Itunes - this software is appaling

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Dextur

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Can somebody give me a hand with this , I'm about to take a flight to Apple with a shotgun and wipe out the Itunes development team :smashin:

I can't comprehend how hardware so beautiful is paired with this monstrocity.

I have 2 Iphones.

One is my wifes.
One is mine.

I recently purchased a new computer , so had to use the "deactivate all computers" option, which worked fine, then I activated the new computer.

All fine.

I wanted to upgrade to the latest IOS, so I slapped my Iphone in , and it appeared fine, I right clicked it and did a:mad:

Transfer Purchase
Backup.

I did the IOS upgrade, all good, and ran through the config and restored accordingly , again - all fine pretty much.

So now I plug the wifes in to do the same - !!!

I transfer her purchases, and do her backup.

I upgrade her phone.

I do the restore from backup.

BUT

Instead of Itunes seeing it's a different phone, different user etc, it appears to have just lumped ALL her stuff in with all my stuff, it's not seperated anything .

All our playlists have been wiped and don't come back from the backup.

The only way I can get her apps back is to manually select them from the the list with a tickbox, throw them back on her phone and then re-tidy them all up on her phone.

All her music appears to have now been lumped in with mine and it also looks like any non Itunes music is missing.

Seriously, I can not grasp why it's made so awkward.

How the heck do you deal with multiple devices on the same computer without this mess?

All I want is for Emma's Iphone stuff to be seperate from my Iphone to be seperate from my IPads stuff to be seperate from my IPOD stuff.

I dare not plug in the IPOD or Ipad, God Forbid what would happen.

I realize both phones are attached to the same Itunes account but surely Itunes should be able to see it's a different device.

Any advice appreciated.

I now have an account with a bazillion apps and crap all from differnet users and devices put into one big lump.
 
Interestingly it did copy just her photos back, not mine ....

Diabolically bad, it's absurd it doesn't just popup and say

Emma's Iphone is a differnt device to the last device you backed up, would you like to keep these devices seperate?

Is that to much to ask ?
 
The way I used to get around this sort of thing was to use two multiple accounts on my laptop. There might be another way to get around this that some of the iTunes experts will be able to explain but it was the easiest and quickest way for me.

I agree that iTunes is crap though. I hate it with a passion. Give me drag n' drop any day.
 
I guess I could just do that but dam, is Itunes so poor it can't cope with more than once device at the same time.

I hate that s/w, the only reason I have to use it is is because I wanted to upgrace the IOS and had backup all the apps.

Sucks!
 
I agree, given Apples success with the intuitive nature of iOS and the overall usability of their devices its amazing how iTunes still seems so cerebral. I had a very similar experience with my g/f's iphone, the first time i tried to update both phones on my imac it went tits up. She has her own Macbook now so i update hers with that.
 
Can't get my head around how bad it is.

I love my I-family, all of it does what it should perfectly.

The software is like the drunk uncle frankly.

Useless and to be met rarely..
 
With the music you need to click on the music tab once your device is recognised and highlight only sync checked tracks or albums and select which tracks or albums you want synced to yours. Then do the same with the other phone too.
See if that works.
 
Yep, realize that, as above, did exactly that for apps.

I don't want to have to wade through a gazzilion apps and music etc every time though.

I ideally want ITunes to know it's a different device and allow me to backup/restore ONLY what is on that device automatically.
 
Then set up iCloud and everything apart from your own rips backup to that.
The only time you have to sync to PC/Laptop is when you want to transfer any of your own ripped tracks/albums.
 
Have you made sure both iphones have a different name, the only time I've seen behaviour like this is when both devices are called the same.

I currently have 3 iphones, a ipad and 4 ipods all syncing to the same library but all with different stuff on and they don't get mixed up.
 
I don't think I could write about iTunes in such measured language. Well done to all concerned.

Mike.
 
I have used 6 iPhones, 4 iPods and an iPad and, like others above, have never had this happen. iTunes only does what you ask of it and so it's down to how you initially set up the iPhones to start with.
 
Tidy_Sammy said:
I use a seperate user account for my GF's iPhone :p

There is absolutely no reason for you to do this just to Sync multiple iThings! Just set them up correctly to start with?
 
There is absolutely no reason for you to do this just to Sync multiple iThings! Just set them up correctly to start with?

In all fairness I did it also to seperate all our music etc in iTunes, not sure if I can do that otherwise?
 
Tidy_Sammy said:
In all fairness I did it also to seperate all our music etc in iTunes, not sure if I can do that otherwise?

If it suits you that way then that's perfect, but I was just referencing in relation to the OP saying iTunes is rubbish.

To keep all Music separate, I think that is the best way as you have now. Then use Home Sharing to share the rest with each other.

iTunes is designed on the basis of all of your household's Music being in the library and then you all pick and choose from that and Sync accordingly.
 
There is absolutely no reason for you to do this just to Sync multiple iThings! Just set them up correctly to start with?

Define "set the up correctly" so that her apps and music will NOT be combined with my apps and music on the same Itunes account.
 
SimonH said:
Define "set the up correctly" so that her apps and music will NOT be combined with my apps and music on the same Itunes account.

Firstly, upon reading your first post again, it seems like you didn't copy the library from your old machine(s) to your new one? Otherwise ALL of your Music would be there and not just iTunes purchased.

With regards to have to de-authorise your old PC, that's because you reached your 5 computer maximum and that's what you agreed to on sign up.

When you first set up each iThing, you should go through the settings and choose exactly how you want it to work for each type of media. Therefore, Music, Video, Apps, RingTones, etc are all managed separately. Either fully automatic, manually or a combination or both. That's how it is managed from there on. Simple really.

With regards to your stuff getting mixed up, that's by design. As stated in my last post, iTunes is a library of ALL the media in the household which you can all share and Sync to whatever iThings you like. Whatever you Sync with that library gets stored all together in the same database. It's exactly like the book based libraries concept where you can loan from. Just because you borrowed 2 books and your missus borrowed a different 2 books doesn't mean they get taken back to 2 different libraries with only what you want in yours and your Wife wants in hers. Unless of course you deliberately do that by going to separate libraries to start with!

So if you want everything separate then you have to set up separate accounts for only exactly what you want in yours and not your Wife's stuff, and vice versa. You need to use iTunes like its supposed to be used and not assume that iTunes will not mix stuff, when you have just told it to.

Quite simple overall and I struggle to understand why people struggle getting their heads around it!?!
 
Firstly, upon reading your first post again, it seems like you didn't copy the library from your old machine(s) to your new one? Otherwise ALL of your Music would be there and not just iTunes purchased.

Correct, old machine is dead, but that didn't appear to be an issue, I got ALL the music, paid and unpaid, the issue isn't not getting the music, the issue is it all being lumped intogether, not linked to seperate devices.


With regards to have to de-authorise your old PC, that's because you reached your 5 computer maximum and that's what you agreed to on sign up.

Again, no, please read the OP if you're interested, I de-authorised ALL PC's because after reading the guide on Apples site that was what they suggested if another machine had been the original PC the device had been synced to. That was why I de-authorised, nothing to do with maxing out on signups or agreements of any kind.


When you first set up each iThing, you should go through the settings and choose exactly how you want it to work for each type of media. Therefore, Music, Video, Apps, RingTones, etc are all managed separately. Either fully automatic, manually or a combination or both. That's how it is managed from there on. Simple really.

That's very generic, what exactly are you stipulating needs to be done to seperate two different devices content, that's the ONLY issue I'm having, everything else is fine.

With regards to your stuff getting mixed up, that's by design.

Ok, ignore the above comment then, I think you got off base early on here, everything else is moot, this isn't a setup issue at all then, it's doing what it should do.

What I'm saying is , it sucks, it should offer the ability to seperate devices as clearly I'm not alone in requiring this functionality.

As stated in my last post, iTunes is a library of ALL the media in the household which you can all share and Sync to whatever iThings you like. Whatever you Sync with that library gets stored all together in the same database.

Ya, pretty clear on this , what I was asking was if there's a way around it.

So if you want everything separate then you have to set up separate accounts for only exactly what you want in yours and not your Wife's stuff, and vice versa. You need to use iTunes like its supposed to be used and not assume that iTunes will not mix stuff, when you have just told it to.

Errm, yep, we got that quite some time ago.

Quite simple overall and I struggle to understand why people struggle getting their heads around it!?!

:D No comment. Thx anyway.
 
Ok, then maybe you should have just asked:

"Can I Sync 2 or more iThings to the same iTunes user account without combining the content? Can iTunes dynamically show me only the content associated with that iThing when connected?"

Then neither of us would waste any more time than a simple "No" answer?

Rather than posting with an absurd title that should have read "iTunes user didn't read the instructions - fact".

Just kidding!

;-)
 
You connect your first device up to itunes and then choose the sync settings for it, then repeat for the next device, although the sync settings can be completely different from the first device. Thats it done, each device will only sync what you have now specified anytime you connect to itunes. As I stated previously in the thread the only time I've seen this fail is when both devices are named the same, so itunes can't differentiate them.
 
I think the OP's point is not what Stnc'ing to the iThing's but what's stored in the iTunes library. I made the same mistake as you and replied as above as OP was misleading.
 
Ok, then maybe you should have just asked:

"Can I Sync 2 or more iThings to the same iTunes user account without combining the content? Can iTunes dynamically show me only the content associated with that iThing when connected?"

Then neither of us would waste any more time than a simple "No" answer?

Rather than posting with an absurd title that should have read "iTunes user didn't read the instructions - fact".

Just kidding!

;-)

I did ask EXACTLY that, you didn't read it. I elaborated with additional information to save people responding with procs already done. You didn't read the post properly and therefore responded with generic statements about "needing to set it up properly" in a rather sanctimonius manner whehn in reality it's working as intended and no "setting up properly" would resolve the issue.

Had you actually read the post instead of firing before understanding, this post I'm typing and your previous ones wouldn't be required.

All I want is for Emma's Iphone stuff to be seperate from my Iphone to be seperate from my IPads stuff to be seperate from my IPOD stuff.

Pretty clear.........

You skimmed it, then gave answers which bore no relevence to the actual issue, hence the confusion.

As far as reading the manual, the concept of a forum is to see if anybody knows a way around the problem , we done yet?
 
Amended title as its not '#fact', its an opinion.

Locked per OP's request.
 
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