Based on several Apple Support threads, it appears that the most recent version of iTunes 12.3.3 contains a database error that affects a small number of users, and can potentially wipe out their music collection after the update.
Holy. Sweet. Shit.
I don’t care if it’s iTunes or Apple Music—this is my music library! Fix this shit.
Holy. Sweet. Shit.
Enough with the drama Jim. Even this bug only breaks the library file which is pretty easy to fix using the support article Serenity linked to.
Still doesn’t delete your music library.
I think it qualifies, if only as the latest example of Apple’s software quality taking a hit.
I don’t think it’s a particular sign of Apple’s software quality taking a hit at all. It’s a sign that software can sometimes break – that’s not a newsflash or exclusive to Apple. It’s just how things are. Sure it can suck, but it’s not a conspiracy and it’s still not destroying data.
Apple’s software quality is, on the whole, doing perfectly well. I’d say they’re no worse, and frequently better than others in my personal experience. Any other piece of software breaks from a different vendor, it doesn’t lead to blog posts, ranting and a rush as tech sites race to get their articles out. It just leads to someone reinstalling, or restoring from backup and the world keeps turning.
Losing your metadata sucks pretty bad.
But Jim – at very least, and honestly every damned user at this point – ought to have a TimeMachine backup.
You don’t even lose the metadata. The Support article tells you how to recover it as a backup is made by the iTunes update process.
On the one hand, as a developer, the idea of scanning a (say) 30k+ file directory tree and linking files to metadata in one flat-file XML database fills me with fear and loathing of the complexity and issues involved.
(I “could write that”, but I’d hate to have to, and maintaining it would be a nightmare, and I’m sure my implementation would have more bugs than Apple’s, for damn sure.)
On the other hand, Apple has the people and resources to do it right if anyone can, and to test it properly afterwards.
So I don’t have as much sympathy for them as I might otherwise; it’s a hard task, sure, but they should have the resources to do it as right as humanly possible, with automated and manual testing.
Ah, didn’t look that close.
In that case, it’s just a godawful annoyance, no more.
I mean, still not something I’d want to ship.
If your database can’t withstand the capacity of its popularity and usefulness, it needs to be replaced.
You don’t say… and EF Apple! EF iTunes! Double EF Apple Music!!
EF Apple!!!
EF Apple!
Well said.
The Apple Maps fiasco has nothing in this!
I get that it’s not out of the ordinary: software breaks, the things that we ask software to do are more complicated, software is more interdependent than it used to be…but I miss the days when Apple asked their software to do a little bit less as a tradeoff for doing what it did more reliably and simply.
John, this would be symptomatic of a much worse issue. Apple “Music” should have been a no brainer, hit out of the park, home run, dead simple – what “iTunes” almost was, before iTunes went beyond the music.
Apple Maps – “3D” feature is somewhat interesting, yet mostly a dumb gimmick. The 3D feature is worse when I’m attempting to use the map and the map is attempting to give me a 3D render, in an area where 1) there is no actual ‘3D’ 2) I don’t need 3D and 3) the map changes just enough to be problematic, slow, retarded (which also means, slow for those who are offended by the word slow/retarded) …
iTunes in the past – or SoundJam was pretty good – it is definitely better in Apple’s environment and if you strictly follow Apple’s “guidelines” it can even be OK. That is, when iTunes was for Music. Apple Music should be what iTunes was – a program dedicated to managing MY or YOUR or THEIR music – be in your purchased and encoded audio (tape, CD, high fidelity, DVD audio, lossless, etc..), streaming.
This would allow the software and the user to focus and allow Apple and its engineers to focus on a product for a solution – not some idiot recording guys notion of how things may work – or Steve Ballmer’s idea of how things can be squirted together…
Epic fail on Apple part – even before this acknowledgement of Apple management. EF Apple Music. Also the record labels – for the record – are still stubborn and retarded. Maybe Taylor Swift/Drake will turn things around…