No its true because I have tried i-Tunes and it really is crap and it is not allowed any where near my PC. Certainly not my music after it decided to lose half of it and re-catalogue the rest into something completely unrecognisable. Apple HQ corporate employees privately saying what I have found to be true is the final nail in its coffin as far as I am concerned.
And there there is the problems the OP is having...............................says it all really.
Oh it's true because
YOU'VE tried iTunes? Care to name your Apple HQ Corporate employee's as sources?
As for losing your music and/or re-cataloguing the rest into something unrecognisable - you're obviously doing it wrong.
Tell me, please, if iTunes is so crap, and it's crapness is the reason the OP is having these problems, why is it that I, along with millions of others, haven't had these problems, nor had iTunes lose half their music or re-catalogue it into something unrecognisable?
Granted iTunes doesn't run as smoothly on a PC than it does on a Mac - although in fairness, it IS an Apple application, not a Windows one; the Windows iTunes program is just a port, but it's never lost any of my music, or re-catalogued it. Even moving music over 3 Windows PC's and a Mac, with 2 iPods and 3 iPhones, it's never lost anything or re-catalogued anything.
Sounds to me like you don't know how to use iTunes and are blaming it for that. Bit like blaming the car for having a crash when you don't know how to drive
Just an idea guys, can I install iTunes fresh with nothing in it, then connect up my iPhone and populate back that way? All the music I want is on my iPhone and this way I can ditch the knackered library and start again...
As said, no you can't. The reason behind this is anti-piracy; if you could do that, as you can with media library applications on other platforms, then there'd be nothing stopping me from coming to your house and depositing my music from my iPod onto your computer into iTunes - meaning you'd end up with thousands and thousands of songs you didn't purchase, beit via iTunes, other online download store or from CD rip.
However, that's not to say you cannot retrieve the music from your iPhone and use that music to populate iTunes. If you are on Windows, you can use
SHAREPOD to back up the music, playlist and videos from your iPhone to your computer, then populate the iTunes library. Then upon syncing your iPhone, it will erase the iPhone's media contents, but of course all that media will be present in your iTunes library and be synced to the device. I agree, it's a convoluted way of doing it, but it works.
If you are on Mac, then
iRip is the way to go. It's a paid app, but a very good one.