Help me to gain control over iTunes.

O

ozziegn

The man behind the curtain...
Joined
Jan 13, 2001
Messages
17,533
okay, here's the deal.

why is it that whenever I install a new version of iTunes and I hook up my iPhone, iTunes wants to erase all my contacts, songs, etc. it tells me that my iPhone is synced with another iTunes account and that everything on the iPhone will be erased.

how can I make it to where my contacts aren't erased? there has to be a way to do this. after all, what would happen if I got a new computer? surely iTunes can't expect me to lose all my info just because I'm syncing it to a new computer.

losing my videos and music I can handle. iTunes wanting to erase my address book is something I can't handle.

any advice?
 
ozziegn said:
why is it that whenever I install a new version of iTunes and I hook up my iPhone, iTunes wants to erase all my contacts, songs, etc. it tells me that my iPhone is synced with another iTunes account and that everything on the iPhone will be erased.
Click to expand...

You just answered your own question.

After you upgrade iTunes, make sure that the iTunes Store is logged in to the same account that you associate with your iPhone, and that the install is one of the authorized computers associated with that iTunes account.
 
I've tried that.

for example, I just got a new MacBook laptop a few weeks ago and I set up iTunes. I hooked up my iPhone and I signed in to the same iTunes store that's associated with my iPhone. I then plugged my iPhone in and iTunes warmed me that everything would be erased (including my contacts) if I proceeded with the sync process.

there has to be a way to tell iTunes that I want what's on my iPhone synced to my computer. not the other way around.
 
ozziegn said:
I've tried that.

for example, I just got a new MacBook laptop a few weeks ago and I set up iTunes. I hooked up my iPhone and I signed in to the same iTunes store that's associated with my iPhone. I then plugged my iPhone in and iTunes warmed me that everything would be erased (including my contacts) if I proceeded with the sync process.

there has to be a way to tell iTunes that I want what's on my iPhone synced to my computer. not the other way around.
Click to expand...

The account doesn't matter. If you attach an iPhone or iPod to a different computer than the one used to originally sync it, you will have to make sure the same information exists on the new one otherwise it will force you to wipe it.

Perhaps there is a workaround for this, but since 2001, this has been the behavior.
 
However, you CAN make it NOT sync the contacts/calandar. Turn off auto syncing and then you can turn on the sync items for the things that you want to sync.
 
ozziegn said:
there has to be a way to tell iTunes that I want what's on my iPhone synced to my computer. not the other way around.
Click to expand...

iTunes doesn't support that. I guess that'd make it too easy to pirate stuff or something. Hooray DRM!
 
jrmediacenter.com is an itunes alternative.... it makes it seem like youre going from a tricycle to a ferrari fully loaded.

also, jrmediajukebox.com is a good free version of jrmediacenter. it doesnt have mp3 encoding built in though, you need to pay extra for that. thats why jrmediacenter is nice, its all included.
 
InvisiBill said:
iTunes doesn't support that. I guess that'd make it too easy to pirate stuff or something. Hooray DRM!
Click to expand...

DRM, which only exists in iPhone apps and not the iTunes Store itself, has nothing to do with this. Nice try, though.
 
krupted said:
jrmediacenter.com is an itunes alternative.... it makes it seem like youre going from a tricycle to a ferrari fully loaded.

also, jrmediajukebox.com is a good free version of jrmediacenter. it doesnt have mp3 encoding built in though, you need to pay extra for that. thats why jrmediacenter is nice, its all included.
Click to expand...

Are you associated with this program in some way?
 
I've heard good things about jriver. Does it work with the new touches?
 
Terpfen said:
DRM, which only exists in iPhone apps and not the iTunes Store itself, has nothing to do with this. Nice try, though.
Click to expand...

I think he meant DRM as in copy protection, which is what itunes does, protects you from copying off your friends ipod. which i guess, technically, is a simple version of DRM :p
 
4b5eN+EE said:
I think he meant DRM as in copy protection, which is what itunes does, protects you from copying off your friends ipod. which i guess, technically, is a simple version of DRM :p
Click to expand...

Having one iPod or iPhone syncing with only one iTunes account isn't copy protection or DRM.

FairPlay is DRM, and it only exists in iPhone apps now that the record companies have dropped their "no DRM, no sales" position.
 
4b5eN+EE said:
I think he meant DRM as in copy protection, which is what itunes does, protects you from copying off your friends ipod. which i guess, technically, is a simple version of DRM :p
Click to expand...

Yes, I meant copy protection. While it technically may not be DRM by the purest definition, it's still adding artificial roadblocks to me accessing what I legally have rights to.


Terpfen said:
Having one iPod or iPhone syncing with only one iTunes account isn't copy protection or DRM.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by this. iTunes limiting me to one account is fine. The fact that I can't sync my iPhone to multiple computers (both of which have only ever accessed that same single iTunes account) is stupid. Since there are a bajillion apps out there that can copy media from the iPhone (as opposed to it being some technical impossibility), I can only assume that this is configured this way due to Apple's fear of angering the music companies, or directly at their request.

Adding in technical hurdles that interfere with my right to access my own content (the vast majority ripped from my own legally purchased CDs plus a few MP3s purchased online) because someone else might use that feature to give their Britney Spears MP3s to a friend is an attempt to manage my rights digitally, therefore it's DRM.

Hey, we should get the thumb drive companies to have their firmware prevent storing MP3 files. Obviously the only reason for putting MP3s on a thumb drive is for giving them to other people who didn't pay for those songs. Nobody could ever use a thumb drive to move files from one system they own to another, or have MP3s that contain non-RIAA material...

Hopefully the new Home Sharing stuff in iTunes 9 will avoid some of the problems I've had. However, they finally broke iTunes on XP x64, so I'm not able to actually sync my iPhone with my home PC anymore.
 
So is there a way to get iTunes/iPod to use the Artist Album info instead of just Artists? I threw them into a compilation for now, but that doesn't show up on the iPod itself, so I'm left w/ 15 different Artists instead of just Paul Oakenfold in the album Tranceport. It's quite annoying. I suppose I could go through and change all the song titles to "Featuring..." or something like that.
 
Won't iTunes just let you select the entire album and edit the artist or album-artist info of all the songs within it at once? MediaMonkey does... That's how I cleaned up all my Beatles songs (some said The Beatles, some simply Beatles, some read Beates, The, etc.), 'course in your case you'd lose individual song artist info I guess... Unless you went one by one and added it to the filename or flipped the tags instead... You can actually automate that within MM if you wanna add it to the filename. I don't think there's any way of telling the iPod itself to use Album Arist instead of Artist tho.

As for the original topic... Ugh, I've had the same issue with my iPod touch and apps... But at 'least for the apps there's a menu option (transfer purchases to compute or something like that) which forces the stuff back unto the computer (ideally), but yea... The way Apple handles sync'ing in general is idiotic imo.
 
InvisiBill said:
The fact that I can't sync my iPhone to multiple computers (both of which have only ever accessed that same single iTunes account) is stupid.
Click to expand...

One iPhone, one computer. This is normal and expected behavior. I'm not sure why you would expect a cell phone to maintain sync with multiple computers. Multiple sources--Yahoo Contacts, Google Calendar, etc--sure. Multiple computers? You're in an extreme minority there.

And it's still not copy protection or DRM.

Jodiuh said:
So is there a way to get iTunes/iPod to use the Artist Album info instead of just Artists? I threw them into a compilation for now, but that doesn't show up on the iPod itself, so I'm left w/ 15 different Artists instead of just Paul Oakenfold in the album Tranceport. It's quite annoying. I suppose I could go through and change all the song titles to "Featuring..." or something like that.
Click to expand...

Select all relevant files, right click, select Get Info. Fill in the Album Artist and both Disc fields.
 
Why shouldn't you be able to sync with multiple computers? Anyone that works/travels would want to be able to sync w/their laptop and desktop, there's no technical reason it shouldn't be do-able.
 
Terpfen said:
Select all relevant files, right click, select Get Info. Fill in the Album Artist and both Disc fields.
Click to expand...
It still shows you all of the individual artists in the artists column. It makes a complete mess of my iPod too. I finally gave in and changed all the artist fields to the album artist and stuck the original artist in the song title.

There's a sorting option, but it doesn't work very well, and of course doesn't work at all on the iPod. My way sucked, but it worked.
 
Impulse said:
Why shouldn't you be able to sync with multiple computers? Anyone that works/travels would want to be able to sync w/their laptop and desktop, there's no technical reason it shouldn't be do-able.
Click to expand...

It's the way Apple has implemented syncing. It's been like this since the first iPod. It's one of those "either you put up with it or use a different product" kind of thing.

People who work/travel would need Exchange support, which 3.1 offers. Syncing to multiple computers for audio files or game apps doesn't fall into a work/mission critical category.
 
Jodiuh said:
It still shows you all of the individual artists in the artists column. It makes a complete mess of my iPod too. I finally gave in and changed all the artist fields to the album artist and stuck the original artist in the song title.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's still going to show you the individual artists in the artists column... because it's getting the tag information from the Artist field. If you want to show the Album Artist information instead of the Artist information, you simply add the Album Artist column to your library view (View → View Options) and sort by that.

If you want to sort by Album Artist on your iPod, then IIRC CoverFlow view will sort by Album Artist if that tag is available.

Impulse said:
Why shouldn't you be able to sync with multiple computers Anyone that works/travels would want to be able to sync w/their laptop and desktop, there's no technical reason it shouldn't be do-able.
Click to expand...

This is a pretty obscure example, especially considering services like Google Calendar/Contacts, MobileMe, etc that allow you to sync the iPhone independently of any one computer. If you're traveling that often where you find yourself regularly needing to sync with a laptop, create a duplicate of your desktop information (iTunes library, contacts, calendars, everything) on the laptop and sync away. Your desktop information will be erased, only to be overwritten with... the exact same information, only from your laptop.

There is nothing aberrant about the 1:1 sync policy of the iPod/iPhone.
 
Sorting by album artist in the big ass spreadsheet portion of iTunes would be a terrible experience. All it needs is the ability to choose your own sub fields in the main top 3 columns, ie. Album artist instead of artist. Winamp does this easily.

Same for watched folders. Instead of forcing my media into a single folder if which I have no control over, it should allow me to choose my own seperate media folders...just...like winamp. And media monkey and foobar and zune software and musicmatch...
 
Jodiuh said:
Sorting by album artist in the big ass spreadsheet portion of iTunes would be a terrible experience. All it needs is the ability to choose your own sub fields in the main top 3 columns, ie. Album artist instead of artist. Winamp does this easily.
Click to expand...

Regardless, this is the answer to your question.

Same for watched folders. Instead of forcing my media into a single folder if which I have no control over, it should allow me to choose my own seperate media folders...just...like winamp. And media monkey and foobar and zune software and musicmatch...
Click to expand...

As long as you didn't configure iTunes to manage your library for you during installation (on Windows), then iTunes won't consolidate files into a single subfolder. If you want to change this behavior post-installation, you go to the Advanced section of the Preferences menu and untick "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library." Voila, iTunes will index the location of the music you're adding to it without consolidating it into a single subfolder.
 
Torquemada XP said:
It's the way Apple has implemented syncing. It's been like this since the first iPod. It's one of those "either you put up with it or use a different product" kind of thing.

People who work/travel would need Exchange support, which 3.1 offers. Syncing to multiple computers for audio files or game apps doesn't fall into a work/mission critical category.
Click to expand...

That's hardly an accurate generalization, plenty of people travel for work and don't work for a big company with an Exchange server, far from it... I know it's love it or leave it but it's stupid, all I'm saying (and one of the many reasons why I don't own an iPhone, just an iPod touch). BB's, other smartphones, and even cheap media phones can all be sync'd w/multiple systems, the program just asks you if you want to override either database or merge the contents, the most logical way of doing it.
 
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