iTunes 5 adoption isn't going smoothly. I haven't had any trouble myself, with installation or limited use of the
upgraded program. Dana Blankenhorn at Corante
reports
widespread and serious problems, including general computer trashing in Windows machines, and cites
Lauren Weinstein: "What's worse, rolling back [to 4.9]
can be difficult or impossible, and Apple's lack of official recognition or public response regarding these problems is
driving many users up the wall. I've personally now seen two systems that have fallen into this black hole — no working
iTunes, no working QuickTime, and attempts to install older versions (even just of QuickTime) fail miserably, even
after complex (and in some cases dangerous) attempts at cleaning out the leftover muck. It's really a mess — reminds me
of early DOS days."
Reports of destroyed iTMS libraries are floating around the Apple boards, though it's hasrd to know whether files have
actually gone missing, or simply can't be viewed by people whose only interface with their music has been iTunes. Many
(perhaps all) of the issues seem to be related to Bonjour, a program offered/bundled by Apple which facilitates setting
up networks. Many people in Apple's discussion forums are citing a Bonjour error before the crashing and apparent
destruction of playlists begins. This
thread offers a detailed solution that seems to be working for some people.
iTunes 5 Disasters
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. I've found two bugs. The most annoying was a problem with Party Shuffle. It would not refresh and it got stuck on a song genre, refusing to refresh.
I was surprised that at 5.0 to see these problems.
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Jazz1
3. I had the iTunes Library corruption, and figured it was some kind of bad coincidence. Luckily, I didn't have too many tracks in my music library and was able to rebuild it easily, but I had to resubscribe to all of my podcasts (which I was only able to do properly because of having my iPod as a reference list); if this is a widespread problem then Apple really needs to get its QA together. iTunes is supposed to be a flagship application, after all.
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Kanwar
4. This looks like it might be the solution:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?14@532.ncW1azfrSbp.0@.68b8ba88
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by btocher
5. I had no problems installing iTunes 5 or using it on Windows, but afterwards I noticed it had installed Apple's Bonjour zero-config program aswell which I didn't need or want. Rolling back was no problem, expect it said my library was for a newer version of iTunes but luckily I still had the 4.9 library.
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Dan
6. Before you start ripping tracks from CDs in iTunes 5, review your encoding settings. After upgrading to iTunes 5 my mp3 quality settings defaulted to the lowest quality setting which is quite disturbing since I always encode at the highest quality setting! Others have reported this same "bug". Other than that, I have seen no corruption issues or other anomilies on any of my three Macs.
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by WindozeBloze
7. I lost my podcast subscriptions and I hated that my podcasts were mixed in with my Library.
During the installion of iTunes 5.0, it complained about my Library and renamed it "iTunes Library (damaged)".
To revert here's what I did:
I went to /Library/Receipts and deleted the receipt for iTunes 5.0.
I dragged iTunes to the Trash and emptied it.
I reinstalled iTunes 4.9.
When I tried to open it, it complained about the Library being created in a later version of iTunes.
I went to my Music directory and changed the "iTunes Library" to "iTunes Library (v5)" and I changed "iTunes Library (damaged)" to "iTunes Library"
iTunes 4.9 started up normally and I am back in business!
I hope this helps.
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by macFanDave
8. I've not encountered any of these problems that all of you seem to be talking about. My upgrade went very smoothly. The fact that podcasts now appear in the library is a good thing because that means I am now aware that they were taking up space on my drive, and makes it easier for me to find them and delete them.
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Andrew
9. one more thing:
everytime i listen to a song now and then update my iPod, it will recopy the songs that i've listened to as if i made a change to the file....jeez
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by muntz
10. It recopies the song because it has changed -- the play count was updated.
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by superberg
11. "It recopies the song because it has changed -- the play count was updated."
Does it really? i don't think it did this before. my iPod would update very quickly before this new version and no songs would appear to be recopyed....the only things changing are the play counts and maybe ratings.
if it is recopying songs everytime you listen to them on iTunes it opens the door for something being copied incorrectly...why would they do this and not just update the library DB?
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by muntz
13. I loaded Apple iTunes into Tiger. The program works great except for one little problem. When the problem came up I was shocked being a hard core Apple user since 1984 and having been on Tiger with a 17" powerbook and so on.....
The trouble is the audio quality in 5.0 sucks. Don't install it and don't use it. I am in the syndicated radio business and I am launching a film soundtrack company.
My ears are sensitive and I was in absolute shock when the quality of the audio in 5.0 and the Equalizer that comes with it do not work to the same fine standards as 4.9.
Now, the search function is awesome (a clone of spotlight) in Tiger, but the audio sucks.
Now at first I thought it was the fact that I have a lot of non-apple mp3's on my system. Then? I started playing to 200+ songs I have bought from the Apple store. Guess what? Sucky sound!
Solution? Re-install 4.9! What to do: First this only works if you have an external drive with Panther on it. If your external drive has Tiger your messed up and it won't work. I re-booted my 17" Powerbook, off the external drive in Panther, erased all of 5.0 and related files. Then I re-booted back into Tiger and (ta-da), I am back to the 4.9 version. Now, my take is that Apple will fix this problem in the next relase 5.1 or 5.2, and yeah I miss the improved search engine, but you know us baby boomers. Right? We gotta have our music and Todd Rundren, The Eagles and Cold play have got to sound great! (Hope this helps anyone who is stuck)! Good luck!
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Mitch Santell
14. I loaded Apple iTunes into Tiger. The program works great except for one little problem. When the problem came up I was shocked being a hard core Apple user since 1984 and having been on Tiger with a 17" powerbook and so on.....
The trouble is the audio quality in 5.0 sucks. Don't install it and don't use it. I am in the syndicated radio business and I am launching a film soundtrack company.
My ears are sensitive and I was in absolute shock when the quality of the audio in 5.0 and the Equalizer that comes with it do not work to the same fine standards as 4.9.
Now, the search function is awesome (a clone of spotlight) in Tiger, but the audio sucks.
Now at first I thought it was the fact that I have a lot of non-apple mp3's on my system. Then? I started playing to 200+ songs I have bought from the Apple store. Guess what? Sucky sound!
Solution? Re-install 4.9! What to do: First this only works if you have an external drive with Panther on it. If your external drive has Tiger your messed up and it won't work. I re-booted my 17" Powerbook, off the external drive in Panther, erased all of 5.0 and related files. Then I re-booted back into Tiger and (ta-da), I am back to the 4.9 version. Now, my take is that Apple will fix this problem in the next relase 5.1 or 5.2, and yeah I miss the improved search engine, but you know us baby boomers. Right? We gotta have our music and Todd Rundren, The Eagles and Cold play have got to sound great! (Hope this helps anyone who is stuck)! Good luck!
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Mitch Santell
15. iTunes 5 install on Windows XP worked fine. No issues however Zone Alarm did pick up Bonjour trying to access the internet, which I allowed.
Still trying to explore all the features of the product however it feels less responsive than 4.9. My library is about 26 GB, mostly music. Anyone else comment on the reponsiveness of iTunes 5? (My system: Windows XP Pro, 1 GB RAM, Athlon 2500 XP)
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by glucoseboy
16. Looking at the apple site, seems a bunch of people are unable to burn to disc after upgrading to v5
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by cubiclemonkey
17. I can't believe this. 10 minutes ago everything was fine. I feel like a chump now.
I just installed iTunes 5 on XP. It froze in the middle of the "Updating Library" portion, forcing me to end task the program. When I opened the progarm again, my library is completely gone. Does anyone know if the installer keeps a back up of the library or if there is any way to recover? Unfortunately, I spent a long time setting up playlists so I really don't want to have to recreate them.
Before installing, I remember thinking, "maybe you should wait until it's been out for a few weeks... naaaah..." I guess you live and learn.
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Mister_Tog
18. When I learned itunes 5 was out, i was thinking of beginning of scratsh with my play-lists, because, i had added backups, and had several tracks more than 10 times, because of adding the backups....
Sow i Installed Itunes 5 and everything worked fine, i saw my old playlists, but i quited, and deleted the itunes folder, and added averyting to the liberie, no problem, looks great.. for the sound quality, my loudspeakers are unable to get beautiful sound...
Sow i'm happy with Itunes 5, the ugly borders are removed and it works more efficiently, (but it is a litle bit less responsive) (using P4HT 3GHz*3->3,3Ghz, 512RAM FSB800) + Windows XP PRO About bonjour i was not verry lucky because t i didn't even know it, and i don't like applicitions that are installed without my knowledge....( i'm still on winXP)
Podcast was uknown for me, sow now it's the firts time i'm going to utilize it.
I will keep Itunes 5, but still waiting the fix for what? i don't know
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by gaetan Hariot
1. the only bug i've come across is now iTunes displays my podcasts in the main library. yes, this is a bug for me for two reasons; i don't want them there or on my ipod and two; nobody labels their podcasts in a consistant way. wtf apple? give me the user the option to turn this off — no, using the new 'Search Bar' is NOT a solution
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by muntz