Please help me with the shiny thing

November 30, 2006 8:56 PM

I currently have iTunes 6, and am reluctant to change to 7.0.2 based on all the horror stories I've read/heard. The problem is, I'd like to buy the new shuffle, but it lists system requirements as '7.0.2 or later.' Is this fact or crap? Can I use the new shuffle while remaining on version 6? I'm rather dim when it comes to stuff like this, so any insight is appreciated.
posted by spinturtle to computers & internet (24 comments total)

There might be a work around, but if you're "rather dim about stuff like this," I suspect you're better off just upgrading.

Frankly, there are some annoying changes to conventions, but I have no "horror stories" to share.
posted by milarepa at 9:01 PM on November 30, 2006

What kind of horror stories have you heard? I've been using 7.0.2, since a few days after its release, on a 2-year old XP machine with nary a problem.
posted by pdb at 9:04 PM on November 30, 2006

I was forced to upgrade.

I have heard rumors of random disappearing tracks when using the 2nd gen shuffle, and I suffer from missing tracks.

Whether or not they are related, I couldn't tell you.
posted by sourwookie at 9:09 PM on November 30, 2006

The horror stories are overblown. iTunes is used by millions, and it only takes a handful of people posting in different places to make it look like everyone has problems.

It's pretty likely the new shuffle has different expectations of where files need to go that I doubt iTunes 6 can fulfill.
posted by cillit bang at 9:16 PM on November 30, 2006

No problems here on our office machines or my MBP.
posted by Mikey-San at 9:16 PM on November 30, 2006

I use 7.02 (with a mini) and have had no problems thus far. A few of the new organizational structures are different from 6, but other than that it's been fine.
posted by Phire at 9:18 PM on November 30, 2006

Horror stories: disappearing tracks, iTunes not recognizing ipods, etc.. I guess to fine-tune my question a little more: will installing the new shuffle *force* me to upgrade to 7.0.2, or will it be able to recognize it on 6? thanks!
posted by spinturtle at 9:18 PM on November 30, 2006

ok, didn't preview to see additional answers. In case it completely borks, is there any way to ensure I don't lose my music if I for some reason I have to uninstall and reinstall iTunes? Will having everything on my current 20G be enough in case of emergency? (I have a Murphy's Law kind of life, so I have to ask). Again, thanks. Sorry to be such a n00b.
posted by spinturtle at 9:22 PM on November 30, 2006

Yes, there are programs that will allow you to download music from an iPod, should the worst occur.

Even better yet, you should back up your collection to DVDs or another hard drive. That's something that you should be doing regularly anyway.
posted by chrisamiller at 9:24 PM on November 30, 2006

We have hundreds of Macs where I work and only a couple users have reported any problems with iTunes 7.x. Just make sure you have decent backups, as always.
posted by drstein at 9:38 PM on November 30, 2006

Uninstalling iTunes will not delete all your music. In some cases you might lose song ratings, etc., but I don't see a way that it would delete the music files themselves.
posted by roomwithaview at 9:43 PM on November 30, 2006

Itunes 7.0.2 actually has a backup tool in it. Simply use it to back up all your tunes to DVD like chrisamiller says. Then you can use it with confidence.

Backups are important....
posted by gergtreble at 9:46 PM on November 30, 2006

I was in the same boat as you. I had heard the stories about iTunes 7, and decided there was no way I was going to go there.

Then, out of the blue, I got a new iPod Nano as a gift. I certainly wasn't going to not use it ... but as soon as I attached it to my computer, it put up a dialog box that said it required iTunes 7 or later in order to run.

It's a forced upgrade. I suspect the new Shuffle, since it's the same "generation" as the new Mini that I got, is the same way. You can attach it to your computer and it will be recognized as a USB device, but without iTunes 7, you won't be able to sync any music to it.

FWIW, when I did upgrade to iTunes 7.0.2, it worked fine for me. I'm not sold on the new interface (seriously, what was wrong with the old one? Why do the need to keep changing these things? Stop it!), but it works fine and I didn't lose any of my music.

It seems well-nigh impossible that an upgrade to iTunes would actually delete all your music; I can believe that it might corrupt or delete your iTunes "music library" (the XML file containing all the metadata about various files), but that's solvable pretty easily.

If you want the new Shuffle that badly, I wouldn't let iTunes 7.0.2 scare you that much. It's crappy of Apple to force an upgrade like that, but I've long since given up on them as a company.
posted by Kadin2048 at 10:01 PM on November 30, 2006

It's crappy of Apple to force an upgrade like that, but I've long since given up on them as a company.

How is this crappy? You want an outdated version of software to magically support newly released hardware?
posted by nathan_teske at 12:34 AM on December 1, 2006

just upgrade. it's not that bad.
posted by sophist at 12:59 AM on December 1, 2006

New interface? Oh you mean flat gray instead of brushed metal? Oh, and the scrollbar is a darker blue now. That new interface?
posted by dendrite at 2:34 AM on December 1, 2006

How is this crappy? You want an outdated version of software to magically support newly released hardware?

It sounds like you figured it out, yep. There are even mp3 players that don't require any proprietary software to copy files!
posted by mendel at 4:25 AM on December 1, 2006

Most of the horror stories centered around iTunes 7.0. Apple released 7.0.1 and 7.0.2 to address them.
posted by ardgedee at 4:49 AM on December 1, 2006

To piggyback--is there a program (Linux or Windows) which will allow me to use the new Shuffle as a regular old mass storage device?
posted by box at 5:54 AM on December 1, 2006

For 5 years I made it a point to only own non-IPod mp3 players out of some sort of principle. The last one broke recently and my wife (who loves her own IPod) gave me a shiny new 30GB video IPod which required me to run ITunes on my computer for the first time ever. It has some minor quirks -- like adding album artwork only to the currently-playing song instead of the whole album -- but overall ITunes has given me no problem whatsoever.
posted by EiderDuck at 6:09 AM on December 1, 2006

How is this crappy? You want an outdated version of software to magically support newly released hardware?

Usually Apple releases an update that just supports the new hardware without affecting anyone else. For instance, when they came out with the Shuffle, they added a feature to randomly fill it, but that's all that update added.
posted by smackfu at 6:33 AM on December 1, 2006

Or just use this and don't bother with itunes at all!
posted by utsutsu at 8:07 AM on December 1, 2006 [1 favorite]

Though the database format may be proprietary (though hardly closed), I don't think Apple requires one to use iTunes to use their iPod. I have no problem with iTunes, but I've used Anapod Explorer with iTunes not even installed with excellent results (Windows, of course...). It definitely works with the new Shuffle.
posted by lhauser at 2:43 PM on December 1, 2006

One thing is that iTunes now has the iPod updates integrated, where before it was a separate program - the separate program won't have firmware updates for the 2G Shuffle.
posted by IndigoRain at 1:31 PM on December 2, 2006