UtterDisbelief
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- Feb 13, 2012
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Yes, as we've probably all noticed by now, letting iTunes update itself to 12.7 has surprising repercussions.
I was more than a little surprised to discover that the iOS app store had been deprecated, along with Tones. No longer could we browse and buy and maintain on our desktops. All has to be done on the device itself now.
Personally one of the big draws for me, way back, was the ability to do just that, using dedicated software to maintain my apps and backups from the desktop, something Google had not bothered with for Android. Having eyesight problems means I don't enjoy browsing for apps and reading their descriptions on my iPhone. I'm sure it's better on an iPad but I don't have one. With the Big G there is at least a web version of their store so people can still browse there if they want to and then send to their devices.
Looking back, I realise I have only ever browsed for, and bought apps, on the desktop. Okay, that's just my choice given my problems. I don't think Apple will take much notice. It did surprise me though that we had no warning of the changes. I thought, when the update popped-up on the macOS app store, that the new version simply took into account the new iPhone models released in September. I never guessed what was going on.
Anyway, that's the problem. What to do?
I decided to roll-back to iTunes 12.6. It wasn't as hard as I expected. All I had to do was:
1) Sign out of iTunes and de-authorise the computer, temporarily.
2) Stop the iTunes Helper app using the Activity Monitor.
3) Remove the new iTunes app.
4) Download the 12.6 iTunes installer from Apple's web-site.
5) Delete, and in my case copy elsewhere for safety just in case, my iTunes database info - *.itdb & *.itl files in the iTunes directory of my Music folder. Though I didn't need these in the end. NOTE: If you have a lot of personal, unique metadata, you might need to explore a Time Machine backup method instead.
6) Re-install iTunes 12.6
7) Use the Add to Library menu option to re-build a current database of the still present media (as per no.5 without any personal metadata unfortunately)
8) Sigh with relief!
All is back now as it was and functioning as before.
I know if I update to High Sierra in a couple of weeks the problem will return, so maybe I'll hold off a while in case the new release has new workarounds. Not too optimistic yet though.
If not perhaps I can substitute Apple Configurator 2 as an alternative. Has anyone tried this?
I was more than a little surprised to discover that the iOS app store had been deprecated, along with Tones. No longer could we browse and buy and maintain on our desktops. All has to be done on the device itself now.
Personally one of the big draws for me, way back, was the ability to do just that, using dedicated software to maintain my apps and backups from the desktop, something Google had not bothered with for Android. Having eyesight problems means I don't enjoy browsing for apps and reading their descriptions on my iPhone. I'm sure it's better on an iPad but I don't have one. With the Big G there is at least a web version of their store so people can still browse there if they want to and then send to their devices.
Looking back, I realise I have only ever browsed for, and bought apps, on the desktop. Okay, that's just my choice given my problems. I don't think Apple will take much notice. It did surprise me though that we had no warning of the changes. I thought, when the update popped-up on the macOS app store, that the new version simply took into account the new iPhone models released in September. I never guessed what was going on.
Anyway, that's the problem. What to do?
I decided to roll-back to iTunes 12.6. It wasn't as hard as I expected. All I had to do was:
1) Sign out of iTunes and de-authorise the computer, temporarily.
2) Stop the iTunes Helper app using the Activity Monitor.
3) Remove the new iTunes app.
4) Download the 12.6 iTunes installer from Apple's web-site.
5) Delete, and in my case copy elsewhere for safety just in case, my iTunes database info - *.itdb & *.itl files in the iTunes directory of my Music folder. Though I didn't need these in the end. NOTE: If you have a lot of personal, unique metadata, you might need to explore a Time Machine backup method instead.
6) Re-install iTunes 12.6
7) Use the Add to Library menu option to re-build a current database of the still present media (as per no.5 without any personal metadata unfortunately)
8) Sigh with relief!
All is back now as it was and functioning as before.
I know if I update to High Sierra in a couple of weeks the problem will return, so maybe I'll hold off a while in case the new release has new workarounds. Not too optimistic yet though.
If not perhaps I can substitute Apple Configurator 2 as an alternative. Has anyone tried this?
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