Dylan Greene dot com

Here's a more professional-like review:
http://arstechnica.com/wankerdesk/03q2/i-tunes-1.html
Ars Technica also gives iTunes a big thumbs down.
Quote:
"iTunes can be configured to scour your computer and move all of your audio files into an iTunes managed hierarchy on your file system. This functionality is not enabled by default, but several users are apparently enabling it by accident, for they are later amazed when they can no longer find their files. When they find them, they may be dismayed to find that iTunes routinely renames files according to its own naming scheme (which is not very customizable). The iTunes scheme users folder names to denote artist and album, leaving filenames only with track numbers and song titles. For some, this is unacceptable. One user complained that his entire hand-coded collection of vinyl rips was renamed by iTunes."

iTunes asks whether you want it to become the owner of your mp3s and Internet files... If it did it's because you answer yes to a question without reading it... Any virgin knows that is very dangerous behaviour... :-P

Dylan-
In the same article at Ars Technica it also says:
"I'll come clean here: I really like iTunes for Windows, and I find iTMS to be the most elegant and attractive service out there."
So don't go being a selective quoter.. I don't know if that's really a thumbs down.

More iTunes News...
http://news.com.com/2100-1041-5093454.html?tag=nl

i love itunes but it just wont work. everytime i open it it crashes, or sometimes ill get lucky and it will work, but when i play a song it crashes. or ill get really lucky and it will work fine, but when i restart and try to open the app again, it crashes

I have had none of the problems described. It has worked great for me on both of my XP Pro machines (An older Sony desktop and a new Dell Latitude). I do agree that the interface is unusual, but then again MP3 software seems to be consistently non-standard. I do not think that WinAmp adhears to many of the Look and Feel Guidelines either.

I've found out that most import-problems comes from dragging mp3's in from an external hard-disk... Strange but true! Aside from this problem this is the most wonderful app in a long time. What it does is not in itself extraordinary but to do it all in one place and with such ease is just magnificent!!! Love it!!
I love my PC but Apple has definately gotten my interest...

Most of the comments here are, as usual, silly. When looking at a piece of software like this, you should discount a bit bugs that are being experienced by an extreme minority and look at the product overall. With over a million downloads and very, very few bugs, your comments just aren't relevant.

It just crashes for me when trying to add tunes from my mp3 directory. Total Crap. I had a feeling it would be like this thou... I d/l'ed because i own an ipod, and musicmatch is like owning a 486 all over again...
Vpod, the third party utility, is the best ipod/mp3 management sw i've seen so far..

Did i say vpod, cause i meant ephpod

Hey pb, did u do a survey? Assumption will get you nowhere.. FAST! Cause i got a standard pc, nothing else crashes, cept this itunes. i recon i'd bet 10/1 that many, many users are having probs & apple will release a 'update' which will fix these probs, very soon...

Tried installing iTunes on my Windows 2000 Professional OS (Dell brand computer). The computer froze on the splash screen when booting. When trying to boot into safe mode, it froze on apg440.sys. Figuring it was a conflict with some of the other software and/or configurations I had previously on the system, I used the CD the factory sent me to completely reset the system back to factory standards and tried installing iTunes a second time. I got the same freeze/crash the second time around. Maybe it's not a problem with Windows 2000 Professional per say (as many users are signaling they installed it with no problems), but I'm wondering if the issue might be a Dell configuration. Has anyone else who has received the same problem been using a Dell?

Another bug...my itunes for windows cannot import more than 1500 songs (version 4.1) anyone has the same problem?

I Have installed iTunes on my WindowsXP Pro and had no problems... The only thing that i find very disturbing is the almost 40mb of ram being used by it... And the processor behavior is really scary when iTunes is running... It's always burning processor cycles... Running from 20% to 100%... And i have an Athlon XP Barton 3000... Oh well... Good visuals aren't enough... Had it removed from my computer the day after installation. It's back to my Winamp/Nero/Tag&Rename/CDex usage.

I think its the best Jukebox I have use in Windows. Sure the interface does not look like windows. For good reason they decided to keep the exact same look on both systems which is a very smart idea. I don't see whay application have to conform to any L+F standard if they are good.
It also had not crashed once on my system and it has just been released. If there is crashing I am certain they will adress it. The interface is simple and elegant and makes perfect sense to me. Of course I did not (and never would) choose to let the iTunes copy and manage all my files since I do that fine all by myself. That being said, the folder based artist/album structure is good. If you just let iTunes manage the downloaded stuff and keep it seperate from your existing MP3 collection you should be fine.

iTunes works for me.
It crashed once, just after I installed it, when I tried to import my library of mp3s. But before trying again, I looked through my library, found some stale (er, corrupt) mp3s, deleted them and tried again... it worked and hasn't crashed since. iTunes should have known better about corrupt mp3s, but for all the greatness I've enjoyed with iTunes since installation, I can live with that one fault (since then patched).

Reaction to #12.
I had the same problem with my Dell system. Had to re-install w2k. What's so specific about Dell systems that iTunes won't work on them?

It's hard to have a worse UI than WinAmp, although Windows Media Player tries.
The real outrage of iTunes is its renaming and moving of files. Mangling a user's filenames and directory structure is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.
Not only does iTunes wreck your directory structure without prompts or warnings under certain conditions, but in the process it creates erroneous links in your playlist. I started seeing duplicate entries, one of which would always point to a nonexistent file.

-- Comment Removed --

My XP system (upgraded from Win2k) is failing at AGP440.SYS as well and the video chipset it drives seems to be a common thread. The iTunes driver that apparently conflicts with the AGP440.SYS driver is VOBIW.SYS and you have to start XP or 2K off the CD and use the repair feature (see: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324764). Log into the repair console as the administrator and disable the VOBIW.SYS or AGP440.SYS service. Windows will then boot and you can go in an uninstall iTunes. Supposedly the latest build of iTunes fixes the bug, though I think I'll skip it.

iTunes is for Mac Users -

REAL PC USERS DON'T LIKE SNEAKY PROCESSES!

Itunes installs 1-TSR and 2-Services that run constantly even when iTunes isn't and you DON'T EVEN OWN AN IPOD!

My resource usage on XP-Prof-SP1 went WHACKO after adding it to my machine. One service is to provide additional cd-burning support (why not use built in engine...DRM anyone?) another is for my non-existent IPOD. The TSR called "ituneshelper.exe" -- well, I don't even want to know...but iTunes definately needs some coaching in the sloppy programming department.

I will never add an application that cannot function without hijacking my machine with resident processes even what it is unused. Apple should stick to Mac's -- they obviously don't understand PC's.

That is what makes PC's unstable -- conflicting software!!! Apple is simply adding to the mess.

Simplicity is key...Apple understands how to do this to the front-end, but apparantly not the back-end.

I had iTunes for Windows on my Sony Vaio notebook for about 2 weeks. I thought it would be great, especially since I have an iPod. The playback through iTunes was terrible (very choppy), even for music on my hard drive. Also, it would never write completely to my iPod, which I had to restore several times. Also, I couldn't get iTunes to look up track info on the net. I finally uninstalled iTunes and took the $21 that I spent at the iTunes store as a loss. I'm back to using MusicMatch to sync with my iPod.

Apprently the battery in the new ipod only last 18 months before you must ship it to Apple and pay $255 for a new battery. More ipod dirty secrets: http://www.ipodsdirtysecret.com/

I've owned my 10GB first-gen iPod since May 2002 (which is 18 months) and I still get 10 hours of playback. I don't know what that person has done wrong...

And $255 is simply a lie - you can get official replacements done by Apple for $US100. And from third parties (such as http://www.ipodbattery.com/) batteries can be purchased for $US50.

Dylan, you really are selective in your quoting aren't you? As the above person says, it is not that expensive, in fact look at their web site more closely on how Apple's policy changed

http://ipodsdirtysecret.com/message.html

I posted the link to his site before he posted his new reaction.

I'm selective with the links because I'm trying to stay on topic. You can post any links you want in the comments here. Post all the "good" stuff about ipod and itunes you want.

Funny video:

http://www.mit.edu/~mikeho/media/mac.mpg

If you are thinking about buying a Mac, you should watch this first. If you already own a Mac, you will probably relate to this.

I downloaded 20 songs from iTunes to give to a friend for Xmas and burned them to CD using the iTunes burner. I tried to play the CD on our sterio. Awful! The CD skipped repeated and garbled parts and all of some tracks. I cleaned my CD burner. Burned the CD again with the same results. Went to technical support on their website..... (if you can call it that) could not find any information or anyone to contact. I am still troubleshooting and very disappointed. If you have encountered the same problem and have any ideas please email me at skbusa@hotmail.com.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=4062623

"Can a few bad apples -- like product quality complaints and potential lawsuits -- spoil the bunch for loyal fans of Apple Computer Inc. ahead of their biggest party of the year? As enthusiasts devoted to Apple prepare to descend on San Francisco next week for the annual Macworld conference, at least two online petitions have collected hundreds of signatures from potential plaintiffs seeking to file lawsuits over claims of defects in the iBook laptop. Another growing source of complaints surrounds Apple's wildly-popular iPod line of digital music players, which many enthusiasts believe will get an upgrade at Macworld with the introduction of smaller, less-expensive models and a range of case colors.

In California, a lawsuit seeking class-action status is expected to be filed January against the company over the claim that Apple's warranty does not run long enough to cover problems with the player's battery. Apple has won raves over the years for its sleekly designed computers. The company, with a market share of around 2 percent, is able to command higher prices due in part to Apple machines being perceived as more secure and reliable than PCs running Microsoft's Windows operating system. Taken together, both consumer campaigns against a company that prides itself on high standards for design and engineering threaten to cast a shadow over Macworld, historically a forum for Apple and its charismatic leader, Steve Jobs, to showcase new products and innovations. "

Oops, forgot the title for that --

Apple Users Threaten to Sue Over IBook, IPod

My experiences...

I've owned a compaq Evo1020 (laptop) with xp pro and Iturnes worked well from scrath (first release).

Then built a computer with an asus p4p800 geforce fx5600 and P4 3.0 Ghz (with xp pro) and installed Itunes on it : BIG CRAP!!!

Itunes works only once, the first time to complete installation. after a reboot, if I launch it, my computer freezes even with Itunes 4.2.

I had to uninstall it completely.

Sorry to say it, but the app doen't apparently work with all hardware.

So try it but if you experience the single problem, live without it and try Ephpod.

It's simple but does the job (transferring files to Ipod)

Ok seems like alot of people in here are having issues with the Itunes Prog. Ive had it installed for weeks and love this software. i have version 4.0.2.72 and it works a charm. te only issue is the import feature. It wont import all my files if i use import from the file menu. However if i drag and drop my "My Music" folder onto the itunes interface they are added very quickly. My collection is over 8000 tracks and i have no issues. If you dont want the ipod service running (xp machines):-

hit start>run and type services.msc

find the ipod service, right click and click on properties

stop the service and select disabled from the drop down box, et voila, all done.

if you have an issue with itunes not updating your media go to www.musicbrainz.com and download the tagger, i run it once a week to keep my files up to date.

I am running this software on an xp3200 machine with 1gb ddr and 300GB hard disk space so i dont have nay performance issues i can notice. Cpu usage hovers at 6% when running standard services including an apache web server, trillian, mozilla etc and the mem usage used by Itunes never tops 21MB

Hope this helps, if not go to my site at http://johnlarge.mine.nu and contact me ill be happy to help

Jodsclass

Jodsclass- Thanks for posting the help and suggestions.

I have iTunes 4.2.0.72 installed on my Compaq Presario and works really well, including in synching my iPod - EXCEPT - every now and then I get a really weird vibrating sound that sounds a bit like static and a bit like something rattling overlaying the music. Anyone else had troubles like that? It's an nVidia nForce audio card.

i hate itunes, after using it 3 days.

the sharing is good, as is mytunes.

but:

1. id3 tags. can't turn them off.

2. unbelievably massive footprint.

3. does not let nvidia nview toss the window to the next screen.

4. does not minimize to system tray.

5. spontaneous rebooting when trying to minimize.

6. already a corrupted library file.

if you're looking for APG440.sys info here it is. it was a PAIN to find. good luck

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 324764

I used to be a hardcore Winamp guy, but some of my Mac friends showed off iTunes to me, so I installed it. It fits my listening habits better, I like how all of music can be in one easily sortable window, a sleek one at that. It's never crashed, even if I had some (easily fixable) playlist problems, it seems much more stable than Winamp (and especially WMP).

I think you would have to be insane not to like iTunes (especially 4.5). But then again my next computer will be a Mac, since Windows has outlived its usefulness.

I use and love iTunes for Windows, as I was introduced to it when I USED TO BE a Mac user (No more!!! I hate Macs). It is very useful and does nothing that I don't ask it to do. When installing any app, but especially one's like this that play/display music, pics, or video files--All will try to convince you DURING INSTALLATION that their software should be made the default for all files that it can play/display. Read this stuff carefully, and whenever possible do a custom install to see what is also being loaded. (I don't think this is possible with iTunes, but still...). iTunes has never crashed on me and it is VERY useful in keeping track and organizing my files if you just get used to it's behavior. And in Preferences Advanced--Change your iTunes music folder to My Music.

iTunes stinks. I won't list my reasons as they are ALL above. My problem is I can't get rid of it! I've got v4.6 on WinXP Pro. When I select Remove from the Uninstall applet in Control Panel > Add/Remove Progs it does nothing. It kindly informs me that "Maintenance" has been successful, but doesn't actually remove any files. Grrreat!

I imagine that you will provide inspiration for many for years and years to come!! I look forward to seeing you.I hope you give some suggestion about my site:Kid toy,toy,toy store | Pop music, classical music

I just lost my Windows 2000 installation after loading iTunes and a 3Com Airconnect PCMCIA card to stream audio form the computer to an Apple Airport Base station. During installation of iTunes, a registry update error showed up but the installation continued. On reboot, the BSOD (blue screen of death) stop screen pointing to the iTunes driver. Without any way to find the offending driver and 2 days of research, there appears no other way but to wipe the O/S and load from factory CD's...all software too. I wish I had read about this device before I got excited!!! It's a Dell, so maybe there is a combination condition (CPI 800).

MAC HATER HERE

iTunes for Windows Lover

Been using iTunes for abaout 3 mths now and not had one single prob with it...

Iuse to use MMJB (too slow) & Winamp 2 & 5 (not stable still), but with iTunes i can have all 66,832 mp3's (and growing) in iTunes with no prob, it's fast, it's never crashed (ever), it's too easy to use and sounds great... all i need now is an iPod...

Two Huge Thumbs Up here...

DeadDingosDonger

Put good software on crap architecture with crap OS and it's hardly a surprise. And to qualify this, I have lost count as to how many times MS crap s/ware crashes on Dell crap architecture! Apple have done their best transferring what works seamlessly on MacOS onto a substandard system. Hey if MS can't write software that doesn't crash (including the OS) then how the hell can customers expect their software to work? Don't blame Apple - point the finger at Microsoft and your dodgy hardware first!

Uninstallation on Wintel machines is at best frustrating and at worst doesn't work. No drag'n'drop simplicity here.

Of course there are software updates! Why on earth do you think Service Pack 2 is coming out. Look at the 'benchmark' of Microsoft and they still can't get it right. By a long way. By comparison, many other softwares from other vendors have fewer problems in comparison, and are updated much more quickly and painlessly.

Dylan: I couldn't be bothered to download all 48Mb of that Quicktime (ha, they used an Apple technology why not use WMP if it's so fine) - but I don't feel like I have to 'sneak up on my Mac'. What I hate more is using a crap old Dell at work that constantly whines and complains if I dare to open more than one spreadsheet and Word doc at the same time and then surf the net. Pathetic. (and it just got upgraded to what I assumed was a decent model)

iTunes killed my Win2KPro (Toshiba Satellite Pro) after one week of use. I made the mistake of installing Adaptec CD burning software after iTunes. iTunes had an error and suggested it was because of recently installed cd burning software and to reinstall. I did, choosing repair from the menu. That was the end of my PC. The CPU was 100% busy on boot after that, even in safe mode. There was no way out but to restore from original system build media. So convinced was I that my 3 year-old laptop had died of natural causes(and never suspecting this elegant little piece of software from such a prestigious source)that I BOUGHT A NEW LAPTOP. $2248 later I figured out what really happened. So thanks, Apple, for doing your part to help keep the economy humming.

I'm with the dingo guy above. iTunes is the only player that will handle BIG librarys, the only thing you have to watch is the more MP3's you have in iTines the more RAM one will need.

My system.

AMD 2600, 1.5GB's Ram, 1.4Tb's MP3's (280,000+ tunes in my iTunes library)

Not one single prob with iTunes for window either.

itunes is great for storage and organization, but it seems to be having problems actually playing the music. Does anyone have a suggestion for the horribly vibrating warbbling sound that itunes makes? I can get about 2 minutes into a song and then the sound falls apart. this doesn't happen with cds or with internet radio, so it's not my hardware . . . any advice is appreciated!

How much RAM do you have Angela? I'd not like to try iTunes with any less then 512MB Ram...

itunes is mac crap.....

isn't there enought hate in the world already?

iTunes is working beautifully- HOWEVER. I can't burn anything I buy from the music store. Whenever I try to burn a protected file (which, according to Apple) I am supposed to be able to burn unlimited times if it is just one song in a single playlist- or 7 times if it is a single playlist... etc... Anyway, I can't burn it at all to CD- not as an MP3, not as Audio- it always says, "none of the items can be burned to CD." Any suggestions.

I am also annoyed that as long as I can't conver the ACC files to MP3 or audio via burning, then I can't load them on my non-iPod MP3Player. I paid for the songs, but even I can't use them.

Any suggestions. I am using a Compaq Presario S6300NX and iTunes does recognize the CD burner.

I am a sysadmin/computer tech for a fairly big company. Well it so happens one of my bosses has an ipod and itunes on his computer. Another horible thing he has on his computer is AOL (so he can watch his kids at home or something like that...) Anyway, his computer will randomly restart. After checking dumplogs and some other problems I thought I had traced his problem to an AOL .sys file that detects internet connection, but has many issues with it and simply needed to be removed. His computer was working fine untill he starting restarting again. I went back into the dump logs found some more errors and traced the problem to itunes and his ipod. Apperantly there are some pretty bad errors caused by iTunes when it uses windows .sys files to play audio. Because this is a 3rd party problem, microsoft has not (and probably never) put out a patch for this problem. Apple to my knowledge is unaware of this issue, or is just hiding behind thier ignorance. But the outcome is the same... the programming is flawed, and there apple is too slow, or dumb to fix thier own ID-10-T (idiot) errors. I don't like macs, but i try and give them as much credit as I can. But I can say that this program is not one of their better works. This just adds to the reasons why I run windows and linux on PC's and will never buy a mac.

Yeah I get that choppy sound too when I used Itunes. Every other aspect of itunes is fine, but if I get songs in the store, I can only listen with itunes, so how can I cut out the chopy sound? I don't have an Ipod yet, because I was trying to see what the story was with them. I've heard that the transferring of the MP3's to the ipod is ridiculously easy and I've kinda seen this at work. I've also heard about the battery problem, but isn't this gonna be the same with all MP3 Players (except for the really old ones that run off of AA's)? Finally,

The choppy sound is sometimes a DirectSound problem. Go into Control Panela to the Quicktime settings -->go to the "Sound Out" panel and make sure that DirectSound IS NOT SELECTED. If it is, change it to anything else you have available. Should fix it.

BTW - I'm having the CD burning problem on my iTunes for Windows. Paid $10 for the new U2 album and now can't do a damn thing with it unless I'm sitting at home in front of my PC. EVERY other piece of software I use can burn CD's and DVD's no problem. Apple support offers no FAQ items to address this (apparently ubiquitous) issue and they don't respond to emails either. Does anyone know of a way to get files off of iTunes without burning a CD or being on an internal network?

Hey Thanks #53 for the posting on Choppy Sound in Itunes for Windows. I followed your directions and sure enough DIRECT SOUND was choosen. I switched to my sound card and the Choppy Sound went away for good.

Thanks again :-)

I had had 24hrs of frustration. I have had about 20 windows crashes when dragging and dropping songs from CD to my playlists. Also, the response time is a shocker and I run a very grunty maching with hyperthreading and 1gb of RAM.

So I downloaded the upgrade - still the same dramas.

Any suggestions?

BTW - changed the Quicktime settings - if I can get iTunes to work I might be able to see if it fixed my problem as well - thanks for the tip :-)

itunes is crap. It gave my computer the blue screen of death. I lost everything on my computer because of itunes.

hate itunes

hate hate hate!

iTunes, iPod - both are terrible. I thought with all the hype surrounding it and the buzz on the street, Apple finally released a versitile product. Nope. Just another proprietary one trick pony. I would pay double the price I paid for my iPod for the chance to throw it through Steve Jobs car window. I imagine with all the "duplicate" songs on my unit, it would smash through pretty hard- people actually have MORE than ONE computer nowadays, amazing! Gotta go, iTunes finnally loaded after my third try! Maybe now I can rip a CD at less than half the speed of Windows Media Player, yipee!

I just got iPod and installed version 4.7.1.3 of iTunes (d/l lates from Apple site). I haven't tried to burn disks, but so far i've had no problems like the ones described above (againso far). the only problem i had was initial formatting the iPod, which was corrected when i installed "iPod Updater 2005-01-11" from Apple site.

I'm kind of scared to load my library of MP3's in iTunes. So first I make copies of my MP3's, then load the copies for fear my originals might get screwed up. it does have some cool features that i wouldn't mind using.

Some questions I have:

- if i load my MP3's, is there a chance they might get deleted? i see above afout files getting tags altered, (which i wouldnt personally care about since i do a poor job managing). I just want no deletion!

- what does iTunes access the internet for? I blocked it on my firewall, being by nature a paranoid person.

thanks! nice site!

- saint

Yes, there are real Dell Dudes in AMERICA just helping a few folks in the world have their music play without skipping. No, customers who call us about iTunes issues still have the same issues after we deal with them for over 3 hours. Unfortunately, we did not have any success with the posting in 53 about changing the output of the DirectSound. The customer who once upon a time had their Dell playing their iTunes w/o skipping and crunching audio was ready to uninstall it after every attempt to fix it. We even defragged, to see if the files were mismanaged on the HDD. She is mad about iTunes.

Good day to everyone...

Its Tuesday 8th March 2005. I had bought my 4th generation 40GB iPod on February 28th (it was purchased in the states). I have a Dell Latitude (laptop) 750MHz, 256MB running Win2000 with service pack 4. I had iTunes 4.6 on the original CR-ROM which allowed me to sync to my iPod (running 3.0.2 software) and upload my tunes. However, when I tried to play a tune from iTunes it woulc crach. I then decided to upgrade iTunes to v4.7.1. Again, everything seemed to be ok (apart from actually playing a tune using iTunes) I managed to pull in 8000+ tracks and start to arrange my playlists etc. Then the problems started!

My first issue was the slow trasnfer rate of my tunes from hard drive to ipod via firewire. I soon discovered that the transfer rate of the iPod is slow (mostly determined by the 4,200rpm hard drive in teh iPod).

Secondly, I tried to play a track in iTunes and the program crashed! I could re-load iTunes first of all. Everything appeard to be working apart from playing a track...It woudl continuosly crash.

Now, iTunes will not load at all! I can double click on the iTunes.exe program (say 3 times). You can see the .exe program starting to execute in Task Manager 3 times and the hard drive is active. Then, for no apparent reason, iTunes fails to load and dissappears from the task manager window. I hav etried re-booting on many occations - this doesn't seem to help at all. I have unistalled and re-installed iTunes about 4 times now. Occationally it works (after initail re-install) but then after about 2 re-loads the program does not load at all. All teh time, I have never been able to play a single track on iTunes.

I have searched the web and so many fourums but have not found anyone else with this problem and would very much appreciate any logical - apple minded - engineers / technical help from any of you guys / girls.

From a very desparate and at present dissappointed MAK

Mak,

Do you by any chance have a disc in an optical drive?

I had the same problem with iTunes on an old machine of mine -- sometimes iTunes would not launch -- if I took all the CD's/DVD's out of the drives, all would be fine.

Just a thought. Good luck!

I loved iTunes but slowly it started to get real buggy - would rip cds, wouldn't even play some (fine in WMP) etc.

In the end I got really annoyed and uninstalled it.

I think iTunes fails to load if a cd is in the drive because it is waiting for the autoplay box to come up and for you to select "Play with iTunes" ???

Message 53 is a winner!!! I spent 3 or 4 days trying to crack the pop crackle noise playing in itunes. Loaded drivers and tried alsort. Would suggest that apple changes the name of the thing in the control panel to Quicktime\iTunes.

Oh well I am happy now. Thanks 53!!

Never had a problem with itunes crashing on me. Sound used to be weird sometimes, but thats gone away now. My problem is, I can't burn normal cd's. Everytime I try it burns it as one long track so that when you try to play the cd on a normal cd player, you can't skip through the tracks. Also, the burnt cd doesn't always play all the songs. Sometimes it plays some tracks, sometimes there's just a long silence instead of the actual song. I am so frustrated! I can't even burn cd's for friends anymore without them telling me i've given them a piece of crap cd which they can't skip or that sometimes just won't play!

I've tried changing the space (number of seconds) between tracks and i've tried also burning at a lower speed, neither of which have worked. And i know its just itunes, because whenever i used Windows Media Player to burn, i don't get any of these problems. Is there a program i can use instead of itunes with my ipod? and how can i convert all my itunes AAC files into regular mp3's?

Any ideas?

Help!

I had no problems with iPod for about six months, then suddenly every time I try to burn a cd from a playlist, my ipod would reboot after the cd was burned. Then from there it just started rebooting more and more for other reasons as well. Now it just reboots randomly whenever I use it, but especially after or while burning a cd from a playlist. I have no viruses and have tried diagnostic programs that have cleaned up my computer. I have tried uninstall and restore and reinstall but the problem remains.

I too get the "none of the items can be burned to CD" dreaded message as mentioned in post (50). I puchased the music on itunes. Any suggestions?

this sucks

Can anyone tell me how to put songs on my iShuffle WITHOUT doing it through iTunes? I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro laptop, running Windows XP SP2. Basically because the program is feckin' useless and I'm, like, really over it. And I bought the iShuffle for my hubbies birthday and feeling v.guilty because he can't actually put songs on it!

Any advice would be appreciated. I'm desperate.

Sorry to hear that Manzahel. Apple has locked the ipod and their music format to prevent users from using 3rd party software. That being said, some clever programmers have figured out ways around Apple's iron curtain.

Unfortunately Apple typically shuts them down as soon as they get popular.

Good luck, and let us know if you figure out an alternative.

New iTunes user and first-time poster here. I seem to be able to burn CDs, but I want to know how to tweak the settings. For example, if I go into edit/preferences there's "crossfade playback," "sound enhancer," and "sound check." If I click edit/preferences/importing, and then choose Setting/custom, I can pick a sample rate" and a "sample size." There's stuff under "burning" and stuff under "advanced." I want to know what these things do.

I don't expect a complete explanation here, but I am hoping that someone can point me to a place where I can get answers to most of these without wading through hundreds of posts. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Ray

Another big 'thanks' to comment #53 above. I have a brand new P 4, 3.0 GHz, 512 MB RAM, with XP Pro, SP 2 installed. The only thing running was iTunes, and it was chopping all over the place. Changed the Audio settings to Wave Out and the problem disappeared.

BTW, Micro$oft has identified sound issues in 2000/XP all on its own. Check out http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;835730 for an example. This particular problem relates to Intel's Hyperthreading CPUs, so might have some bearing on those users with HT CPUs who have not yet updated to SP2 for XP.

It is amazing that you criticize the brushed metal appearance, when apparently no other music player obbeys look-and-feel guidelines (starting by Windows Media Player -- my favorite before iTunes).

Sorry, guys, but iTunes for Windows works *really* fine for me. No crashes, no music stealing, no library limits, no sound skips, no gap between songs, no... you get the idea. Plus, it loads my considerably large collection (ca. 6000 songs) in a snap. Sure there must be some incompatibilities and bugs but some of the problems reported here just look like plain misconfiguration and/or broken Windows installations.

Here are the facts itunes is one buggy piece of crap software. I know you mac guys don't want to hear that but thats the truth does nothing but crash on 2 of my 3 systems and on the one it does work it crashes every time i try to add songs to the itunes library. Itunes feels old missing many features and is way too restrictive. Who ever mentioned ephpod thanks a lot this program is great and its Free and has way more features then itunes. Yeah i know i'm full of its right. You mac guys need to open your narrow tiny little minds and come over to the darkside. Oh yeah the ipod isn't really that cool i really wouldn't have one except someone owed me money and i had to settle on a brand new ipod instead of the cash. If it was my choice i'd buy creatives copy of the ipod with 40 gigs color screen and fm tuner and many other better features then the ipod mini for the price of the ipod mini 6 gig. I'm not stupid enough to get wrapped up in paying for a name. (which most of you fools have done buying the ipod) but it was free and it sound good but not any better then the 25 dollar 128 meg mp2 player i had before. later and ps Macs suck ass

Curious if the new Intel Macintosh computers will have the hyperthreading issues in the processors by the time they launch (affecting some Windows box users) or if the big bux of Intel will help iron out bugs in the hardware.

PowerPCs had nothing wrong with them that mass marketing and M$-like theft of concept/content couldn't have cured; plus tons of money from ill-gotten booty. (Or is that bill's rotten booty?) AnyHoo... iTunes works great in recent WinTels and hacks into Linux go OK.

[Do what you will, it is ALL the darkside... LOL!]

Good day and Happy Computing! :)

I own both Mac and PCs for the line of work I'm in. I prefer to use a PC on Win 2000 Pro as I don't want endless eye candy bogging getting real work done.

Well, installed QuickTime and it FORCES you to install iTunes with it. I was not happy about this at all, might as well come to my house and force me to drink milk or something stupid like that.

I've not have the endless problems which others have. One of my friends has many of the issues mentioned above on his XP box, he can't get it to work at all. For me, it works most of the time flawlessly EXCEPT on occasion, the entire computer will freeze. I've not seen my system do that before installing iTunes.

The freezes only happen while playing iTunes, and they are the kind that locks you up entirely, no kill task solution available. With that it mind, it's obvious that iTunes is accessing something in a way it shouldn't. I think post #51 is on the money with this, the Apple programmers are pushing crap programming.

I do have to admit, I do love the interface though. This is the only reason I've given it any chance, since I've used it on the Macs for a while. I've been using an old version of WinAMP that I've refused to update (5.08) but I think maybe it is time to see what they offer now.

My thinking is always back to my Amiga days and even back to the Commodore Vic-20, programs should be streamlined and efficient. I agree that running 2 services and another task in the background is a waste of resourses I'd care to do without.

The truth is, I'm AFRAID to use iTunes because I know it can cause a random crash, and while working, I don't want to have to run the risk of it destroying my computer or locking up and loosing my work. Honestly, I still do use it. If I want to feel safe, I'll just open WinAMP instead. If I'm feeling lazy, I'll try iTunes once again.

Sigh... I should know better than to ever use it...

I'm having the iTunes skipping problem as well and I've tried changing the Quicktime settings again and again and iTunes still skips where Windows Media Player plays the same files just fine so, I have narrowed it down to a iTunes/Quicktime problem. Any other suggestions out there?

I download the new version fo ITunes for windows recently. Task manager shows iTune.eze running, but there is no actual evidnce that it is? Any ideas what is going. Is their an alternative place to get music that is comparable.

Paully

I have the itunes crackling sound problem as well and I solved it, and not with the quicktime thing.  It turns out my card did not support hardware acceleration.  If you go in the Audio settings, and look around, you will find an acceleration slider.  Set it all the way down, and restart iTunes.  Things should be smooth saling from there.

R

Googled for iTunes replacements and found this page. Just felt I had to add my 2 cents.
iTunes is a strange piece of software, it crashes, is unlogical, looks old and quite frankly just isn't up to the task.
It came with my iPod and it's only for that reason I use it, to transfer songs to my iPod. From what I gather, iTunes, is Apples answer to Microsofts WMP (another software I never use).

Trying to delete songs from my iPod with iTunes was a pain, renaming songs (or the ID3Tags?) so I wouldn't have to listen to "Track 4" seems to be impossible (since the music resided on a non-writeable media?). Opened a playlist (by rightclicking and selecting "open") and another window pops up, and if I close that one - iTunes exists alltoghether.

When I'm done and want to exit, I'll have to wait about 5-6 seconds before a popup reminds me that another application is using iTunes interface and I'll have to wait 20 seconds or confirme that I want to exit. (what's up with that?)

Guess I'm gonna continue to look for a good replacement. Thanks for letting me blow  of some steam

Andreas

This seems like a propaganda site to just hate on Apple, some of the problems people experiencing like audio CD's they burned from itunes not playing probably have more to do with bad media or cheap CD players than iTunes. As usual you have the 2 extremes of windows users that are the highly technical (paranoid about system processes) and the users who can't do anything without a windows wizard telling you how! iTunes was converted to the windows platform by a third party windows software company, as all software probably has bugs, you shouldn't be surprised if Apples does as well, there are so many configurations of computer Hardware - System that you can never foresee every problem. If you find a problem the best thing is to report it to Apple, coming on here bleating about it doesn't help anyone, just makes the guy who started this stupid topic feel a bit more important. And just to be petty surely the button on this comment box should say "Add comments" not "Save Comments", from a logical Apple user, now you can hate on me!

just another thought after reading a few more posts here. I wonder if you started a post on any popular bit of software that would have to access a large library of files on your windows or even Mac system and named it something like "Windows Media Player the Worst App for windows", I bet you would get even more posts!

As well as the sound quality, my latest problem is that itunes refuses to start.(could be a blessing in disguise!)

Itunes.exe loads in ram and then depending on which version of itunes i currently have stops dead. It will stay at 12-16 mb of ram without any cpu activity in the task manager until my next restart when i can then end task. Normal "end task" wont work and neither will   "taskkill /f /im" which claims to be successful but leaves itunes running.

I have tried itunes 4.x 5.x and 6.x (4 different versions) and all have the same problem. The only time itunes started was when i was in diagnostic mode with all services stopped. However In SAFE MODE with sevices stopped it still wouldn't start!

And this is after almost 2  years of use, always with the latest version out!

For anyone with a similar problem, and it seems many have this problem, go to http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?14@57.N6sSaPwTTWY.5@.68bc2475/1 to fix it.

It was a conflict with NIS, easily resolved, but only if found out! Working fine again!

I have the problem with the choppy sound as well, problem is that i have a german version of everything. Plus, the choppyness only comes when i change my resolution on my screen. Could someone explain to me in more detail how to turn DierctSound off? thx,

Franz

Ok, I don't really care whether you like itunes or not. However, does anyone know if there is a way to 'undo' itunes's conversion of my mp3 files? I (like others) hit it on accident, and I want to reverse it. Is there a way to reverse it?

I want to get rid of itunes because I just don't use it that often, and prefer winamp. (no comments needed on whether you like this program or not, I don't care..It's simple, and it works for me)  I want to uninstall itunes, because I badly need the space (my poor lap top is practically full).  Does anyone know  what happens to the files (if  left unconverted... if they remain in the 'itunes format' (whatever format that is)) if they will be deleted? or converted to something else? or something else entirely? And if they need to be converted to be saved, how do I go about converting them?

Please help, I've been dealing with these problems for about a year now, And I'm tired of my computer not working right.

I found the solution!

I had the same problem, after upgrading to Itunes 6, it would crash and not launch.

Here is what you do, search for any old versions of Quicktime (I found quicktime32) and remove them.  Then go to Apple's website and download Quicktime (without Itunes) and install it.

Launch Quicktime and ensure it works. 

Reinstall Itunes and you should be in business!

Finally I've solved ny attrocious choppy sound problem. I had updated my old Pent III to XP specifically so that I could use my new iPod. After loading all the new drivers etc and wasting a whole weekend, I nearly threw it out the window !  Sound was great in Windows Media Player 10 but crap in i-Tunes. The sound card is the original 5 year old Aztech PCI 288, and works OK with the new drivers.

The root of my problem lay in the QuickTime set up. From the Control panel/QuickTime/Audio tab, I set the output to SAFE MODE (Wave Out Only)

It now works fine !

Thanks to #53 giving me the direction to look at to solve my problem

Still got some problems. My computer wont reboot.....!! But, this happened after i UN-installed iTunes (because it was on the same 'port' as my CD-Rom and i didnt had any cdrom drive anymore because of installing iTunes). So now my computer is fucked. Anyone any ideas how to handle this situation?

iTunes sucks on windows and on mac too. it scrambles files
and puts them all over the place! it doesn't let me asociate mp3
files with Audion which is my favourite player...
too bad Apple keeps on integrating this iTunes and QTime shit into
a fine system like OSX. fucking shit man, just like microsoft's IE in windoze!
that's why i zapped it from my tiger, and here's how:

Drag the application's icon to the Trash. Open the /Home/Library/Preferences/ folder and look for one or more preference files named "com.apple.iTunes....plist" and drag them to the Trash. Look in /Library/ folder for an iTunes folder and if you find one drag it to the Trash. Look in /Home/Library/ folder for an iTunes folder and drag it to the Trash. Last, in /Home/Library/Preferences/ByHost/ folder look for two files with names com.apple.nnnnnnn.plist and drag them to the Trash.

Open Activity Monitor (Utilities folder) and in the process list look for iTunesHelper. Select it, then click on Quit Process icon. Quit or Force Quit the process. Now open the Accounts preference pane, click on Login Items tab, look for the iTunesHelper entry and select it, then click the "-" button and remove it from the list.

Empty the Trash. This should fully remove iTunes and its associated files/folders.

iTunes is a piece of crap for windows. I don't know about the mac version. I have been using it for two days now to listen to and download podcasts. I have it set to save them to my samba server. It's crap. It randomly decides it can't write to the samba filesystem and resets it's directories. Then on top of that it breaks the connection somehow and I can't even copy the files over manually until I reboot. This is not to mention that it randomly stops responding. I thought Microsoft came out with some crappy applications, but iTunes takes the cake. At least it's a free crappy app.

Hi

For the ignorant  Long Time Mac User - did you think possibly the reason people are emailing these type of websites is because Apple doesn't actually respond to support questions??  But since you sound like an expert, you will probably know the answer to my problem.  Everytime I download Itunes, it gets to the final install stage and then an Error Window pops up 'ITunes has encountered a problem and needs to close'  Any thoughts on way this could be happening?? 

I agree with mcgrew. I too have my iTunes pointed at a mapped samba share. This causes problems such as iTunes deciding that it wants to start saving to the default C:\ location instead of the mapped drive. Not to mention that if you're downloading podcasts and listening to music on a 54G wireless it causes the threads in iTunes to consume _massive_ amounts of CPU time. C'mon... With the latest winamp playing, a tagger running against my collection, a visualizer, a CD burning from a samba share, transcoding myth recordings from a samba share, all over a 54G connection, I have NEVER had the issues I experience with iTunes. Latest is that iTunes decided to fill up my HDD and crashed the system. No HDD space checks, no; you wouldn't expect that kind of feature out of software that DOWNLOADS information every day, huh? Sense the sarcasm? I agree that it's my fault for letting it get low. However, what I don't accept is that iTunes fails to check, as most software that downloads does, hard disk space. This caused my iTunes database to take a crap and now iTunes crashes every time I start it after only 10 seconds. I'm moving to ephPod, screw this crap shoot.

ITUNES is crap, crap and crap again.

19 years using pc's and i've never seen a pile of crap so high..

steve jobs, go find a work, punk.!

ALESE, SAME PROBLEM HERE.  I CAN'T INSTALL ITUNES AGAIN. SAME ERROR MESSAGE.

I'ts always apple shit, however, no surprise it doesn't work.

FUKING CRAP

Instead of griping about whether a PC or a MAC is better suited for someone, I recommend sticking to the topics. I give kudos to robert #79 and anonymous #53. By following their advice, my itunes stuttering problem has been solved. They recommended: If you go in the Audio settings, and look around, you will find an acceleration slider. Set it all the way down, and restart iTunes. Things should be smooth saling from there - the choppy sound is sometimes a DirectSound problem. Go into Control Panel to the Quicktime settings -->go to the "Sound Out" panel and make sure that DirectSound IS NOT SELECTED. If it is, change it to anything else you have available. Should fix it. By the way, I own both a pc and a mac, and both have their upsides and downsides.

In common with all my Apple software, iTunes runs perfectly and flawlessly on my Mac. It'll be interesting to see when people start running Windows on their Macs in large numbers, how they find iTunes for Windows behaves on Apple hardware.

I have bought an MP3 player ( not ipod) an all I want to do is download a load of podcast content all in one go and send it to my player.  I got bogged down with how to do it  in the help files and after about 10 mins I gave up.  I do not want the millions of functions that sofware companies put on their packages, why is it not as simple as download and then send to MP3.  Maybe some of you are swearing at me "yes you thick git, it is that simple".  Maybe it is when you know, but if you dont, Apple seem to make it hard if you have not got an iPOD.  Can anyone suggest a simple, reliable piece of software so I can get 'Adam and Joe's podcast' . 

Louis

uninstall itune my windows 2000 got blue screen memory dump when boot, still work to find to solve the problem. any easy way to fix?

iTunes is great...

for me the newer itunes versions have worked very smooth.. i think you should get your computer looked at, uninstall some programs and then make sure you have the latest version of itunes...

For me i find it the only decent program to sort my music, its CD cover printing option is great, the rating system divine, it syncs so seamlessly with iPod, the smart playlists are just that, and its always easy to find that song that you've lost or sometimes it even surprises you with a song you've forgotten about...

ok so there is the occasional bug (let me get this straight you're saying winamp or windows media player has less?!? -*LAUGHS*), and it doesnt exactly fit with the windows theme, but it can be skinned!

Search for multiplugin 2.3 if you want skins!... and if you want a skin to match windows checkout this one www.deviantart.com/view/28151286

this page is windows propaganda, full of windows fanboys (yes i am one, but respect apple as a software company) who are too narrowminded and judgemental of great alternatives... Soon i think this comment will be deleted.

I've been using my iPod 20 GB without incident until last night. I can no longer burn playlist to CD. In fact, the burn option on the file/menu is disabled. Additionally, I can no longer move files from the iPod to the library.

Any ideas?

wow, I was trying to find out how to fix this damn problem where I get a pause/skip at 4 seconds when playing a newly inserted CD through iTunes-- this was the first site that came up..... I called compaq support and they told me to uninstall & reinstall itunes, to no avail. haven't called them back again yet.

I'm Actually doing a science fair project on the skipping problem on i-tunes. im not sure if its the same one you guys are talking about, (60&77) but it seems the more windows i have running, the more skips there are. this dosent ahppen with any other media players. and when i have just i-tunes running, it dosent happen at all. If anyone has any info about this, please email me at BAF9SOCCER@aol.com , it's greatly appreciated.

p.s. Itunes pretty much sucks.

101, you might be out of memory on your ipod, itunes automatically picks up on that and disables the ability to add more (obviously).

Updated from itunes 6.0.7 to itunes 7 and it rubbish. Completely bug ridden and seems to be even more bloated than the other versions, at times using over 100MB and 100% CPU. Crazy program, with so much potential, just not utilised properly.  Disappointed with it in the same way my old folks would have been if i'd got a girl pregnant 10 years ago.

I am running Win2kPro on a Dell Dimension 8100 and itunes also crashes my OS meaning that it will not reboot.

Did anyone find a solution to get itunes to work, or just manage to start windows in Safe Mode and uninstall it???

itunes suck  because it does not want to let me put my remaining songs in to my 60GB wich has 54.6GB left. it only took 1000 songs and it supose to take 15000.

like zixer, i installed itunes on a Win2K pro dell dimension, and my os will not reboot (even in safe mode). has anyone found any solution other than re-installing the os?

Like  zixer and cab this happened to me as well.  Win 2k Pro dell 8100 (sp4 on mine ) installed i tunes 7.02. Hung on reboot freezing on loading. Wouldnt go into safe mode. Had to reinstall in place from Install disc. I have not found the answer yet but may try a few things soon.

disconnet the cd recorder, then it should boot up. uninstall itunes, reconnect the cd, and all should be well.

ok

I keep getting this error message "Itunes has encounterd a problem and needs to close"  and it will immediately close no sooner than I get it opened.  I have uninstalled and reinstalled.  Please somebody help me I just want it to work!

I have just dragged an album from my usb pen drive onto the iTunes symbol in the dock and everything imported fine. I created a playlist and dragged the tracks into it but whenever I close the playlist iTunes freezes for a second then exits. When I re-start iTunes the playlist pops up and evertime I close it, the whole program exits. This has happened before in a similar situation but I can't remember how I resolved it. Any ideas? Thanks in advance, Rich

The only way I can run itunes is to bring up the task manager, click on itunes, and set processor priority to below normal.  This is on a 1.1g 512M w2k AMD box.

Clutch

I tunes is the worst program ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!