Rant: finished with iTunes and iPods

[Rokovak]

I've had it with iTunes. Tonight I just lost 10 gigs of music, almost a third of my library. Here's what happened: Tonight I'm browsing my library and clicked on a song. Got that little exclamation point stating that iTunes couldn't find the file. "Hmm whatever" decided to move on to something else and I'd investigate later. Same thing, another exclamation. Then another. And another. "Ok, iTunes has gone retarded on me yet again, I'll just delete this whole library and re-import my previously backed-up library on my external hard drive.

Guess what happens? Everything I've ever downloaded from Amazon is gone, and CD Baby, ripped from old CDs, basically every other non-iTunes song I've ever downloaded. Could shady iTunes just block this stuff and leave me to import it manually? Oh no, Apple feels that's not enough, fucking cocks had to take it one step further and somehow magically delete my shit, all 10 gigs worth. I've re-imported my library before and this never happened, until now. W...T...F?!?!

As if that isn't enough, there's been weird things happening over the last year or so. Song titles would get changed to incorrect titles all of a sudden, album artwork would get changed, I'd change the titles and artwork back and iTunes would change it right back. And even rarer still, I'd see some random song I've never even heard of just show up in my library, out of thin air. Always a shit song too.

This is the last straw, I'm selling the iPod and uninstalling iTunes. Apple can drop to their knees and lick my beanbag. F*** you Steve Jobs, I hope you die in a fire. I guess I just wanted to rant, but now I need something to fill the MP3 vacuum. How is Zune? Does it do shady shit like iTunes?

[JScullin]

Unless you specifically told iTunes to move it to the trash when you mass-deleted then they are still in the iTunes music folder. What probably got corrupted was the database file it keeps to track location, play counts, ratings & etc. The worst thing that could happen there is you lose custom playlists and any settings for songs. If you added music after making a backup, and the restored that database backup, you obviously wouldn't have record of the newer songs. But they may still be there, just not added to iTunes.

If you have iTunes set to automatically organize your music then go to a folder called "iTunes Music" and just drag that whole folder back in. If you did hit move to trash, and then proceeded to empty said trash, you just lost everything up to your most recent backup. That's not iTunes fault.

[Rokovak]

Trust me I searched my hard drive, it's gone. It was on my hard drive before but when I went to re-import, it magically went away.

[epp_b]

Well, it was nice knowing you, Rokovak... (Quiky won't be pleased about the title)

Anyway, iTunes blows. So does just about any other third-party tool that manages media; that's why I almost never use them. There's not much that using the file system to work with files and folders can't do.

For portable music and video, I like to use my Pocket PC with TCPMP, plus there are a ton of other things PPCs can do. SDHC cards go up to 32GB, and they aren't even that expensive anymore. A 16GB card is only $40 on Amazon; $100 for 32GB.

If that's not your taste, Archos has some really sweet PMPs.

[JScullin]

Thread starters problems wreak of user error. I'm not defending iTunes here. I've had databases go bad with it causing me to simply reimport the music from the standard save directory and maybe recreate a few playlists and EQ settings.

iTunes won't physically delete music unless you tell it to specifically move it to the trash. And then empty the trash.

Google "transfer music off iPod" and get all your songs back that way. Lesson learned.

[Rokovak]

Your denial is as strong as mine. Songs are not on the iPod, they're not in my computer's music folder, nor are they in my external hard drive's music folder. I sure as hell didn't delete them, they were on my external hard drive before this happened, now they're not. I even double checked my hard drive's backup software to make sure it wasn't configured to delete files that were stored there and not on my computer.

I know this seems hard to believe, I'm still having a hard time believing it myself, but this is for real.

[Nabster]

I can recommend the program GetDataBack to try and recover it. It worked wonders for me after a windows error from hell.

Just don't do anything more to the hard drive the files were on until you've run data recovery on it.

[hansvonaxion]

Originally Posted by Rokovak

Your denial is as strong as mine. Songs are not on the iPod, they're not in my computer's music folder, nor are they in my external hard drive's music folder. I sure as hell didn't delete them, they were on my external hard drive before this happened, now they're not. I even double checked my hard drive's backup software to make sure it wasn't configured to delete files that were stored there and not on my computer.

I know this seems hard to believe, I'm still having a hard time believing it myself, but this is for real.

So you're saying iTunes went rogue and deleted files on your external HD? Files not in your iTunes Music folder?

I don't know, I've never had any problem (on a Mac) - I think some of your problems sound like you're letting iTunes store run rampant (automatically download new music samples and stuff like that).

[chvvkumar]

iTunes blows (I use floola) BUT in my 5 years of use it never deleted any stuff without me telling it to do so.

But, the database does seem to get erased every time i start it on a Win7 system. I am getting these "can not save itunes library file" error....tried changing the permissions and security settings of the itunes folder in documents and settings but it does not seem to help.

[Rokovak]

Originally Posted by hansvonaxion

So you're saying iTunes went rogue and deleted files on your external HD? Files not in your iTunes Music folder?
.

I guess so, I'm not sure what else to blame this on. Not all files were deleted by the way, just the vast majority of songs that weren't purchased through iTunes. I have a ton of movies on there and those were left untouched as far I can tell. This was the work of either iTunes or SyncBack, the program that backs up and syncs my hard drive with my iTunes folder.

Whatever, I don't care anymore at this point to be honest. I'm just going to soldier on with iTunes for the time being until I can sell some stuff and buy a different MP3 pos.

[argatoga]

Windows or Mac? You could have a virus which wiped out your mp3s (iTunes Store uses AAC files in .m4a containers).

[Ramseus]

Itunes obviously didn't delete your muzak. It won't delete anything unless it's in the itunes folder to begin with (pfft, get lost, I'll put my music where I feel like thank you very much) and having the little ( ! ) before you did anything to itunes means that they were already defeated. Not itunes' fault.

My itunes is pissing me off though. I must have a couple corrupt music files because I get a very unhelpful error sometimes when I sync my ipod, so I have to disconnect/reconnect it and then it works fine. I've tried to find any files that might be causing it but no luck, and the classic vague apple errors give no insight into what/where the problem actually is.

[hansvonaxion]

Originally Posted by argatoga

Windows or Mac? You could have a virus which wiped out your mp3s (iTunes Store uses AAC files in .m4a containers).

That thought also crossed my mind.

[Ferrari333SP]

I have a Zune, 80 GB size, 2nd version, and absolutely love it. The Zune software is efficient, easy to use, easy to sync, along with the Zune itself. The main menu is efficiently designed, simple to use, and the fairly big screen size is nice, especially with playing video. I did have a problem with it last fall, when it would freeze occasionally when I tried playing tracks, but I think that was due to me dropping it from heights higher than I should have. It's been working for a long time now, and I just love it. I got an FM-transmitter for it, so I use it in my car, and I have 80 GB's of music at my fingertips. Even better, if you have time to wait, Microsoft is debuting the ZuneHD this fall, which is kind of based off the Itouch, in that it has a touch screen, but what's special is that it can play 720p video, hooked up through a special jack to an HD tv, and can also play HD Radio. I've included links to more info on the ZuneHD below. Again, I totally recommend the Zune system as a whole.

Also, for playing music on my computer, although I have a Zune, I never use the software. Ever since I started using computers, I've always used Winamp. www.winamp.com. Most simple, easy to use music playing program on the net. Forget Itunes, forget anything else, for me personally, Winamp is the way to go.

ZuneHD links:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/26/z...way-this-fall/

http://www.zune.net/en-us/mp3players/zunehd/default.htm

http://gizmodo.com/5272228/zune-hd-h...and-video-tour

[Sir Stiggington]

Just use windows explorer and a Zen. iTunes and iPods are a waste of memory.

[Clegko]

See, this is why you should always backup your shit. iTunes won't delete anything without asking you twice, "Delete this?" ... "Are you sure?"...

[nsx_23]

iPod 5G Video + Rockbox = No more iTunes, FLAC, OGG format support and heaps of modding options.

[EvoEvo]

I've had the same thing happen to me with iTunes. And I bought a brand new Nano, which refused to switch off. I really want to love Apple, but sometimes it's so hard...

[The_Finn]

hmmm rockbox seems like a pretty awesome situation... the only thing i like about itunes is ease of podcast management...

[killpanda]

iTunes won't erase your files on its own just for fun, for me your problem is somewhere else (could be a virus as some other said).

I use iTunes since version 1 and never had a problem like that with it. I know dozens of people who use it on Windows and are perfectly happy with the way it doesn't delete their files