iTunes is a steaming pile of horse crap

[Boozy]

Things that iTunes has done to me in the last three months:

- Erased all my songs and data from my iPod touch. Refused to sync songs and data back onto iPod. Had to remove, reinstall, import library.

- Asked me out of the blue, for god-knows-what reason, if I'd like to remove all my applications from my Touch. "NO", I clicked. It ignored me and removed them anyways.

- Repeatedly freezes my computer just by opening the program.

- Decided it didn't like my playlists. Rearranged them all for me.

- Repeatedly refused to recognize my iPod or sync with it.

I've determined that I'm in an abusive relationship with iTunes. No matter what it does to me, I keep coming back because I don't think I can do any better. I don't know enough about computers to make my iTouch work with another program.

Yesterday, I spent the better part of the morning restoring from back-up, as it had once again wiped my entire library.

[Slytovhand]

Now, I'm sure Boozy, that if you had a friend in an abusive relationship, you'd be telling them quick smart to get the hell out. It's not worth it. They may not find something better in the short term, but there is always someone better just around the corner....

So - get the hell out!!!

It's not worth all that pain and hardship - it'll only make you more bitter and untrusting the next time.

If you don't learn to leave it alone and walk away now, you won't be able to believe any other music firmware again when it says "NO". After all, NO means NO!

[crazylegs]

My gripe with iTunes is their classifications,

Apparently Gotan Project is 'Pop'
Two discs of the same album of Cafe Penguin Orchestra are 'New Age' and Electronica
Two Discs of the same album of The Dead 60s are Reggae and Alternative
Safri Duo (two blokes who play DRUMS is Electronica
It's lumped in Bjork and Run DMC greatest hits into one album (jolly confusing I can tell you)
The artwork for Halo 2 soundtrack is that of 'The Shield'
The artwork for Kill Bill 1 soundtrack is 'Illicit Beats'

It's a complete shambles, very embarrasing if someone looks through your iPod...

[Arcade Man D]

It's lumped in Bjork and Run DMC greatest hits into one album (jolly confusing I can tell you)

Any ripping software that looks up the track & album names in a database will do that. Manually change the names of any and all greatest hits CDs. I generally go with "Greatest Hits [$BAND]"

[lordlundar]

If there's not enough incentive to bail out yet, consider this:

When the RIAA tried to get the rates for downloaded songs increased again, Apple threatened to pull the plug on their Itunes network. It really was the only thing stopping the attempt. Given the way the RIAA is right now, there will be a point where they are going to try and call the bluff. Should Apple go ahead with it (and I have no doubt they will, seeing as they made the threat without notifying their userbase), guess what's gonna happen to all your songs the next time you try to connect.

Yup, Because it can't verify you paid to listen to them, they all are going to be deleted.

That's the problem with this type of service. Items you paid to have access to is in the control of someone else. When that other source says "It's done", you are screwed.

[Devilboy]

My gripe with iTunes is their classifications, ... It's a complete shambles, very embarrasing if someone looks through your iPod...

iTunes isn't doing the classifying. It's the Gracenote CDDB.

Things that iTunes has done to me in the last three months:
<snip>
I've determined that I'm in an abusive relationship with iTunes. No matter what it does to me, I keep coming back because I don't think I can do any better. I don't know enough about computers to make my iTouch work with another program.

Yesterday, I spent the better part of the morning restoring from back-up, as it had once again wiped my entire library.

Unfortunately, the Windows port of iTunes is horrible. I have no idea how they screwed it up in the process, but they did.
I have never had any issues whatsoever with iTunes, and I have been using it since it was introduced years ago.
Granted, I am a Mac user, so Apple's applications always work better in their native environment.
You might want to consider one of these 10 Alternatives to iTunes for Managing Your iPod.