itunes rant...

Y

Ynought

Registered
...there are some features about itunes that i like but the reponse time (of it and iphoto for that matter too) really has me wantin' to choke people.

apart from that, i have most of my music on an external hard-drive. when i disconnect i get the broken link icon (!). when i reconnect, the app skips all kinds of tracks. that infuriates me!

i also understand that the gapless hack is an attempt to overcome the limitations inherant in the format but that shit *is* a hack. sometimes it's worse than *not having* gapless.

i like the app ok but i liked the everything about musicmatch and winamp better. musicmatch had a great interface but was also dog slow. winamp's interface was crap in my esteem but it did *everything* i wanted execpt look up tags.

is there *any* alternative to itunes? *any* alternative to iphoto. i have 4000 pics (i don't think that's a lot at all) and that *kills* my machine when i launch it. granted my memory is limited but sheeeit, i shouldn't need a gig just to look at my photos, should i?

thanks. goodnite.
 
If you are running your iTunes from an external USB drive, I can imagine it might be a bit slow... A friend has his iTunes Library on an external FireWire drive and does not have the problems you described.

iPhoto can be frustrating, yes. More RAM would help - but another solution is: upgrade to iPhoto 06; I just checked it out on my iBook G4 (512 MB RAM only), and it is an awful lot faster than any previous version.

patrice
http://www.patriceschneider.com/apple-osx/blog/
 
Ynought said:
apart from that, i have most of my music on an external hard-drive. when i disconnect i get the broken link icon (!). when i reconnect, the app skips all kinds of tracks. that infuriates me!
Click to expand...
This problem doesn't have anything to do with iTunes. I do the same thing you do, and I use a LaCie mobile hard drive (FireWire). I get great results keeping my music (and photo) library on it and working from my iBook.

What does the broken link icon look like? Others may have seen this before, but I never have. I'm curious. Can you take a screenshot of it and post the image here?
 
If the drive is unmounted while iTunes is running, or is not mounted at the time that iTunes is launched, then yes, of course the links will be broken -- since the drive that contains the music is not available.

A simple workaround would be to make sure that the drive is spun-up and mounted before launching iTunes, and to quit iTunes before unmounting the drive.
 
Trying to launch iTunes when the drive is not connected will produce an error, and iTunes will refuse to open. (The same is not true, I don't think, for iPhoto, which asks you to browse and find your photo libraray.) I was curious about the broken link icon, however, because I don't see any change in icons when my FW drive is not connected, and I have aliases to it all over my internal drive.
 
The broken link icon is the little exclamation point. I'm not sure the suggestions about the how to deal with the external hdd are relevant though. I mean the point is, I have more music than fits on my laptop's hard drive. I want to use itunes when i'm not at home (i'm a student) without having to 're-establish' the links when i *do* get home. does that make sense?
 
I understand your dilemma, but don't see how it's a problem... the links are all broken, but when you return home, hook up and mount the external hard drive, then launch iTunes, doesn't it recognize that the links are fixed?

I do believe that will work -- as long as iTunes isn't running when you connect the external hard drive, I think iTunes will realize that the files are in fact there without the need to "fix" the link.

Does that not work? Even if the hard drive is connected, mounted, and iTunes was launched after the mounting of the hard drive, does it still complain about a broken link when you double-click one of the songs on the external?
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
I understand your dilemma, but don't see how it's a problem... the links are all broken, but when you return home, hook up and mount the external hard drive, then launch iTunes, doesn't it recognize that the links are fixed?

I do believe that will work -- as long as iTunes isn't running when you connect the external hard drive, I think iTunes will realize that the files are in fact there without the need to "fix" the link.

Does that not work? Even if the hard drive is connected, mounted, and iTunes was launched after the mounting of the hard drive, does it still complain about a broken link when you double-click one of the songs on the external?
Click to expand...
Works for me using a LaCie drive. I keep almost everything on my FireWire drive. The computer just runs the apps I use. I never have to repair aliases.
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
I understand your dilemma, but don't see how it's a problem... the links are all broken, but when you return home, hook up and mount the external hard drive, then launch iTunes, doesn't it recognize that the links are fixed?

I do believe that will work -- as long as iTunes isn't running when you connect the external hard drive, I think iTunes will realize that the files are in fact there without the need to "fix" the link.

Does that not work? Even if the hard drive is connected, mounted, and iTunes was launched after the mounting of the hard drive, does it still complain about a broken link when you double-click one of the songs on the external?
Click to expand...

Diablo- I get what you're saying now. I'll see what happens next time I disconnect/reconnect. thanks. i'll let you know how it goes

dmetz- i heard you twice the first time. saying 'it works for me' is not helpful; actually, it's kinda the opposite
 
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