Yes, Apple is yanking iTunes on Macs but, no, it won’t pull iTunes on Windows

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Chris Hoffman on How-To Geek has the details: iTunes will be replaced by separate Music, TV, and Podcasts apps… but only on macOS. Windows users will
[See the full post at: Yes, Apple is yanking iTunes on Macs but, no, it won’t pull iTunes on Windows]

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Elly, GreatAndPowerfulTech

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? says:

just did another iTunes 207+ MB security patch because daughter runs an iPhone…

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210124

now to turn off the auto runs bloat once again…

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Its as much of a struggle to use on Mac as well, I hope they are completely scrapping it and starting over.

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I can’t complain really: I use it merely to copy all my CDs that I keep buying to my trusty iPod 80GB 5th Edition (yay!) that was originally (and still is) formatted under MacOS and normally resides in my car.

Nice side effect is that I can also copy the whole lot to my personal server so can stream music to my bedroom system from there (not that I do it very often, I tend to listen to CDs in the living room).

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rc primak, Alex5723

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[rc primak]

Nice side effect is that I can also copy the whole lot to my personal server so can stream music…

That ability to manage a whole media library in one app on almost any type of home server is why a few people I know would really hate to have to convert their collections (some numbering tens of thousands of titles) to a different system.

Other than Kodi (which doesn’t handle iTunes downloads) or Plex (Plex exists in iOS, so can be integrated with iTunes, but not the other way around; there is no iTunes add-on for non-iOS Plex.) I don’t know of any other good media organizing program for Windows. Especially with the demise of Windows Media Center and the current sorry state of Windows Media Player.

And for Apple’s proprietary downloads (iTunes downloads mostly) iTunes simply cannot easily be bypassed or replaced. It can be done, but it’s not easy.

Having three separate apps makes sense for phones and devices with limited storage. But for media servers, this strategy (also embraced by Google and Microsoft) is a nonstarter. It’s like the content owners don’t want us to save and store local copies of their media products anymore. Who would’ve thunk it?

-- rc primak

• This reply was modified 5 years, 12 months ago by rc primak.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 12 months ago by rc primak.

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Great Lake Bunyip, Myst

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[ch100]

Don’t forget that iTunes has the best mp4 audio (m4a) encoder available (Dolby) and I prefer its built-in mp3 Fraunhoffer encoder to LAME for 192 kbps CBR encoding.
I don’t know of better encoders mp4/mp3 available and this include the professional paid encoders.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 12 months ago by ch100.

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AlexEiffel, Elly, Myst, rc primak

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Wouldn’t doubt Apple will handle it like they did with Safari on Windows. They eventually just stopped updating it and all the while you could still install it if you really wanted to. I stopped installing it on my Windows PC’s years ago and tried the iTunes app version from Microsoft store and it was not any better. I get the feeling from Apple lately they are trying to get back to their closed end ecosystem where you access their products from Apple devices. Everything is designed to work within that ecosystem of hardware. I think that is moving even closer with Mac OS and IOS in the future. Doesn’t seem like much of a future for Apple throwing Windows users a bone and probably want to nudge them towards buying Apple hardware.

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doriel

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[Alex5723]

_Reassigned Account wrote:

tried the iTunes app version from Microsoft store and it was not any better

You don’t need the Microsoft’s store version. Use the Apple iTunes site to download iTunes.
The app was just updates to version 12.9.5.7 x64

“Wouldn’t doubt Apple will handle it like they did with Safari on Windows”

No, Apple won’t handle iTunes like Safari. Browsers are 100 a dime, iTunes is unique. iTunes brings the options of downloading, buying, sharing, backing up… music, video, books,.. from Apple.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 12 months ago by Alex5723.

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Myst

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I have no problems with iTunes myself. I certainly don’t agree with Woody on this and I don’t think it is “the snarliest, most useless piece of junk”. It is quite useful to me and I hope it will stay at least on Windows.

I dread the day when I have to convert my playlists in iTunes to a different system if iTunes is discontinued.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

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ch100

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rc primak wrote:

I don’t know of any other good media organizing program for Windows

I use MediaMonkey for all my stuff – paid version, there is a free version with almost no restriction. It syncs with my Android and iPod, plays on Windows and streams via DLNA.

cheers, Paul

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[krzemien]

It’s like the content owners don’t want us to save and store local copies of their media products anymore.

This very much indeed – hence me only buying physical media (i.e. CDs), and not only because of the quality reasons.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by krzemien.

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Those interested might consider the “Long Term Support Release” iTunes for Business 12.6.5.3.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208079

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AlexEiffel, woody

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Thank you for the link.  Links to older versions can be found here.  Scroll down to find the installers section.

 

 

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“iTunes on Windows is the snarliest, most useless piece of junk I’ve ever struggled with.”

Woody,

I’d really enjoy an elaboration of these sentiments.
I’ve not noticed iTunes was particularly different on OS X. Would your sentiments apply to the OS X versions as well?

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