iTunes help

[BOBOT]

I'm not an Apple user except for iTunes and my iPod Touch, and find using it is anything but intuitive.
I wanted to add a playlist to the iPod, so plugged it into my laptop and started iTunes.
Got a message saying a new version was available, so I installed it.
Now I find that the music library on iTunes is missing a lot of stuff; it used to have everything that's on my iPod (that's how I added new things to the Pod), but not now. I suppose something happened during the update.
So how do I restore my music files to iTunes on my laptop? Using the sync feature with the iPod seems to be a one-way street; it seems that it is used to get files from iTunes to the device, but not the reverse.
I don't see a way to get the files from the iPod to iTunes without manually dragging each song or album. That would be a serious drag.

Ideas?
Thanks..

 

[The Rodent]

Was everything in your library purchased through iTunes? I have read other accounts where music not purchased through iTunes has disappeared after an iTunes update. By chance, did you make a backup copy of your music database?
I'm not an Apple user either and agree with you, it is far from intuitive.....

 

[braumeister]

This might help.
If you don‘t see your entire library after you update iTunes on your Mac or PC

 

[Sue J]

I had a similar issue the last time I wanted to use iTunes on my iPod Touch. I had to do the upgrade and after that nothing worked the same. Also, for some reason it assumed I wanted to always shuffle everything and that had to be turned off.

But I don't use it to listen to music, I just listen to podcasts in the car. My son suggested that I try Overcast. It was a free download and it is absolutely PERFECT for how I use my iPod Touch for the podcasts.

We talked about how iTunes keeps changing. You get used to managing it all one way and then they "update" and you have to relearn and reconfigure everything. He told me that Apple is moving toward having all your music listening done through streaming instead of having the user put their own music on their own device and listening to it without being connected to the internet.

There used to be a way to tell iTunes to use a specific folder to sync files. Then you could put all the songs you wanted to load into that folder and let it sync just from that folder.

Sorry, I don't have a fix for you. Maybe someone who uses iTunes like you do will be able to help.

 

[Just_Steve]

I just keep my music in a folder on my desktop then drag and drop onto the ipod. I am an Apple fan but hate itunes.

 

[athena53]

This is a huge problem. I've had my library disappear a couple of times (including music purchased from iTunes). A blog post I read about 6 months ago on the subject brought a ton of replies- iTunes has even "stolen" music someone created themselves, recorded and stored on iTunes. Others have uploaded an obscure version of a song and found it replaced by a more common version. I don't stream music- much of the time I'm someplace I'd have to use my Data plan to do that and I LIKE my Tiing service, which runs about $18/month but has a small data allowance. I've given up on getting the music onto my iPhone. I have an iPod nano with almost everything, recovered at great effort the first time it all disappeared, have it backed up, and I never sync it. I hope it lasts forever.

 

[target2019]

I'm not an Apple user except for iTunes and my iPod Touch, and find using it is anything but intuitive.
I wanted to add a playlist to the iPod, so plugged it into my laptop and started iTunes.
Got a message saying a new version was available, so I installed it.
Now I find that the music library on iTunes is missing a lot of stuff; it used to have everything that's on my iPod (that's how I added new things to the Pod), but not now. I suppose something happened during the update.
So how do I restore my music files to iTunes on my laptop? Using the sync feature with the iPod seems to be a one-way street; it seems that it is used to get files from iTunes to the device, but not the reverse.
I don't see a way to get the files from the iPod to iTunes without manually dragging each song or album. That would be a serious drag.

Ideas?
Thanks..

The upgrade process and fallout from itunez is disheartening.
If you have the music files on your computer, you don't need to copy the files from ipod to itunes.
The first thing to check is where are the locations your music is stored. If you're like me, all of your music is stored outside of the default itunes location(s). Otherwise, is your music in the cloud?
If you let itunes start over, remember that it will search for files it can grab, and will copy them to its default folder.

 

[Danmar]

Agree that iTunes is very difficult to use and not intuitive at all. I have several iPods which all work differently and I often get stymied. Find I'm using Pandora or other streaming services more and more. Wouldn't buy another iPod.

 

[donheff]

I absolutely hate iTunes. It is the most confusing POS I have ever used. Every time I change devices I have to relearn the darned thing and it is always different than the last version I learned. Thank god my music library is unprotected. I keep copies backed up and eventually find a way to get it into iTunes and onto my phones and pads. What a PITA.

 

[H2ODude]

I absolutely hate iTunes. It is the most confusing POS I have ever used. Every time I change devices I have to relearn the darned thing and it is always different than the last version I learned. Thank god my music library is unprotected. I keep copies backed up and eventually find a way to get it into iTunes and onto my phones and pads. What a PITA.

+1000

I long for the older versions. I like Apple but loath having to deal with iTunes. Appreciate the link above on restoring, I'll have to try. Yesterday was trying to understand why my iTunes library on iMac is intact but when I try to push the whole library to iPhone some albums are missing. Will try the update.

 

[athena53]

Is there another good app (preferably free or one-shot payment) that will let you load your music from an iTunes library onto your iPhone and manage it? It would need a function to change iTune's .mp4 format to .mp3, I suppose.

 

[donheff]

Is there another good app (preferably free or one-shot payment) that will let you load your music from an iTunes library onto your iPhone and manage it? It would need a function to change iTune's .mp4 format to .mp3, I suppose.

Goodgrief, I wasn't aware iTunes doesn't use MP3. What, does it convert all my MP3s to MP4s when I copy them into the library?

 

[athena53]

Goodgrief, I wasn't aware iTunes doesn't use MP3. What, does it convert all my MP3s to MP4s when I copy them into the library?

I think that whatever you buy in iTunes is .mp4, but it will play .mp3. I was more concerned about any other app being able to handle iTunes' .mp4 format.

 

[BOBOT]

This might help.
If you don‘t see your entire library after you update iTunes on your Mac or PC

Thanks, but this was as confusing as everything else. Didn't work, but of course I probably don't understand it.
I think Apple is every bit as bad as Microsoft in this regard.
Anyway, thanks to all of you who replied.
I'm just going to leave it alone until younger/smarter people come for T'giving and hope they can bail me out.