iTunes for Windows 12.13.4.4 is SO broken

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namaste1961 Author

Level 1

15 points

iTunes for Windows 12.13.4.4 is SO broken

Been using iTunes for 10+ years but am actively looking to find a replacement.

The only way I can successfully sync my 23K track Music collection to my brand new iPhone 16 is to either (1) use iTunes to erase all existing Music and Audiobooks on the iPhone and resync the entire library. And when that inevitably stops working I have to actually perform a factory reset of the entire iPhone and erase all settings and content.

Yes if I hook up my iPod classic 160 it synchronizes perfectly every single time.

Forget about the infamous 'Waiting for changes to be applied' problem or the fact that any random attempt to resync has a very good chance of corrupting the entire Music library on my phone and force me to use option (1) or (2) AGAIN.

Just venting but I have definitely purchased my last Apple device

iPhone 16 Pro Max

Posted on Nov 24, 2024 11:35 AM

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Answer 1

namaste1961 Author

Level 1

15 points

Nov 24, 2024 2:14 PM in response to jimbob5941

You're welcome, the irony is that a $400 10 year old iPod 160 GB classic works flawlessly while my $1900 iPhone doesn't work at all. Even after factory reset it's stuck at 11K songs with 'Waiting for items to copy' message. And FWIW I'm a professional IT computer geek so this isn't a case of "are you sure the computer is plugged in and powered on ma'am"? :-)

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Answer 2

the fiend

Level 7

22,938 points

Nov 26, 2024 3:14 AM in response to namaste1961

In theory once you have all your library on your iPod, any future Sync should not take all day because it is only managing those items that have changed.

Changed means:

- new additions to the library
- deletions from the library
- edited items, i.e. a change of text in any of the fields. I.E. a text change in album title or similar, changing the genre of a track, etc.
- changes to playlists (and therefore the tracks in it, added to or removed from it
- miscellaneous iTunes management

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Answer 3

the fiend

Level 7

22,938 points

Nov 25, 2024 1:17 AM in response to namaste1961

Try Sync selected Playlists, artists, albums and genres instead of Sync Entire Library. That way you can break up the copying process into chunks, sync a few items at one time, then add additional items for the following Sync.

I had to do that in the end in order to get all of my music on tomy large capacity iPods Classic.

See 3. in the screenshot below. Once you select that option, the sections marked as 4. will be shown (Genres and Albums are below the Playlists and Artists boxes:

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Answer 4

Nov 24, 2024 1:55 PM in response to namaste1961

Thanks for posting!

I'll stick with my kinda vintage V12.13.1.3 it works OK with my Iphone 13 pro

I sync. Contacts and Calendar from Outlook 2021, and of course my music,

but my collection is quite puny compared to yours.

If you do find a good replacement, please share!

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Answer 5

namaste1961 Author

Level 1

15 points

Nov 25, 2024 3:39 AM in response to the fiend

Thanks, that is exactly what I just started doing about a month ago. I was finally able to get a good sync yesterday (after a reset) but it turns out that remnants of my Music library still existed on my iPhone after the restore so I had to uncheck all the boxes and have iTunes remove all these remnants, then recheck the boxes and it finally synced all 23K songs in about 4 hours.

Bottom line is that even though I am constantly tinkering with my library, I will only reset/re-sync once a month since it has turned into an all day affair

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Answer 6

namaste1961 Author

Level 1

15 points

Nov 26, 2024 3:27 AM in response to the fiend

Agreed, I'm thinking the fact that its has to search 83K files for any changes is contributing to the problem so I am actively going though and deleting albums I no longer need. There are 23.3K files in the library being synched so I think if I can cut the total number of files searched down to 60K? Tedious but that is my plan

Edit: The irony is that this same synch takes less than 15 minutes on an iPod Classic 160

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