Sick and tired of iTunes

[Themis]

I think iTunes is the worst piece of shit software I've seen so far. I'm using it on the Mac to organize my music library etc., but it's giving me such grief, that I've decided to ditch it.

What other recommended music library software do you guys know of? I'd like to be able to rip my CDs into FLAC (or AIFF).

MediaMonkey. Great software.
(and I even sync my iPods with it)

On Windows iTunes sucks. I've uninstalled it from all my computers. A piece of sh1t software, as you say. Some like it, though. Go figure.

[Alex_UK]

iTunes being a proprietary product, we don't really know what's going on inside it, do we? For all I know, it may be doing all kinds of things that I'm not aware of, and that I, as a paying customer, do not approve of.

It's free in the UK, so I guess we can't complain - and I for one (the only one?) have been perfectly happy with itunes since day 1 - but then I only use it for my ipod, and streaming background music around the house, all with the proprietary settings, and only needing AAC quality.

[dave2010]

Does anyone know enough about how iTunes works? I've been trying to clear space on my netbook, and now I discover I have three iTunes folders (iTunes, iTunes(2), iTunes(3)) in my Program Files folder running under Windows. Not sure how that has happened, but presumably only one of the folders is needed. How can I find out which ones to delete?

Can I also assume that they've not hidden any of my data in there, or would that be a rash assumption? I don't want to delete a folder then discover I can't play some of my music.

[Themis]

Does anyone know enough about how iTunes works? I've been trying to clear space on my netbook, and now I discover I have three iTunes folders (iTunes, iTunes(2), iTunes(3)) in my Program Files folder running under Windows. Not sure how that has happened, but presumably only one of the folders is needed. How can I find out which ones to delete?

Can I also assume that they've not hidden any of my data in there, or would that be a rash assumption? I don't want to delete a folder then discover I can't play some of my music.

If you find nobody who can answer, than I'll have to reinstall it and find out. I hope you're not in a hurry, Dave !

[Codifus]

Does anyone know enough about how iTunes works? I've been trying to clear space on my netbook, and now I discover I have three iTunes folders (iTunes, iTunes(2), iTunes(3)) in my Program Files folder running under Windows. Not sure how that has happened, but presumably only one of the folders is needed. How can I find out which ones to delete?

Can I also assume that they've not hidden any of my data in there, or would that be a rash assumption? I don't want to delete a folder then discover I can't play some of my music.

Not sure I could be much help because I haven't touched iTunes in Windows for a while. Well, ever since XP was brand new. For starters, which Windows OS are you using, and which version of iTunes are you running?

CD

[Joe]

If you think iTunes is bad, you should have had a Sony NetMD player with SonicStage. It made iTunes look like the most lovingly crafted piece of work ever produced..

Ain't that the truth! But the Sony player makes better music than the iPod.

[lovejoy]

Does anyone know enough about how iTunes works? I've been trying to clear space on my netbook, and now I discover I have three iTunes folders (iTunes, iTunes(2), iTunes(3)) in my Program Files folder running under Windows. Not sure how that has happened, but presumably only one of the folders is needed. How can I find out which ones to delete?

Can I also assume that they've not hidden any of my data in there, or would that be a rash assumption? I don't want to delete a folder then discover I can't play some of my music.

Hi Dave,
Only one of these directories will be in use by iTunes. In each directory you'll see an iTunes Library.xml file which is the song database and then a folder for Album Artwork and another one for Previous iTunes libraries, then a couple of other supplementary files.

You can check what's in each of those different libraries by holding down the Alt key whilst iTunes loads - That will prompt iTunes to ask you to choose which library you want to load. Have a look to see which one you want to keep and delete the rest.

This is how it works on the Mac anyway, I'm making the assumption that the Windows version will do the same, but I could be wrong.

[goraman]

Ditch your Ipod and get a Zune.