The new iTunes is big and ridiculous. Help me make it small and snappy again.

December 28, 2012 12:01 PM

Is there any way to make the new iTunes tighter and more minimalist? For example, I want my podcast and artist lists to be like the small-font, compact lists they used to be. Similar to the column browser, but on the side, NOT the top (which is all kinds of stupid up there). Basically, I want to see as many artists as possible with as little scrolling as possible. Any add-on or script or setting I'm overlooking that could take care of this, and perhaps other inefficiencies of the new iTunes?
posted by iamkimiam to computers & internet (6 answers total)

You can turn off the large font in Preferences. As for the column browser, I'd like to know too.
posted by thelonius at 12:23 PM on December 28, 2012

you can still have the sidebar viewable. it's under view > show sidebar. not sure about seeing a list view anymore.
posted by wildflower at 12:36 PM on December 28, 2012

View->Column Browser->Show and/or
View->Show Sidebar.
posted by nevercalm at 12:37 PM on December 28, 2012

also, the list view is still there for your playlists. just click on the little icon of a musical note near the top right (it has some horizontal lines before it) and choose list. voila!
posted by wildflower at 12:43 PM on December 28, 2012

Thanks for the answers so far. Just to clarify a few things...the large font I'm referring to is actually the normal sized font — it is just too large by default (the large font is already turned off in preferences). Also, I have found the sidebar; that is (thankfully) not an issue in the new iTunes. Same goes for the playlists.

To reiterate: I'm interested in getting my column browser back to the side of the screen (not the top), the artist and podcast (and genre) lists to be of a compact size (like the songs view thankfully still is). Overall, I want better use of the space. Everything is huge and requires lots of unnecessary scrolling.
posted by iamkimiam at 1:04 PM on December 28, 2012

I'm 99.999% sure there's nothing you can do about the position of the column browser in iTunes 11. I agree, it makes no sense being at the top, especially in this age of widescreen monitors, not to mention the length of lists of songs and artist columns. Limiting that sort of stuff to a smaller horizontal bar makes no sense at all. I eventually stopped using the column browser after updating to iTines 11. I find it unusable.

I hope something like Tinkertool may eventually bring back some of iTunes 11's lost functionality, but so far, no such luck.

It seems clear to me that Apple is moving iTunes from a power-user app to more of a consumer app as they seek common ground between OS X and the more consumption-oriented nature of most iOS users. Most people will probably never notice most of the loss of functionality, especially as they're wowed by functionally poor but graphically appealing features like the Up Next pop-up window. Is a pop-up window REALLY the best way to accomplish that? No, but it's easier for "For Dummies" people to understand than the previous iTunes DJ was. Such a shame. iTunes DJ was far more powerful. Now, if you listen to shuffled playlists, there is no way of seeing the playlist in the shuffled order other than seeing a few upcoming songs in the Up Next pop-up window, and then clicking over to see the previously played tracks (also in the Up-Next window). But you have no access to editing any of the track info there. So, if you hear a song and want to do something as simple as change its rating, the only way to accomplish that is to do a search for the song... or CLICK to open the frigging po-up window, then CLICK again to change from up-next to previously-played, then RIGHT CLICK to open a menu and scroll down to choose to show the song. iTunes 11 is riddled with that sort of Epic Design FAIL. Also, iTunes 11 no longer remembers settings such as repeat and shuffle from playlist to playlist. Now, those settings are an all or nothing deal. I'm constantly turning that stuff on or off when switching playlists or going to the main library. Previously, iTunes remembered. iTunes 11 is For Dummies.
posted by 2oh1 at 1:34 PM on December 28, 2012 [3 favorites]