WTF is going on with iTunes?

by "Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
Published 10/22/2017 at 19:30

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STARS: 1

OK, I’m getting back into the Mac now that I’ve built my Hackintosh, and I’m having difficulty understanding the latest (v. 12.7) iTunes. I know it’s never exactly been a model of efficiency and user-friendliness, but it seems to have gotten a bit worse.

From what I’ve read, iOS apps have been removed from iTunes. Oooooh Kaaaay - now what? How do I manage my apps? How do I back them up? How do I add or remove them from my iOS devices? Is there another app to do this? I don’t know WTF is going on and could use a little insight as to do, well, anything. I can’t even tell how much space apps are taking up from within iTunes; it shows other stuff using space, but not apps.

So, what am I failing to understand?

Replies (7)

"Nibby" (nibby68)
10/22/2017 at 19:31, STARS: 5

iTunes is a bloated flaming pile of shit that needs to die the worst death imaginable

"ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)" (adabofoppo)
10/22/2017 at 19:32, STARS: 7

It’s not just you, Apple doesn’t know either.

"Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz)" (galileo-humpkins)
10/22/2017 at 21:16, STARS: 0

iTunes 12.7 did remove the App Store entirely meaning you have to manage apps from your devices. If you want to use iTunes to manage apps, like I do, Apple did release 12.6.3 for just that reason, here .

After installing if you can’t open iTunes due to the library file issue (library being on an external or in a location different than default), hold down option when double clicking iTunes from the Apps folder and select where your library is.

"cluelessk" (cluelessk)
10/22/2017 at 21:20, STARS: 0

I gave up on Apple after having a 1st gen Shuffle and needing to use iTunes. Sounds like it hasn’t improved.

"FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com" (alphaass)
10/22/2017 at 22:37, STARS: 0

They want you to manage them from the iOS devices themselves using the App Store app. It’s actually pretty well done in iOS 11. Touch the little bubble to go to your account and and then touch purchases and you can see all apps associated with your account, even the ones that aren’t on the device. Then you just download them from the cloud. Basically the App Store is serving as the backup now. Of course if an App ever goes away from the store you do lose it.

The advantage of this is that it gets the apps the out of your backups which, in my opinion, is nice because it shrinks the backups quite a bit if you have some big apps in there. This is my iPhone storage at the moment:

That’s a lot of storage tied up in Apps! When I restored my 8+ from a backup of my 7 it went really quick so that I could start using it. Then it grabbed the apps from the cloud. During that time you can pause and resume apps to get the ones you need most installed first. I can’t really say I miss managing apps in iTunes.

"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
10/22/2017 at 23:47, STARS: 1

That’s what I figured, and I refuse to be a part of it. I have lost many a good app because I didn’t have it downloaded on the computer. It’s like all the great stuff that used to be on Youtube - there one day, gone the next. I’ve got dozens of terabytes of disc storage, so I’m willing to waste some of it so that I can access MY apps when I want them (as well as all that good stuff from YT).

I’m old and refuse to give up some of the previous ways of doing things. I’ve reverted to an older version of iTunes, and refuse to install a newer OS on my Mac or iOS devices (El Capitan and 10.11 are just fine by me). Now get the hell off my lawn...

"FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com" (alphaass)
10/23/2017 at 10:33, STARS: 1

I hear ya. Unfortunately we don’t really own our apps or any software anymore these days. We just license it subject to terms that say it can be discontinued at any time. I do keep my Apple devices updated for security reasons, but I also miss a lot of the older ways of doing things.