# iTunes! Useless piece of SHIT! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 14, 2009, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389 "2009-05-14T05:54:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/1 "2009-05-14T05:54:05Z")
I was doing some work on my iPod Touch, and like a good little AppleDrone, I “backed up” my content. Except, an Apple iTunes backup doesn’t apparently back anything up! I’ve lost 2 years worth of contacts and, more importantly, 2 years worth of all the films I’ve seen. I saw 160 films in the theater last year, and 155 the year before, and I had all of this listed in this motherfucking roach motel of a PDA. Data gets in, it doesn’t get out. No, dammit, I don’t use that bloated monstrosity Outlook, I use Thunderbird. No, I don’t use IE, I use Firefox. Neither of which would be a problem if any of the morons in Cupertino could write an app that would let me EXPORT SOME FUCKING DATA! I updated the OS “Synced” the music files and thought I was going to be OK. Then I looked at the contact. OK, right click on the Ipod Touch listed on the left. OK…“Restore”…“This will restore only the contacts, calenders, text messages and settings…” that’s all I wanted. But they are not there! ARGH! ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/2 "2009-05-14T06:55:33Z")
I haven’t experienced that problem specifically, but just wanted to jump in and state iTunes is an anti-intuitive bloated piece of shit that was forged from the soul of Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![Myrrajh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/87869e/32.png) [@Myrrajh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrrajh)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/3 "2009-05-14T07:14:09Z")
I’m sorry that all your data got munched. I really appreciate this thread, though, for confirming for me that I made a good decision to not buy an iPhone. My wariness of Apple products is growing. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/4 "2009-05-14T07:37:49Z")
This was a present. But I have to say, I had a first generation Palm Pilot and upgraded several times and never lost a single bit of data. I also lost all my fucking NOTES! Yet another data item that Apple keeps you from exporting! And they are doing this to push their $100 a year [Me.com](http://Me.com) crap! ---
**Author:** ![tsukaesugi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ad7895/32.png) [@tsukaesugi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsukaesugi)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/5 "2009-05-14T13:07:32Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > And they are doing this to push their $100 a year [Me.com](http://Me.com) crap! I’ve been a Me member for the past five years. It sucks. Long story short, I was talked into signing up when I bought my laptop (I didn’t know any better at the time). The email service is buggy as hell everytime you try and access it from anything but a Mac. Even using Safari on a PC it still has major bugs. Yahoo, Gmail, and Hotmail do a better job, and they’re free. The only reason why I haven’t quit my membership yet is because it’s too much of a pain in the ass right now to redo my webpage and reconfigure my email address. But it’s definitely on my list of things to do. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/6 "2009-05-14T13:29:43Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > I haven’t experienced that problem specifically, but just wanted to jump in and state iTunes is an anti-intuitive bloated piece of shit that was forged from the soul of Hitler. I couldn’t agree more. It makes no sense at all. ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/7 "2009-05-14T13:38:24Z")
the onlything more important than backing up your data is making sure your backup works. sorry to hear about your data loss, but lesson learned. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/8 "2009-05-14T14:16:28Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > I couldn’t agree more. It makes no sense at all. What doesn’t make sense? I keep hearing this comment around the boards, and cannot for the life of me grok what people don’t understand. Now, there’s a very good chance that what I use iTunes for (ipod and iphone) barely scratches the surface of what others want it to do. I’ll admit I’m nowhere near a computer power user. But what tasks do you want iTunes to do that you can’t get it to do? ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/9 "2009-05-14T14:40:26Z")
Intuitively anticipate your deficiencies and correct for them on the fly? ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/10 "2009-05-14T15:30:02Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > What doesn’t make sense? I keep hearing this comment around the boards, and cannot for the life of me grok what people don’t understand? I’m a programmer that works in windows all day long. Perhaps that’s the problem. But NOTHING about iTunes is intuitive to me. It’s true that I rarely use it (maybe twice a year) so I have to pretty much start from scratch each time. I absolutely hate it. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/11 "2009-05-14T16:19:48Z")
> [@TwistofFate](#): > > the onlything more important than backing up your data is making sure your backup works. sorry to hear about your data loss, but lesson learned. The problem is that, apart from iTune’s own “restore” there is no way to verify their alleged “backup”. There is no way to export the content to any format, I mean ANY format. No CSV, no XML, nothing! ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/12 "2009-05-14T16:31:57Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > The problem is that, apart from iTune’s own “restore” there is no way to verify their alleged “backup”. There is no way to export the content to any format, I mean ANY format. No CSV, no XML, nothing! That’s because Apple products are perfect and there is no need for any other software anywhere else in the world. At least, that seems to be the Apple philosophy. ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/13 "2009-05-14T16:53:17Z")
Yeah, I bought a song off iTunes about a year ago, and although it shows up on my playlist, the Shuffle absolutely insists it doesn’t exist. Skips right over it. When I contacted Apple about this, I was told that I needed to delete all the songs off the Shuffle, re-register it with iTunes, and then re-load everything in my library. That “SHOULD” allow it to recognize the song. Well, thanks … but I’ve heard enough from others to doubt the sensibility of following this advice. I’ll just live with not having that 99 cent song on my Shuffle. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/14 "2009-05-14T18:38:39Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > I’ll admit I’m nowhere near a computer power user. But what tasks do you want iTunes to do that you can’t get it to do? I want it to quit nagging with prompts for actions and updates. The fact that you can even tell it to turn off automatic updates, yet it continues to nag you anyway, is doubly irritating. I still can’t figure out freakin’ playlist synching and folder structures for importing music. I want my files and folders _here_ dammit, _this way_, yet it continues to randomly litter my ipod and computer with duplicate files, duplicate playlists, links to moved files, etc. In short, the software seems to deliberately try to undo any configuration settings or behavior that you have set up. It will behave nicely for a month or so, then spontaneously decide “To help you out, how about I create triples of everything on your ipod and retag your album artwork to the wrong albums, since your hard drive is running out of space due to my moving a third of your library into a folder nested 14 levels deep somewhere you’ll never find. Would you like Quicktime with that?” ---
**Author:** ![hroark2112](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6a8cbe/32.png) [@hroark2112](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hroark2112)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/15 "2009-05-14T19:27:19Z")
What pisses me off is that I can move songs from my PC to my Ipod easily, but if I buy a new computer, I can’t move the songs from my Ipod to the computer. I’m talking about 100% legal, paid for music. Not a download in the bunch! ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/16 "2009-05-15T01:32:14Z")
> [@Sauron](#): > > Yeah, I bought a song off iTunes about a year ago, and although it shows up on my playlist, the Shuffle absolutely insists it doesn’t exist. Skips right over it. > > When I contacted Apple about this, I was told that I needed to delete all the songs off the Shuffle, re-register it with iTunes, and then re-load everything in my library. That “SHOULD” allow it to recognize the song. > > Well, thanks … but I’ve heard enough from others to doubt the sensibility of following this advice. I’ll just live with not having that 99 cent song on my Shuffle. I’m gonna go ahead and plug WINAMP. I switched to the ipod editor (which works for my shuffle and 4th gen nano, so I assume it’ll work for the other new stuff, too), and I’ve never looked back. iTunes can suck it. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/17 "2009-05-15T01:58:52Z")
> [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](#): > > I’m gonna go ahead and plug WINAMP. I switched to the ipod editor (which works for my shuffle and 4th gen nano, so I assume it’ll work for the other new stuff, too), and I’ve never looked back. iTunes can suck it. Good idea, but it doesn’t deal with my main problem - how do I back up my Calender, Contacts and Notes? ---
**Author:** ![EpicNonsense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c37758/32.png) [@EpicNonsense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EpicNonsense)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/18 "2009-05-15T02:41:07Z")
I’m surprised no one has yet brought up the stupidassmotherfuckingpieceofshit version upgrade process… :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/19 "2009-05-15T02:41:37Z")
> [@hroark2112](#): > > What pisses me off is that I can move songs from my PC to my Ipod easily, but if I buy a new computer, I can’t move the songs from my Ipod to the computer. > > I’m talking about 100% legal, paid for music. Not a download in the bunch! Um, yes you can. Apple doesn’t make it intuitive, but I’ve done it several times. Basic idea: 1. Deauthorize your iTunes on old comp 2. Follow this [pretty straightforward guide](http://lifehacker.com/software/ipod/how-to-copy-songs-from-your-ipod-to-your-pc-105256.php) 3. Profit. ---
**Author:** ![hroark2112](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6a8cbe/32.png) [@hroark2112](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hroark2112)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389/20 "2009-05-15T06:09:54Z")
> [@GameHat](#): > > Um, yes you can. Apple doesn’t make it intuitive, but I’ve done it several times. > > Basic idea: > > 1. Deauthorize your iTunes on old comp > 2. Follow this [pretty straightforward guide](http://lifehacker.com/software/ipod/how-to-copy-songs-from-your-ipod-to-your-pc-105256.php) > 3. Profit. That looks WAY too simple to actually work!! Quick question…how do I deauthorize my Ipod on the old computer? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-useless-piece-of-shit/496389.md?page=2)