topic Re: DUMPING iTunes question in Electronics

DUMPING iTunes question

Moonchilde — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 00:39:13 GMT

Someone should know this -

If one started out setting up their initial i-device through iTunes long ago, and kept using iTunes for years on different PCs and with multiple subsequent i-devices -

What can I do now to avoid ever having to use iTunes any more, ever? Quite a few times, when I google to see how to change a setting or rearrange something or do this or that, the answer will be "go to iTunes and ...."

What about people who ONLY have an iPad or an iPhone, and do not have a PC or Mac to install iTunes on? They have iCloud and they have iTunes on their device. Are all the abilities and settings available in iTunes on my PC also available in the iTunes on my iPad? I would love to get permanently out from under ever having to use iTunes on my PC again, if possible - or using it ever. Possible, or not?

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

Mz iMac — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 00:47:52 GMT

@Moonchilde

Step by step uninstall instructions from Apple's KB Article: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204275

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

Moonchilde — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 00:54:49 GMT

Thank you, @Mz iMac. I have actually done that, once upon a time. I may not have been clear in my OP - I want to know if I can fully manage and customize my devices without using iTunes to do it, i.e. MUST I have iTunes on a PC in order to continue "managing" my devices, since long ago it was set up that way, or would everything work just the same as far as full functionality without iTunes? Are you saying I need to uninstall it in order for it to drop off my Apple account? Sorry if I'm unclear.

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

jaxs mom — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 01:10:26 GMT

The biggest problem that I see is if you purchase music online from somewhere other than the itunes app on your device or if you ever want to rip music from a CD. If all you plan on doing in the future is purchase from itunes or use Apple Music subscription then you should be fine. If you delete itunes from your computer and as such delete your computers itunes iibrary from your account you probably will lose access to any music you didn't buy from itunes, because deleting your itunes library from your account will remove that imported music too. I haven't tested that though.

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

Moonchilde — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 01:29:42 GMT

Thanks, @jaxs mom. There is some music I'd hate to lose, but I could bear it. Apple won't let you store that music in the cloud, will they? Probably not :-(

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

Kachina624 — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 01:38:44 GMT

You must be able to store it because a couple months ago I reset my iPad...took it back to new-from-factory and my music files were intact. Not such good luck when I had to reset my Samsung pad.

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

jaxs mom — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 02:00:58 GMT

its not so much where is it stored as how do you add non iTunes music purchases to your iTunes library through your device. Traditionally your computers iTunes library is your home library. Even if you don't physically sync.

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

jaxs mom — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 02:07:18 GMT

@Kachina624 wrote:
You must be able to store it because a couple months ago I reset my iPad...took it back to new-from-factory and my music files were intact. Not such good luck when I had to reset my Samsung pad.

Apple knows what you've bought from the iTunes Store. Resetting your device doesn't change that. But it's more complicated with non iTunes purchases. Do you have iTunes Match? Do you have an iTunes library on a computer? Do you have other devices on your iTunes account? Those are all ways other music is still in your iTunes library

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

jaxs mom — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 02:10:22 GMT

I have a mac though. Not windows so my stuff syncs automatically across all my devices and my computer

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

Moonchilde — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 02:21:54 GMT

@jaxs mom wrote:
its not so much where is it stored as how do you add non iTunes music purchases to your iTunes library through your device. Traditionally your computers iTunes library is your home library. Even if you don't physically sync.

Once upon a time I loaded every CD I bought, automatically. The CDs I still have, but the random free songs I d/l from various sites would be lost. And who wants to go back to CDs after having such portable music in the cloud. Sigh....

I have to do something one of these days, because half my (Apple-purchased) music won't play. This was a big Thing several months back. Had to do with licensing and synching if I recall. I'd need to look it up again.

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

Mz iMac — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 02:37:12 GMT

@Moonchilde

Sorry, I was going by your topic & statements..

"DUMPING iTunes"

"What can I do now to avoid ever having to use iTunes any more, ever?"

"I would love to get permanently out from under ever having to use iTunes on my PC again, if possible - or using it ever. Possible, or not?"

That you wanted to get rid/uninstall iTunes.

Like JaxsMom I also have a Mac.

If there are songs you do not want to lose, you can burn them onto a CD or DVD.

Also, if you do backups, your music will not be "lost."

You should also check the VLC website. This player may offer work-a-rounds for PC users.

Apple has various KB Articles regarding iTunes & Windows. You should research there to find an Article that fits your needs and/or do a Google search.

Apple Knowledge Base

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

jaxs mom — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 02:50:55 GMT

@Moonchilde wrote:
@jaxs mom wrote:
its not so much where is it stored as how do you add non iTunes music purchases to your iTunes library through your device. Traditionally your computers iTunes library is your home library. Even if you don't physically sync.

Once upon a time I loaded every CD I bought, automatically. The CDs I still have, but the random free songs I d/l from various sites would be lost. And who wants to go back to CDs after having such portable music in the cloud. Sigh....

I have to do something one of these days, because half my (Apple-purchased) music won't play. This was a big Thing several months back. Had to do with licensing and synching if I recall. I'd need to look it up again.

hmm half of it won't play at all, on your computer or your tablet? Sometimes the issue is that itunes can't find the file anymore, for example if it moved. It will tell you that if you try to play it and it will ask you if you want to look for it. It could also be old itunes music files that still have the DRM on them. They should have updated and become DRM free years ago but sometimes it misses some of your files.

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

Moonchilde — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 03:04:52 GMT

@jaxs mom wrote:
@Moonchilde wrote:
@jaxs mom wrote:
its not so much where is it stored as how do you add non iTunes music purchases to your iTunes library through your device. Traditionally your computers iTunes library is your home library. Even if you don't physically sync.

Once upon a time I loaded every CD I bought, automatically. The CDs I still have, but the random free songs I d/l from various sites would be lost. And who wants to go back to CDs after having such portable music in the cloud. Sigh....

I have to do something one of these days, because half my (Apple-purchased) music won't play. This was a big Thing several months back. Had to do with licensing and synching if I recall. I'd need to look it up again.
hmm half of it won't play at all, on your computer or your tablet? Sometimes the issue is that itunes can't find the file anymore, for example if it moved. It will tell you that if you try to play it and it will ask you if you want to look for it. It could also be old itunes music files that still have the DRM on them. They should have updated and become DRM free years ago but sometimes it misses some of your files.

@jaxs mom I googled it at the time and it was happening to people a lot. There were several references. When you go into your music on your phone or iPad, songs would be grayed out as unable to be accessed.

I honestly can't remember, but I think it might well have had to do with DRM and synching back to iTunes. It was a glitch in iOS7 but I still have songs "unavailable, cannot play." I suspect in order to get them back I'll have to synch. I forgot about this. This was all music purchased from the Apple store. Weird. There was never ONE solution.

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

geezerette — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 12:52:33 GMT

@Moonchilde

It sounds like you feel about iTunes like I do about what Microsoft has done with Windows!😠

Far be it for me to give you advice about this since I have never used iTunes and know less about any of it than you do, but here is another site I found (obviously years ago) when I had your same question. I don't know if it helps or not.

http://www.howtogeek.com/175045/how-to-never-use-itunes-with-your-iphone-ipad-or-ipod-touch/

Strictly from a novice point of view, it sounds to me like you might be able to do what you want, but you may lose some of your older, more obscure music. And it also sounds like you'll probably have to do a lot of this manually, possible through other apps/sites, so you might have to decide whether or not it's worth it to you. While I do think that eventually everything we want will be accessible from the same place, "The Cloud", I think that's going to be a long time coming.

But then again, what do I know?😄

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

Moonchilde — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 17:15:02 GMT

@geezerette, thank you, the link is spot on, exactly what I wanted to know! And I never paid attention to iTunes Match before and didn't understand what it was. It would be worth $25/yr to have *all* my music available.

I started out being very invested with iTunes on my PC because I'd decided I wanted ALL my photos on my iPad. I no longer want/need that, so once I decide exactly how/where I want to back up my photos, that part is solved as well.

Have a great day 🌞

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

geezerette — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 19:27:46 GMT

@Moonchilde, I'm glad that you finally found something that maybe will get you to your final goal.

I think before too long we all will be paying for most of what we get for free today.💸💸

Happy to be of some small assistance!👍🏻

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

jaxs mom — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 20:58:44 GMT

I had itunes match in the past. But it doesn't recognize some of my more obscure music. I've had Apple Music since it came out though and really enjoy it. I still buy music from various sources because everything is not on Apple Music, but I do feel I'm still getting my moneys worth, because can I listen to some things that I wouldn't necessarily purchase and it lets me see how much I really like it.

I do really like the icloud music library since it keeps my desktop and my devices immediately up to date. If I switch song order on a playlist or make a new playlist, it shows up everywhere immediately.

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

Moonchilde — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 21:49:05 GMT

@jaxs mom My wifi is so limited that I can't stream :-( Can't do Pandora or online radio stations. My speed is not only crappy, data is metered.

I do have some things - old TV theme songs for example - that I know would not be findable, or not likely.

My musical tastes are pretty eclectic and not hugely represented in iTunes, so I know what you mean.

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

jaxs mom — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 21:59:14 GMT

I don't stream, you can download songs with Apple Music.

Re: DUMPING iTunes question

Moonchilde — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 23:13:51 GMT

@jaxs mom wrote:
I don't stream, you can download songs with Apple Music.

I though Apple Music was a streaming/radio type thing. No?