? Or do I have to drag 130+ songs individually in order to get the list to sync? Major PITA if it’s the latter.
PS – I really don’t care for playlists. I find it much easier to simply go into my Windows music folder, choose the CD I want to listen to, right-click over it and hit “play all” with Windows Media Player.
Pretty organized as is IMO. At least my set-up, as I have about 200 CDs/collections vs maybe 15 singles.
I also found this alternative to iTunes: Wondershare TunesGo – it event coverts videos to Apple format. I downloaded it but w/out purchasing it ($40.00) useability is close to zero. So I am not willing to shell out for it.
I assume the folder is on your drive somewhere (not in iTunes).
If so, just launch iTunes and drag the folder onto it. It will import all your music.
Then just adjust the settings on the iPhone tab in iTunes to sync that folder to your phone.