While I do fault Apple for making what they want you to want as the default, I think you just need to change your preferences. They try to hide, to make you forget the old way is still there, but it is. I still have all my playlists, uncheck-ability, etc.
How does that work? What software are you using for music library purposes?
I abhor iTunes. It simultaneously does everything I don’t want it to do while preventing me from doing what I do want to do.
it was useful for me. I finally got rid of that fucking U2 album.
Yes, exactly.
Mother doesn’t use a home computer *at all *and her music library’s format is mostly flat and circular with a hole in the center.
So her iPhone’s music library, if she wanted one, would be whatever she got over the air off iTunes Store/AppleMusic (and far more likely, the young folks at the place she volunteers will set up Pandora for her and she’ll be fine with it).
For her the iPhone is NOT a music library device. It’s a palmheld computer-cell phone-PDA-pocket camera/recorder. In that role, the iPhone can work as a standalone, with iCloud as restoration backup and the AppStore as source of updates over the air, and any of various alternatives for third party cloud storage.
Now, if you want to sync music libraries from your home hard drive to an iPhone, well Apple’s got some bad news for you, Sunshine: you get iTunes, either hardwired or via WiFi.
And even if you are successful, it still asks you every time if you want to make it default. It’s easier to give in than fight. Resistance is futile.
Gotcha
Personally I’m fond of the way iTunes takes audio files of three different sorts (books, podcasts, music) and puts them on three different pieces of software on the phone. All three do the same thing (play stuff) and none of them want anything to do with each other. This makes perfect sense, it was awful to have all my audio files easily accessible from one application with which I could compile playlists of podcasts AND music.
Not sure what the difference between “Saved Episodes” and “my episodes” is, though. Or why these things are necessary. I guess “here’s the list, the items you’ve downloaded have a dot next to them” didn’t give the software people at Apple enough to do.
Amen to both of these sentiments.
I’ve always done everything manually on iTunes since day one… on my Mac Cube, on my Powerbook, up until now, when I finally gave up my mp3 player and got an iPhone.
In an average week, I use my phone to listen to a half dozen audiobooks, a bunch of music (ripped from CD’s or crappy mp3’s, and some purchased from Amazon or iTunes), and lots of Radiolab and How Stuff Works podcasts.
Oh, and I might make two or three phone calls…
The point is, click “manually manage music” and start listening… instead of playing Apple’s little games. Oh, and I handle photos manually, backing them up to an iMac with Image Capture.
And I don’t update 'til I have to (iTunes 10 is still the easiest for me, but I did go with 11.1 on my new used MacBookPro).
Sorry, gotta get back to ‘Carsick’ (John Waters hitchhiking across America)…
I just tried this and it created a playlist of both podcasts and music with nary a peep. Sure I had to switch source windows as I changed program type, is that what you meant?
That John Waters?
Hope you’re on commission.
No, I’m talking about making playlists on the phone, not through iTunes. This wasn’t a problem when there was one music player.
That doesn’t mean we have to accept it.
Update: I actually got iTunes to load some music onto my phone. The only problem is, I’m not sure how I did it. The HELP file should be called the H file, as three-quarters of the information I need is not there.
Somehow I got into this screen where it listed playlists and asked what I wanted to put onto my phone (I assume this is what “sync” means in AppleSpeak). Then I had an epiphany: I had to tell iTunes not only that I wanted to add some music to my phone, but that I wanted to keep what was already on there, on there!
This is totally bass-ackwards of anything I could have ever devised. But if I figure out how I got on that screen, I’ll be, if not golden, at least gold-filled.
BTW, the “That’s Bullshit” video was HILARIOUS. So were the rest of his videos. 
I have a 64GB iPod Touch which is frankly great and I played with it for a solid year when I got it years ago. I now use it as a music player in my car but I haven’t updated it in over a year because I haven’t infected my new copy of Windows with iTunes and don’t expect I will.