Author Topic: Interesting "editorial" article on iOS sync issues.  (Read 6574 times)

elagache

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Interesting "editorial" article on iOS sync issues.
« on: March 08, 2015, 09:58:43 PM »
Dear WeatherCat observers of the Apple Computer Corporation,

During the past week, I had to restore my iPhone 6 twice because the iTunes sync failed leaving the music on my iPhone corrupted into what the iOS system classified as some sort of "other" file type.  I bought the 128 GB iPhone in order to use it as a backup for my iTunes music collection which is over 80 GB at this point.  Unless iTunes can reliably sync this music, this purchase was in vain.

I did some searching and found I'm not alone.  This Macworld article really hits the nail on the head:

http://www.macworld.com/article/2861406/itunes-syncing-is-broken-apple-please-fix-it.html

If a Macworld correspondent feels that this sort of thing needs to be done it speaks volumes of Apple's failure to take care of the core software services that it has been providing for decades.  Apple remains the darlings of investors, but I don't think I'm the only one who sees Apple heading down the same path that Microsoft has already taken.

Edouard

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Re: Interesting "editorial" article on iOS sync issues.
« Reply #1 on: March 09, 2015, 05:31:57 AM »
Last fall iTunes suddenly stopped recognizing my iPhone was connected and would not sync at all. Something in iTunes was corrupted. Because iTunes is now baked into OS X, you can no longer delete it and reinstall. You now have to wipe your hard drive and reinstall the entire operating system to fix an iTunes synching problem. It was almost, but not quite, as much fun as buying a truckload of batteries from Herb.
Blick


elagache

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iTunes needs database upgrade (Re: Article on iOS sync issues.)
« Reply #2 on: March 09, 2015, 08:32:43 PM »
Dear Blick and WeatherCat iOS limitations sufferers

Last fall iTunes suddenly stopped recognizing my iPhone was connected and would not sync at all. Something in iTunes was corrupted. Because iTunes is now baked into OS X, you can no longer delete it and reinstall. You now have to wipe your hard drive and reinstall the entire operating system to fix an iTunes synching problem.

Alas, I'm still trying to get my iPhone to sync.  This morning I found an interesting utility called SyncMate:

http://www.sync-mac.com/

When I tried to test it out, iTunes took over and in the attempt to sync clobbered all my music files again.  I restored the phone and tried to radically prune the number of music files on the iPhone and iTunes couldn't manage even to delete the extra music.  So I'm restoring the phone a second time today, hoping that this time the reduced number of files will finally allow iTunes and the iPhone to reliably sync.

My suspicion is that Apple has a very simplistic data storage scheme for the various components in iCloud.  What can handle a few hundred items is vulnerable when the number of times exceeds 10,000 like my music collection.  Apple has the cash, they should get a software team to upgrade the database scheme used by iTunes and other parts of OS X using robust technology that can cope with potential errors and possible corruption.  Otherwise more and more iOS and iTunes users are going to have the sort of problems you've had and will be very, very unhappy.

Cheers, Edouard

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Re: Interesting "editorial" article on iOS sync issues.
« Reply #3 on: March 09, 2015, 08:46:38 PM »
The last time I tried to sync my iPhone's music to iTunes, it turned me into a newt!

But, I got better.

Lol! There've been lots of complaints lately about the core software. The company did change leadership over a year ago, so I guess some changes are inevitable. I feel that the rush to cloudify the ecosystem has left us with more than a few bugs, as cloud syncing all that data is quite a bit more complicated than the previous way of doing it. Hopefully, the next release of OS X will shore up these shortcomings. It better. I've already got an itchy trigger finger on selling this stock.

Edouard, you can't use the iPhone or any iDevice as a backup. That is not the purpose of the sync to those devices. You should have a hard drive connected to your Mac and be using Time Machine. It will keep all backed up automagically. I can't offer any advise on syncing a large music database. Mine is large, but I subscribed to iTunes Match and it works differently.

New watch details were introduced today, along with a snappy new laptop! Look for another run-up in the stock around the end of April when the next ER comes out and the watch starts shipping. The iPhone 6 sales is still banging on all four.

 [cheers1]
Herb

Blicj11

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Re: Interesting "editorial" article on iOS sync issues.
« Reply #4 on: March 09, 2015, 09:43:04 PM »
The last time I tried to sync my iPhone's music to iTunes, it turned me into a newt!

But, I got better.

I am delighted to discover that among all of your many talents, is the ability to quote Monty Python. Made my day, mate.
Blick


Bull Winkus

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Re: Interesting "editorial" article on iOS sync issues.
« Reply #5 on: March 09, 2015, 11:32:20 PM »
Blick, Lol! Been a fan for a very long time. I almost memorized that entire performance. I'm not talking about the scene. I'm talking about the movie. I'm writing this from memory, so it may not be spot on.

I used to amaze the grandkids when I'd launch into a "Hello stuffy English Ka-niggates and Monsieur Arthur King who has the brain of a duck you know. ?"

or a

"Someday lad, all this will be yours!"
"What, the curtains?"
"No. Not the curtains, lad. All that you can see, stretched out over the hills and valleys of this land!"
"But, Mother?"
"Father, father."
"But, Father. I don't like land. ?"

or

"Hello, who is it?"
"It is I, Arthur, son of Oother Pendragon from the castle of Camelot!"
"Fool the other one!"
"I am, and this is my trusty servant, Patsy. Who's castle is this?"
"This is the castle of my master, guido la whopper."
"Go and tell your master that Arthur from the court of Camelot is here. We have ridden the length and breadth of this land in search of knights who will join me in my court at Camelot."
"What? Ridden on a horse?"
"Yes?"
"You're using coconuts."
"What?"
"You've got two empty halves of coconuts and you're banging them together!"
"So? We have ridden since the snows of Winter covered this land, through the kingdom of Mercier, through?"
"Where'd you get the coconuts?"
"We found them."
"Found them? In Mercier? But, coconuts are tropical."
"So?"
"Why this is a temperate zone!"
"The swallow may fly south with the sun, or the house martin or plumber may seek warmer climes in Winter, yet these are not strangers to our land?"
"Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?"
"Not at all! They could be carried."
"A swallow carry a coconut?"
"It could grip it by the husks!"
"It's not a question of how he grips it. ? Listen. In order to maintain air speed velocity, a swallow has to beat its wings 43 times a second. Am I right?"
"I'm not interested. Go and tell your master?"
(new voice) "It could be carried by an African swallow."
"Oh yeah, an African swallow, may be, but not a European swallow. That's my point. Look, it's a simple question of weight ratios. A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut."
"Supposing two swallows carried it together?"
"No, they have to have it on a line."
"Oh, simple. They'd use a strand of creeper."
"What? Held under the dorsal guided feathers?"
"Why not?"

OH! I almost forgot why I came here!

Edouard, here's a link to what you may need.
Herb

elagache

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Oh yes you can! (Re: iOS sync issues.)
« Reply #6 on: March 10, 2015, 09:07:11 PM »
Howdy Herb, Blick, and WeatherCat music collectors,

Edouard, you can't use the iPhone or any iDevice as a backup. That is not the purpose of the sync to those devices.

Well, no you can't using only Apple software, but there are third party packages that will allow to recover the music that is now only on a iDevice.  The reason I got into the habit of using an iPod as a secondary backup was because I had my hard drive fail before Time Machine existed and the only way I was able to save my music was by pulling it off of my iPod.

You should have a hard drive connected to your Mac and be using Time Machine. It will keep all backed up automagically.

Well of course I do that.  In addition, I manually back-up all my music onto a third drive. I'm a little paranoid since this music collection is now 30 years old.

I can't offer any advise on syncing a large music database. Mine is large, but I subscribed to iTunes Match and it works differently.

I haven't tried firing up iTunes Match yet.  One of the mistakes that I never fully forgave Apple for was introducing copy protection on music.  Since I was buying music from Amazon before Apple entered the market, I've stayed more loyal to Amazon in that realm.  So for iTunes match to work, there would be a - lot - of trying to match up tracks.  In addition, I deliberately modify man ID3 tags for classical music so that the composer is always displayed (instead of the conductor or orchestra.)  So I don't know if iTunes Match would even work.  Since I'm in general suspicious of this cloud computing paradigm, I'll continue to try to keep as many things local and under my controls as I can.

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

P.S. I did manage to get my iPhone to sync reliably by limiting the amount of music to under 3000 tracks.  That suggests to me a problem with the sync software when dealing with a large number of tracks.  Considering that both the Mac and iPhone are 64-bit devices, . . . . uh, that's a little sloppy to say the least!

Bull Winkus

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Re: Interesting "editorial" article on iOS sync issues.
« Reply #7 on: March 11, 2015, 05:04:33 AM »
Quote
? Since I'm in general suspicious of this cloud computing paradigm, I'll continue to try to keep as many things local and under my controls as I can.

You're a wise man, Edouard. A wise man. It works fine for me here at the house where I have wifi, but it the car ambling along in the Ozark mountains, if cell reception fails, the music stops. I've got everything on an iPod Classic 128GB, but the iPhone is 16GB. iTunes Match is a "fail" on the iPhone, as far as I'm concerned. The Classic don't know Internet from frijoles.

 [cat]
Herb

elagache

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Wish Apple hadn't killed the iPod classic (Was: iOS sync issues.)
« Reply #8 on: March 11, 2015, 08:51:35 PM »
Howdy Herb and WeatherCat musicologists,

You're a wise man, Edouard. A wise man. It works fine for me here at the house where I have wifi, but it the car ambling along in the Ozark mountains, if cell reception fails, the music stops. , but the iPhone is 16GB. iTunes Match is a "fail" on the iPhone, as far as I'm concerned.

I use a lot of Internet-based music services in order to search for new music, but I try to find things worth buying and then add them to my collection.  Having all that music means that when there is an Internet outage, there is always lots of other music to listen to.

I've got everything on an iPod Classic 128GB

Alas, the largest iPod Classic I own was an 80GB, and my music collection just exceeded 80GB.  I tried to buy an iPod 160GB, but I received one that was defective and I never got around to ordering another one before Apple pulled the plug on the iPod Classic.

I'm whining a lot these days, but discontinuing the iPod Classic seems to me like another mistake on Apple's part.  As long as there was a market, why not keep selling them?  I like to listen to music at night and I can feel the controls on a classic so I don't need to see the display.  That certainly won't be possible with an iPhone or iPod Touch.  Companies like GM make their money simply making improved versions of the same product.  Apple certainly could have kept selling iPod classics at a profit.  The developers that would have remained involved would have been very small.  Apple doesn't have to have every product on the bleeding edge.

Oh well,

Edouard

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Re: Interesting "editorial" article on iOS sync issues.
« Reply #9 on: March 11, 2015, 10:22:42 PM »
I'm guessing you won't be buying an Apple Watch then?

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Re: Interesting "editorial" article on iOS sync issues.
« Reply #10 on: March 12, 2015, 02:14:27 AM »
I'm guessing you won't be buying an Apple Watch then?

I heard that he is camping out to be the first guy in his neighbourhood to get the gold iWatch with solid gold band for ?6700 (US$17,000).
Blick


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Re: Interesting "editorial" article on iOS sync issues.
« Reply #11 on: March 12, 2015, 06:34:18 AM »
You're right, Edouard. It was a Classic 160GB. I mis-remembered.
 [lol2]

Yes, I lament the loss of the Classic, too.

I'm wanting to get one of the new in 2014 iMac with Retina 5K Displays, but with each increase in screen resolution, the text for menus, and page displaying gets smaller and smaller. Right now, I'm clinging to my 24" iMac, even though I have a 27" iMac with the WeatherCat on it. ? I know! ? I can zoom in and out with command + or command -, but I have to do that 2 times per page on the 24" and 3 times on the 27" already. On the Retina it would probably be 6 times to get the text where I can read it. And some of Apple's own software doesn't use that function. The Apple Store software doesn't. Text Edit doesn't.

I'm hoping they'll come up with a better mechanism for coping with it, but so far ? no.

 [banghead]

Herb

elagache

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The Apple watch is really *SO* lame! . . . . (Was: iOS sync issues.)
« Reply #12 on: March 12, 2015, 10:57:46 PM »
Howdy Stu, Blick, Herb, and WeatherCat fans of hobby appropriate gadgets, . . .

I'm guessing you won't be buying an Apple Watch then?

 ;) . . . . . You can say that again!

The silly thing isn't pressure proof and doesn't include a dive computer so how can I use it for scuba diving?


It doesn't have any interface to control a telescope with a computerized mount or even some way to capture a digital image from an image intensifier.  The silly thing won't even help to auto-guide your telescope to take a deep-sky image.

Why it doesn't even include an interface to adjust the tune of the EZ-EFI fuel injection system in my trusty wagon . . . .


This watch is completely useless to me!! [biggrin]

You're right, Edouard. It was a Classic 160GB. I mis-remembered.
 [lol2]

Yes, I lament the loss of the Classic, too.

There was a 120 GB version of the Classic, so you could have ended up with that.  I bought my 80 GB when they discontinued that model so I got a deal, believing I would - never - have more than 80 GB of music . . . . .

I'm wanting to get one of the new in 2014 iMac with Retina 5K Displays, but with each increase in screen resolution, the text for menus, and page displaying gets smaller and smaller.
. . . . . . .
I'm hoping they'll come up with a better mechanism for coping with it, but so far ? no.

In this house vision issues are a major topic and my eyes aren't getting any younger either.  The current trend in computing is clearly to focus on the youth market at the expense of just about everybody else.  What those geeks haven't noticed apparently is that growing old is a universal phenomenon in human beings.  I'm sure that growing old will be an especially difficult business for geeks.  When I worked for 6 months at Amazon, one of the early employees was killed in a plane crash at around age 50.  The whole company took it unexpectedly hard.  Geeks are superheroes, they can't die!!!. . . . . .

As I said, geeks are going to have a -  terrible - time growing old.

Oh well, Edouard

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Re: Interesting "editorial" article on iOS sync issues.
« Reply #13 on: March 12, 2015, 11:02:29 PM »
One important function of the iWatch that you are overlooking; by looking at it you can see what time it is.
Blick


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Re: Interesting "editorial" article on iOS sync issues.
« Reply #14 on: March 12, 2015, 11:14:44 PM »
Lol, nice post Edouard  :)

One important function of the iWatch that you are overlooking; by looking at it you can see what time it is.
Umm, maybe not - do you have to wake it up first?