Why is iTunes so aggressively bad?

I finally bought a replacement 5s for the lowly 3gs i’ve been using for months ever since my 4s was stolen. I back up the 3gs, which has all the apps i frankly want on my phone, using about 12 of the 16gb available with the music library. Immediately i disconnect it, plug in the new 32gb phone, and restore from previous backup. iTunes proceeds to then helpfully install 90 apps from my iTunes library, using up almost all of the free space (it’s still in progress now).

I don’t understand why it is performing this behavior. I mean, not in a GRR RAGE way, i mean in a “what button am i clicking wrong” way. I don’t understand why iTunes is restoring from a previous backup by installing apps that were not installed in the old backup.

I dislike strongly having to manipulate apps at all in the computer; i just want iTunes to mirror the decisions i make on the phone itself. That there is some kind of parallel assignment of states going on is very annoying.

iTunes is just a wretched piece of software. It amazes me that such an enormous and successful tech company can be so inept when it comes to designing a program to work with their marquee products.

They finally stopped it from trying to immediately download all the videos I’ve ever “purchased” from them the moment I snag a new video, at least. (I’ve never bought a video from the iTunes Store in my life, and I continue to be unimpressed by digital video stores in general in comparison to physical media versions of that content, but sometimes the Blurays I buy include digital copies so why not, right?)

Yes, iTunes is awful. I used to be in the “iTunes isn’t so bad” camp, but I converted a while back due to poor behavior and very slow performance. I use it as little as I can manage, but I still do things like manage playlists using iTunes. My music library is larger than will comfortably fit on one device, so I’m forced to use it for that reason.

As for the precise question: there’s a checkbox under “apps” that’s on a per-device basis. It says “automatically install new apps,” and I believe it’s on by default. If you’ve got it checked, that’s why you’re getting stuff you didn’t want.

EDIT: I fired up iTunes to verify where and what the checkbox was. Now it’s very, very slowly copying purchases from my iPod, and it is barely responsive. It does not handle background tasks well, and it often starts background tasks you don’t want, like updating Genius.

Yeah this. I loathe it. I am always having to reactivate computers and shit and if I ever have to restore an ios device there is a 50/50 chance on it actually being restored right, half the time the apps dont all get put back.

I recently got a new iPad but have still never installed iTunes. I’m glad there now is the iCloud option for some sort of backup.

Yep. I have a XP VM set up with iTunes specifically for dealing with my parent’s iPhones to avoid having it touching any of their (and my) computers.

Does iTunes work through a VM? My parents have been gifted used iPhones and iPads as relatives have upgraded, and I’m wondering if I can avoid having iTunes screwing up any of their (already old) computers.

The most annoying thing is the way it always wants to install Safari. No thanks, Apple.

That annoyance is gone. Apple discontinued Safari for Windows.

Just want to chime in and say how much I also hate the entire Apple file management system.

It feels like I can’t fucking use an iPad, iPhone, and/or iTunes without having some goofy shit happening, and without being able to do what would feel like very basic things.

I can’t plug in my iPhone or iPad to update my podcasts without it giving me some dire warning about having content on one or the other that isn’t updated somewhere else, and if I synch them without doing some sort of reconciliation, I could lose a bunch of apps I paid for (or something). But it never actually tells me what those things are, how to do the reconciliation, etc. Every time I connect, I seem to either have all of my music “doubled up” (i.e. the same song twice).

I understand that Apple makes pretty hardware. But as far as I’m concerned, their software and data management side is absolute shit.

Nothing to do with the software as such, but hey, might as well put my latest iTunes moan here:

So I was looking in the store to maybe get season 3 of Children’s Hospital. You know, the Adult Swim show with 10 minute episodes and 13 episodes a season. They’re charging 35 fucking quid for it. What the hell? Seasons 1 and 2 are less than a tenner.

Just looked, you can buy the DVD from Amazon for season 3 for $17, and buy the season to watch online on Amazon Instant Video (buy not rent) for $9.99 - hope that helps you say up yours to Apple. ;)

Amazon video doesn’t help me as a UK resident. Not sure I want to import the DVD at that price either, to be honest. It’s a good show, but it’s not amazing. I was just curious having finished season 2 and blown away by the ridiculous price. TV pricing on the iTunes store is usually bad, but at least within the bounds of reason. I can’t imagine anyone buying it at £35.

iTunes is a relic from the iPod days that has stayed around like some vestigial organ. Android users don’t need or use some bloated piece of software that ties their phone to a PC. Modern smartphones are stand alone handheld PC’s of their own. Apple just needs to kill this pointless POS software off.

Ah, I just assumed Amazon had a UK equivalent. Well, that sucks.

Ah, I just assumed Amazon had a UK equivalent. Well, that sucks.

It kind of does. It has LoveFilm, which is basically an inferior Netflix (started out as postal DVD rental, got bought by Amazon, added a subscription streaming service). But it sucks as a streaming service, especially for television, and the selection is totally different to US Amazon Instant.

On top of iTunes being a colossal pile of shit, why does it have functionality on the Mac that it doesn’t have on the PC? Namely, you seem to be able to send/receive texts from iTunes on a Mac, but not on a PC. There is no reason for this I can think other than Apple wanting to give the middle finger to PC users.

Uh. That doesn’t have anything to do with iTunes. Stop being irrationally angry. iTunes still sucks (moreso on PC) because it was a shitty port of SoundJam. Get a Mac if you want to use iMessage on a desktop/laptop computer.

Piracy wins again!