Some Minor Changes in iTunes 12.4
You can read my overview of iTunes 12.4 at Macworld; I discuss the major interface changes. But there are a lot of little changes I’ve spotted in the latest version of iTunes. Here are some of them:
- There is no longer a Store menu in the iTunes toolbar. All store functions are now in the Account menu: the Wish List, quick access to your Purchased list, View My Account, etc.
- The Song menu is new. (I mentioned this in the Macworld article.) It features all the menu items that are available in contextual menus. But this menu is itself contextual; if you’re viewing your Movies library, it changes to Movie; if you’re looking at audiobooks, it says Audiobook.
- To update iCloud Music Library or Genius, use the File > Library menu; these options were previously in the Store menu.
- The Repeat button is back in the iTunes LCD; it has been missing since iTunes 12 was released
- The AirPlay button is now a real button, which contrasts with the background of the iTunes toolbar. Previously, it was just an icon. And it balances with the Up Next icon on the right side of the iTunes LCD.
- The iTunes MiniPlayer still shows what I call the “new” contextual menu; the one added in iTunes 12, which you have to click to view submenus.
- As timmorrislw points out in the comments, there’s a new iCloud Status of No Longer Available. This shows tracks that you added to your Apple Music library that record labels are no longer allowing to be streamed. It’s interesting to create a smart playlist with this condition, to find how many tracks have been removed. Previously, I had, as the comments said, a smart playlist excluding all the other statuses. Out of 16,000 tracks in my Apple Music library, 843 are no longer available.
Previously, you could right-click on one or more apps and choose Update, to only update those apps you wanted to. (You may not want to update all available apps if you have limited bandwidth.) Now, you can either click the Update All Apps button at the bottom right of the iTunes window, or click an app to expand its update notes, and click the Update button.Fixed in iTunes 12.4.1.- When you click the icon for an iOS device to sync it, there’s no way to get back to your iTunes library other than using the Back button, or clicking the Done button. You can’t access, say, your Music by choosing View > Media Kind > Music, so you can’t back out easily to scan your music library when, for example, trying to decide what you want to sync.
The Convert ID3 Tags function, that was previously in the contextual menu when you right-clicked on a track, is gone. Personally, I’ve never used that function, but apparently some people do. I still don’t know why they would.Fixed in iTunes 12.4.1.- The Create New Version menu item is no longer in the contextual menu when you click on a track. It’s now in File > Create New Version. I think this is a good thing, because this, and other menu items removed from the contextual menu, have greatly simplified that menu.
- Also removed from the contextual menu is the Get Track Names function, that looks up your tracks on Gracenote to get metadata. This only works with tracks you’ve ripped from CDs, and it’s something that a lot of people never use.
You can no longer reset play counts from the contextual menu. I’ll see if Doug Adams can whip up an AppleScript for this.Fixed in iTunes 12.4.1.- Above your playlists in the sidebar is a small header saying, for example, Music Playlists. Click this to choose to display All Playlists. This will show playlists with other content, such as podcasts, videos, audiobooks, etc. If you’re viewing another media kind, Music Playlists will read Movie Playlists, Podcast Playlists, etc.
- There is an interesting and confounding labelling used in the sidebar. If you have Apple Music turned on, you’ll see a header saying My Music Playlists (which you can click to toggle to show All Playlists). If you don’t have Apple Music turned on, this header reads Music Playlists.
- There’s a small change with smart playlists. Previously, the header let you choose to match Any or All of the following rules. Now, there is an additional option, which lets you choose a specific media kind, or all media.
- There are a number of other changes in the sidebar. I’ve written an article explaining How to Work with the Sidebar in iTunes 12.4.
Crossfade Songs does not work.Fixed in iTunes 12.4.1.- When viewing a playlist, you could previously change views by clicking the View Options button at the top right of the iTunes window. This button is gone; to change views in a playlist, you can click View > View As, and choose a view.
- Related to the above, the full View Options window has returned; you can display it by pressing Command-J. You can change playlist views here, but also choose whether to view artwork in list views, choose which columns to display, and more.
- The Recent Updates list for podcasts is gone. If you selected My Podcasts, at the top of the podcasts column was a Recent Updates item. Clicking this led to a list of updates This Week, This Month, etc.
- The Get Album Artwork menu item that was in the contextual item when you clicked on a track in your iTunes library is gone. Here is how you get album artwork now.
I’ll update this list as I find more little tweaks to iTunes 12.4. If you’ve found anything, please post a comment.
Hi Kirk – just upgraded to iTunes 12.4 and I’ve noticed what appears to be a bug. In Miniplayer view, the time countdown in the bottom right hand corner for the track currently playing now counts up rather than down i.e. it’s exactly the same as the bottom left hand corner countdown. In normal (i.e. non-Miniplayer view), the corresponding countdown in the progress bar at the top of the window still works as it should (or has always done) – it counts down towards the end of the track. Do you see this in the Miniplayer view too?
Simon
No, I’m not seeing that; it’s fine for me.
I’m seeing the same thing as Simon – the righthand and lefthand counters in the miniplayer are both counting up. iTunes version is 12.4.0.119
Are you using Mac or Windows? I definitely don’t see it on Mac.
Mac
Actually, clicking on the righthand counter toggles it between counting up, counting down or showing the total song time. But to start, it was counting up.
Yes, you’re right. So that option was probably there all the time without me knowing about it, and the default was changed in this update. Not the most sensible of the three options to have as default, as it duplicates the lefthand counter. Nothing happens if you click on that, by the way, but you probably know that anyway now. Thanks, Steve.
The three-mode toggle only works in the large miniplayer version, and of course that display disappears to display the album cover when you move your cursor away from the window. In the compact minelayer view (and the main iTunes window) the right-hand counter only toggles between total time and count down times; the elapsed time is MIA in these views (!?!?).
Lacking an always visible elapsed time is problematic for me since I’m often taking notes about and/or transcribing podcasts on the fly and find it useful to insert time markers in the transcription. It’s nice to be able to simply glance up from note taking to see an elapsed time rather than go thru the gyrations to disclose it by whatever method. The only work around I’ve found is to leave the main iTunes window open, but it takes up way more screen real estate, even when sized to as small as possible. OK, not a huge deal… it could be easier, though.
BTW: As I was composing this and testing in iTunes, I also notice apple’s math is off by a second. For example, 10 seconds into a a track 37:41 long shows the following:
Total Duration – 37:41
Elapsed Time – 0:10
Remaining Time – (-37:30)
0:10 + 37:30 =? 37:41
not extensively tested, but three out of three tests using different tracks were the same
My guess is that they’re rounding. Check the Options tab of the Info window to see the exact duration of a track.
Update to my post – In the compact miniplayer view the right-hand counter now toggles thru total, elapsed, and remaining times ala iTunes 12.4.1 (woo hoo)
Another change: the search field defaults to “All Apple Music” instead of “My Music”.
Nice to see AirPlay as a button, but still confounds me that you can’t use it to AirPlay Beats1.
You can AirPlay it from your iPhone, and play it on an AppleTV (though the interface is pretty awful), but for some reason you can’t use AirPlay with it on your Mac. Starting Beats1 will cause that button to completely disappear.
Yes, it’s been that way since the launch of Apple Music. There must be some odd rights issue around it.
There are ways to record audio on the Mac that are essentially impossible to activate on iOS. I don’t understand the logic at the moment, but I strongly suspect DRM issues. Unless it’s another bug.
The Account drop down menu that was next to the lcd is gone.
Shuffle play in album view! Woot!
Has anyone tried to enable iCML or Match to see if 12.4 fixed previous problems… e.g. wrecking your library?
Another minor addition: There is now a iCloud Status option for ‘No Longer Available” in Smart Playlists, previously you had to add every other iCloud state set to “Is Not” to pick up Apple Music tracks listed as No Longer Available.
Major bug: “add to play next” places the songs in the reverse order. So if you add an album, it starts to play with the last song.
I’m not able to reproduce this, is this from any particular view or is it happening whichever view you add your music from?
When I’m in My Music -> Artists. When I use “Play Next” instead of “Add to Up Next” (typo in my original post!), the order is correct.
I experience the same issue consistently. When you add a whole album to “Play Next” (by right-clicking on the album), the songs are added in the right order. But if you select a couple of songs, right-click, Play Next, they are added in reverse order.
Small clarification for this article, Kirk: The “No Longer Available” iCloud Status was already in the previous version of iTunes too. (I saw that status in the column for a handful of tracks.) It’s just that iTunes 12.4 has also made this a selectable option for Smart Playlists now, too.
When did you start seeing it? I know that I had to create a smart playlist with exclusions a few months ago to get those tracks.
To be clear: I saw “No Longer Available” show up in the iCloud Status column, a few months ago, for a handful of tracks. It’s just that that this same status didn’t show up as a selectable option for Smart Playlists. So the workaround was to create one with those exclusions, as you say. What’s new with 12.4 is that it’s now a selectable option for Smart Playlists. No exclusions required anymore.
Hi Kirk, is it me or is this a Bug, i cannot update my iOS Apps by Selecting Multiple items and Updating them with one click as before. I can only Update them 1 @ a time or Update All at once. I am not able to find that Menu like before.
Yes, I added that to the list earlier today.
Kirk, You no longer have to option-click on an app to update it individually, just click on it once (at least on my Mac running EpCap).
For me, if you click an app, its update notes expand. You can then click an Update button, but a single click doesn’t update it.
Hi Guys, (The Select Multiple Apps Update) is back. but not that straight forward.
When u select Multiple Apps and Right Click on them u will be able to update just the selected Apps.
Just Right Click on the Selected Apps and u will be allowed to Update just those Apps.
(The Main Menu Still only shows Update All so Just Right Click).
Previously we could CONTROL-click one (or multiple) selected apps, and choose “Update” from the contextual menu. That contextual menu item is no longer there. Instead now you can only “Update all,” or click each app and then click the “Update” button, to update each one manually and individually.
That’s what I say in the article.
My comment is in response to Norman Ferguson who said “you no longer have to option-click on an app to update it individually.”
It was never “option-click,” it was “control-click” (or right-click.) And with the loss of this contextual menu item, we now can’t manually update multiple apps at once. Our only options now are one-at-a-time, or all at once.
Compilations (which to me are just albums by Various Artists) are a separate library group from albums, and you don’t seem to be able to show them in grid view any longer.
They do show up in grid-view, but below your non-compilation albums.
Some other apparent minor changes:
– is now impossible to drag-out any song (album) cover art just from the main windows LCD. If you try to, the whole App window is dragged around.
– the “convert ID3 tags” contextual command is seriously missing this time around?
Also, the way to go back to your library from any of your iDevice, other than clicking on the ‘back’ browsing button, is to just push the ‘Done’ button on the side of the ‘Sync’ button.
The right-click menu is now different. There is no longer the option to 1) Convert to AAC and 2) Get Album Artwork.
I clicked the back button a couple of times to get out of the iOS device screen. Then I noticed the Done button next to the Sync button. I still prefer the previous way. I also don’t understand how a click-scroll-click is better than a click to change media screens.
I totally get how that would be frustrating for those people who regularly and rapidly switch between media types. For myself, though – and selfishly – I rarely rapidly or regularly switch modes, so the extra click isn’t too onerous, and the dropdown is a bit tidier and clearer than the previous design.
Mostly I’m in one mode for an extended period, then another. So I rarely switch from Music to TV Shows to Movies, back to Music. I usually move and stay for… well at least the duration of an album or a tv show or a movie!
Does Cmd-1 no longer work to go back to the library?
Yes, all the Command-number shortcuts work for the media kinds.
can no longer reset song counts. this is aggravating
Ctrl-click a podcast track no longer allows for deletion of the file. Frustrating. Now must do “show in finder” delete the file and then uncheck the track. Used to be a one-stop shop with ctrl-click. Typical.
Nope. If I’m looking at podcasts, I can delete from either Unplayed or Feed by pressing Option-Delete. I can delete from Unplayed by right clicking and choosing Delete.
I can delete podcast tracks just by selecting them and tapping the Delete key. A confirmation dialog appears. I’m noticing no change in behavior here.
Hi, in iTunes 12.4, where this option: Right click on the selected files and choose Create MP3 Version from the pop-up menu?
Crossfading appears to be broken (again) for me when playing from Up next.
@Stefano:
that contextual menu command is no longer available.
To operate the said format conversion:
https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204310
Convert songs that are already in your iTunes library
Open iTunes Preferences.
Windows: Choose Edit > Preferences.
Mac: Choose iTunes > Preferences.
Click the General button, then click the Import Settings button in the lower section of the window.
From the Import Using pop-up menu, choose the encoding format that you want to convert the song to. To save the settings, click OK.
Select one or more songs in your library that you want to convert.
Choose File > Create New Version, then Create [format] Version. The format shown is the one that you chose in step 3. For example, if you chose Apple Lossless Encoder, select Create Apple Lossless Version.
New song files appear in your library next to the original files.
This is bullshit. There is no option to convert at all in 12.4.1 There is NO File>Create New Version option at all. I can’t convert anything and I use this option often. ABSOLUTE FAIL iTunes. Stop changing things we actually use for the sake of making a new useless update.
Choose File > Convert. And chill a bit…
He’s correct there is no Create New Version option in 12.4.1 which means yo can no longer convert videos to play on an ipod. Apple no longer support non apple videos. You can download ipod specific films from their store but they don’t want you using videos from other sources. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7590638?start=0&tstart=0
Some of these changes really are quite Microsoftian. Not able to get back to my Music library from the Device screen? Give me a break. Scrolling all over the place to create a new playlist instead of clicking the ‘+’ button. Geez! How about working on some REAL improvements instead of moving the deck chairs?
You can come back to your Music library from a Device screen by pressing the “done” button.
My car stereo can only recognize ID3 2.2 so I always used the converter to change the version from 2.3 to 2.2. Very sad this is gone. It means not track data will display on my car radio.
Where’s the command to Clear Downloaded Artwork?
Seemingly gone as well. I noticed this earlier today when trying to clear incorrectly-matched artwork downloaded from the iTunes store. The only work-around I’ve come up with is to manually delete the artwork from the Get Info window, although I’m unsure if the download has actually been removed from the Album Artwork folder.
The “new” contextual menu is also still on display when viewing podcasts in List view.
To play a TV Show I used to right click on a episode and select ‘Play’ but this option is no longer there. Instead I have to double-click on the episode.
The crossfade feature has been broken by 12.4 & is not working in playlists – major fail and unacceptable pre-release testing for those of us who use iTunes for radio shows!
I’m pretty sure it breaks every point release and the fix it again with every bug fix release. Not sure why it keeps getting missed.
Not my personal experience. I always use this feature and never had any issues with it prior to this release, a lot of people complaining in forums that 12.4’s broken it
I am having the same problem which is frustrating for me as I also use the crossfaderoption option for my radio shows! !
How do you use “Start Genius” from a song you are listening to? Is that feature gone? It seems when you click Genius Shuffle, it picks some random song and makes a list. It doesn’t make a list related to the song you are currently listening to. It’s a bummer.
Genius seems to be broken for a lot of music. For some tracks, I can use it, but for others it doesn’t offer the option. (It’s now in File > New > Genius Playlist.) I’m looking into this to try and find out what’s happening.
Agree! I used this feature daily: pick a song, start genius from that song w/contextual menu, enjoy. Now we have to make an actual playlist?! Genius Suggestions can still show a list of suggested songs, it just can’t play them or add them to Up Next…
Genius Shuffle is great and all, but it definitely does not appear to base its selection on the song currently playing…
Delete Duplicates and Delete Exact Dupicates is missing
Downloaded iTunes 12.4 again and re-installed then found the “new” location for Duplicate tracking at “File/Library/Show Duplicate Items” or do the same navigation and press Alt-Option key (on Mac) to get “Exact Duplicates”.
There never was a “Delete Duplicates” command; it was always “Show.” And as you’ve discovered, that command is now under File->Library->Show Duplicate Items. In addition to option-clicking that menu command, you can also show exact duplicates by invoking that command on its own and then later clicking “Same Album” at the top.
Thankyou for the correction on my post with the word “Delete” vs “Show”
Also on the “No longer available” status: it has been the number one reason why I stopped subscribing, even after making a separate library in iTunes so it would no longer interact with my files. Sometimes a handful of tracks would become NLA, for no apparent reason. That a label pulls a whole album, I get that (although it still sucks), but one to five tracks? This even happened with music I added from the service, i.e. I didn’t have tracks to match (it was the Very Best of Cream, somehow 5 or 6 tracks went away).
Sometimes it also doesn’t make sense because one album gets pulled out while the rest of the artist’s catalogue is still available. Apple HAS to fix this before I subscribe again (and yes, I will pay close attention to the new version coming after WWDC).
It is the labels who decide this. They have the right to make any album or song available for streaming, or to pull it. It’s no different on Spotify or other streaming services; it’s not something Apple can “fix.” It’s just part of the deal with streaming.
Fix, strong-arm the labels… something ;) As far as you know, what makes them decide on one song? For example, Jean-Michel Jarre’s Concerts in China is missing track 9. Another problem I had with that specific album was that I actually have the original CD, and it was matched successfully… except of course for that track, that became NLA. Then I have to go through the inconvenience of deleting it and re-adding it for upload, but of course, I lose play counts, etc… Your article about a Report button would help for that, I suppose.
Music Tracker (iOS app) was actually pretty handy to discover which songs got NLA’d, as it tracks additions, changes and deletions to the library on the device.
I keep thinking maybe I should re-sign for iTunes Match before giving Apple Music a chance again, do you think that’s a better ‘insurance policy’ against NLA-ism? That however makes Apple Music more expensive ($145 / yr) whereas I switched to Google Play and its matching/uploading works fine, and the streaming stuff coexists with it, instead of stomping over it.
All the same, thanks for addressing the comment. I’m a big fan of Ask the iTunes Guy, and I’m enjoying the new podcast as well.
THANKS FOR MENTIONING THE “GET ALBUM ARTWORK”! Thats what I came on here for, I was afraid they totally got rid of it, at least its somewhere…
I’ve also just discovered that the “Home Videos” media section is no longer distinctly selectable as it was in iTunes 12.3 and earlier. I have to first go to Movies, then show the sidebar, then select Home Videos, in order to see them. As this is the default spot ALL manually imported videos go first (even my own backups of commercially-available movies I’ve extracted from purchased DVDs) this is a bit clunkier than I would have liked. I routinely import these and then have to change their “media kind” to “Movie.”
All that said, I do appreciate that all movie files are consolidated under one header now. Well, except for music videos…
It still just feels a bit inelegant and half-baked (or over-baked?) is all…
The ‘create new version’ option has now been replaced with ‘convert’, which mean I can’t create a video version that I can play on my iPod – any thoughts?
You have to go back to version 12.3.3 or only use videos from their store. Apple don’t want people using non-apple videos. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7590638?start=0&tstart=0
I have a large number of Audiobooks ripped from CD. I can see them all by searching for just one, but I have to do this every time I launch iTunes. As you might imagine, this is really annoying! Can you tell me; is it possible to regain the Get Track Names function?
I seem to recollect, when invoking Get Info for a selected item in a list and using the Next and Previous arrows in the Get Info dialog to “scroll thru” adjacent items, the selection followed along such that when the Get Info dialog is closed, the current selected item would be the item last viewed in Get Info. This is no longer the case – the selection remains as the one first selected when invoking Get Info.
This is problematic if you want to exit Get Info to perform some other action on the item since now, god forbid, you must *remember* what the item was when you closed the dialog… not so easy if, say, you’re switching back and forth between same-named “duplicates” comparing the differences, deciding which one to delete…
It might just be me, but it seems iTunes used to know how to follow along :-)
ITunes 12.4 seems to have dropped the option to join tracks on import to keep tracks adjacent even upon shuffling. Is it coming back?
I used “Genius Suggestions” frequently when working at DJ gigs. It was great! It seems to have completely disappeared. I do still see an option for creating a genius playlist (in a new location), but even that seems to have dropped the ball on the majority of my large library, even after updating genius.
Are “Genius Suggestions” lost forever? And why can’t iTunes generate a genius playlist from most of my library now when it use to be able to do so?
Using Windows 10 if that is of any relevance to this.
when in My Music, I used to be able to select a song, right click and have ‘Show in iTunes Store’ to see the full album and listen/buy other tracks, but that’s missing now. Is it gone?