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Continued iTunes library testing: all is still not well, but improving
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MacNN Staff
Join Date: Jul 2012
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Following up on our last two rounds of iTunes testing has been grueling this week. After upgrading our test rig to the new iTunes last week, we re-ran our battery of tests regarding library corruption and re-tagging. Additionally, in response to some questions, we've re-ripped CDs recorded and produced in the last five years, and tested them with an entirely new Apple ID. How did the Apple update fare? Better, but still not where it needs to be -- read on for more details
For our first testing, We implemented a test library of 400GB of iTunes-stored music and assorted video files. The files are a mix of stuff we've encoded, as well as iTunes store purchases. One library is stored within the normal iTunes-copied hierarchy, another in a custom folder -- and we have a complete backup of both. For the former library, we ensure iTunes copies files to the library upon addition, and with the latter, that setting is disabled. We added a third library from user suggestion, with 400GB of music solely ripped from recent CDs for this round of testing.
Our test platforms are a 2010 Mac mini running OS X 10.7, and a 2013 Mac mini first running OS X 10.10.4 then upgraded to the new OS X 10.10.5, along with a Drobo 5D, Synology RackStation RS 214, Lenovo Iomega IS2, and a Rosewill RSV-S8 NAS device. The iTunes host machine is a 2013 i7 Mac mini running OS X 10.10.4 then also boosted to 10.10.5.
Also on the test rack were 19 external USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt enclosures that we moved the pristine libraries to. Previous testing showed that iTunes also randomly changed tags on 10 out 19 of these enclosures as well, with no commonality between bridgeboards and drive manufacturer. We've since tested with USB 2.0 enclosures, and found similar results.
The first round of testing initially found no corruption on internal libraries, but the process was just a bit slower. Where external libraries would manifest issues with tags and matching nearly immediately, the internal libraries exhibited a "creep" in iTunes 12.2.1 where a tag here and there would change over time.
So. Here we are. New OS revision, and iTunes update -- a week later, and many GB moved for testing. What changes has Apple made, and are they for the better?
Post-update
We're going to get it out of the way. Just the OS update did nothing, and new CDs made no difference as well. We didn't even continue with testing after the NAS arrays, and half of the external enclosures were tried. However, iTunes and the match process itself is showing some improvements.
The tag changing process in the network attached storage devices and the external cases exhibited behavior like drives internal to the machine. Tag modification and file moves weren't instant, but crept in over time. This is an improvement. The alterations on internal drives still happened as well, but slower than the previous testing.
Most beneficially, an iTunes library with no Apple Music or iTunes Match subscription is now completely safe, as is a library hosted on previous versions of iTunes. Over the entire week, we had no tags changed, and no files moved after the update.
Recommendations
We're still recommending storing libraries on the same drive that the iTunes application is living on, but the problem is far less severe than it was in our testing so libraries on an external drive or on a network attached storage device aren't the kiss of death like it used to be.
We keep banging on this drum -- keep backups of your entire iTunes library hierarchy not attached to an iTunes library. If you have a backup, then you can restore your library whenever something creeps in.
As I mentioned previously, we don't have the ability to test every configuration. Your mileage may vary.
Horseshoes and hand grenades
Improvements, great. Apple not leaving our libraries completely alone by accident or design, not great. I've narrowed down what's bothering me about this entire process, and Apple's seeming lack of respect for what we own and cherish, our music, is my issue. Tag modification is only part of the problem -- we've discussed the ALAC sync purge on iOS previously and this is a user respect issue as well.
Apple has said it itself, music is an emotional touchstone, and we can use it to induce memories, fix bad days, or make time go faster. When we can't find what we want, exactly what we want, when we want it, because a computer company reached out and touched us, then its a major problem, and disrespectful.
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Last edited by NewsPoster; Aug 20, 2015 at 11:00 AM.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Nov 2002
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I'm still not sure why this staff writer is getting paid for this nor why it is the headline in the MacNN email I got....which I should unsubscribe to.
Putting your iTunes XML and .itl files, which are stored, by default, in your home directory, Music, iTunes, is something 99% of the users out there would even consider. And it is NOT easy to do, as it requires symbolic links to the files in another location.
And the article is misleading, as not till the end does the author even mention that the XML and ITL files are in a location NOT on the computer.
So, to write a whole article about an iTunes problem, something iTunes really doesn't support, nor want you to do (hence the need to symbolic link stuff), seems sorta stupid......
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Apparently poster "ericdano" doesn't know about starting iTunes with the option key pressed, whereupon you're able to create an iTunes library anywhere ... including on an external drive.
While I sincerely appreciate the testing you've carried out and understand that you can't begin to test the myriad of permutations possible, if you had any experience/results related to custom-attached artwork I'd be interested to hear the results.
Our 84 GB iTunes library is located on an shared AFP drive. I've spent dozens of hours acquiring/scanning the exact artwork for my specific (vintage of) CDs (going back to the 1980's) and iTunes 12.2 completely mangled and/or lost the artwork associations (not to mention doing the same with the songs and album associations). Of course, it then proceeded to propagate the same mess to my iOS devices. Fortunately, I have backups.
The fact that this data-corruption still remains, even a little, after 2 more updates is truly sad. It seems the Apple is becoming the new Microsoft. Shameful, indeed (I've been an avid Apple user+ since the ol' Mac Plus).
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I'd be curious if the testing included moving the user data folder onto the external data storage rather than just the iTunes Library. I know you can select other locations for the data with the power user tricks, but am curious if having the user account and iTunes Library on the same volume would prevent the issues seen here.
I have an iMac with a small SSD that I just keep the OS and apps on, and I have a 1TB drive that has my user account. So this isn't as crazy a configuration as it might sound at first glance.
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Managing Editor
Join Date: Jul 2012
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Originally Posted by ericdano
I'm still not sure why this staff writer is getting paid for this nor why it is the headline in the MacNN email I got....which I should unsubscribe to.
Putting your iTunes XML and .itl files, which are stored, by default, in your home directory, Music, iTunes, is something 99% of the users out there would even consider. And it is NOT easy to do, as it requires symbolic links to the files in another location.
And the article is misleading, as not till the end does the author even mention that the XML and ITL files are in a location NOT on the computer.
So, to write a whole article about an iTunes problem, something iTunes really doesn't support, nor want you to do (hence the need to symbolic link stuff), seems sorta stupid......
I generally leave people their opinions about things, but you're wrong in just about every point here. Apple has pages devoted to this on their support site, pointing out users can have different libraries in different locations for different reasons. Like others have already pointed out, and I have in the past, that not only is this supported, but encouraged.
Symlinks aren't supported in any way by Apple, nor are we testing them here. Why you think we are is beyond me.
The reason why we keep testing this, because it is a big deal. It is supported functionality despite your insistence that it is not, and is broken -- and the break affects even libraries stored on the system drive!
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Managing Editor
Join Date: Jul 2012
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Originally Posted by dmwalsh568
I'd be curious if the testing included moving the user data folder onto the external data storage rather than just the iTunes Library. I know you can select other locations for the data with the power user tricks, but am curious if having the user account and iTunes Library on the same volume would prevent the issues seen here.
I have an iMac with a small SSD that I just keep the OS and apps on, and I have a 1TB drive that has my user account. So this isn't as crazy a configuration as it might sound at first glance.
Not even power user tricks. A simple checkbox in iTunes preferences disables copying everything to a common library, and leaves files scattered where they are. We haven't tested that yet, nor the previously mentioned custom album art, in an effort to control variables. I can run some tests over the weekend on both.
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Mac Enthusiast
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...it seems the whole basic user experience of Yosemite seems a 'bag of hurt' - mail still hangs on launch if I don't choose a small quantity folder, drafts remain of emails sent, safari still opens unexpectedly to non-private links and history records, or hangs on some bloody webloc pop-up from the link bar, app store download progress bars appear & disappear at will, sever app begs reinstalling multiple times when the app store launches, aperture albums don't sync to iPad - I mean is there anything that works as well as it did (that is Charles flame queue in Snow? New features & interface have appeal but at what cost... Bleeding edge is interesting, but perhaps give those needing function the support (on new hardware) to run a more vetted legacy MacOS... A high end peripheral orphaned in Mt Lion just got W10 drivers - more incentive to switch (?) - and save reinventing workflow & spending literally thousands of dollars just to keep the shop open...?
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: West Michigan
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@bob: My experience, and that of the vast majority of the people I support (schools, small businesses, individual users, photographers, graphics designers, tattoo-removal studios, etc.), is that SL was the peak and everything since has been a backwards slide in terms of usability (not necessarily reliability, but SL was already pretty much perfectly stable, so it's not like the Mac OS can really get much better in that regard). I'm running a very well-put-together Yosemite system (fast 15" MBP 9,1 with SSD boot drive and SSHD secondary drive in a data-doubler, etc.) and it's been extremely stable, with almost zero crashing of any type, but then again SL was that way also... In every other way it's less intuitive and more difficult to use that it would be if I could run SL on it. The few new features that I actually use in no way make-up for the overall degradation of the UI. And don't even get me started about how much Apple has screwed-up networking environments (you know that "wonderful" new versionsing save-system they use? You know, where there is no more Save As unless you hold down the Option key? And where you have to duplicate a file in memory (which isn't really a duplicate yet) and if you close the original it saves the changes without asking unless you knew to turn that feature off in System Preferences, and and and? It doesn't work with Networked Home Folders using Mac OS X Server and Open Directory. Really. Not kidding. Apple specifically designed a "versioning" system for saving files which is incompatible with their OWN server software! Now, that's putting the user-experience first for sure! The number of people who lose work because of this is simply staggering). But I digress... Google "Apple Core Rot" and you'll find a pretty good blog about everything going wrong at Apple. Not everything is wrong of course; they still build some amazing and compelling hardware, but unfortunately hardware is only as good as the OS it runs. In the case of iTunes, my feeling is that this latest debacle is just the clearest "everyman's" example of exactly how little the persons now running Apple care about the user experience (either that, or they do care, but are morons incapable of turning that care into a reality). We've been seeing signs of this for years (removal of key iWork features to match stupider iOS version, reduction in UI visibility through elimination of colors in many icons, etc.) but this iTunes thing clearly showed their disrespect (nicely put MacNN) towards their users as a whole.
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Dec 2004
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Oh, and MacNN staff, thank you so much for continuing to research this iTunes issue. I've simply decided not to upgrade until I'm absolutely forced to; and hopefully all will be good by then. I can report that I've had few complaints from users with networked-home-folders in terms of data-loss with the new iTunes, so that's a good thing. There have been a lot of usability complaints, but as far as I can tell thus-far, iTunes has not been deleting (or forgetting about) iTunes media in this configuration (Then again, not a single user was using iTunes Match or has signed-up for Apple music on school systems configured with Network Home Folders; so who knows what would happen if they did so...)
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2005
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This issue has stopped me from using iTunes. All that music I bought and cannot listen to.
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