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Title
iTunes: another tale of woe in UX
Description
I know that pointing out errors in iTunes is a bit passé but Apple keeps releasing new versions of this thing without addressing the fundamental problems that it has as a synchronization client.
The software has to synchronize with hardware from only one manufacturer---the same one that makes iTunes. I'll leave off complaints about the horrific, very old and utterly non-scaling UI and just regale you with a tale of a recent interaction in which I restored my phone from a backup. In that sense, it's a "user experience".
In this tale, we will see that two of the main features of the synchronization part of the iTunes software---<b>backup</b> and <b>sync</b>---seem to be utterly misinterpreted.
Spoiler alert: it all works out in the end, but it's mind-boggling that this is the state of Apple's main software after almost 15 years.<fn>
10 million new iPhones were sold over the weekend. Their owners will all have the pleasure of working with this software.
<h>Restore from backup</h>
<b>Me:</b> *attaches phone*
<b>iTunes:</b> Restore from backup?
<b>Me:</b> Sure!
<b>iTunes:</b> *shows almost full iPhone* There you go!
<b>Me:</b> Thanks! That was fast!
<b>Me:</b> Wait...my phone is empty (no apps, no music, no contacts)
<b>iTunes:</b> *blushes* Yeah, about that...
<b>Me:</b> *reconnects phone*
<b>iTunes:</b> *shows nearly empty iPhone* What's the problem?
<b>Me:</b> Seriously, RESTORE FROM BACKUP (select EXACT SAME backup as before)
<b>iTunes:</b> On it! Sir, yes sir!
<b>Me:</b> OK. Apps are back; contacts are back. No music, iTunes? What part of the word "backup" is causing difficulties here?
<b>iTunes:</b> *blushes* (again) Ummm, dunno what happened there
<b>Me:</b> Fine. It was randomly selected anyway.
<b>Me:</b> Select random music from this playlist
<b>iTunes:</b> Here ya go!
<b>Me:</b> Sync
<b>iTunes:</b> Nothing to do
<b>Me:</b> Sync
<b>iTunes:</b> Seriously, dude, there's nothing to do
<b>Me:</b> SYNC
<b>iTunes:</b> Done
<b>Me:</b> No music on phone. Do you understand the word "sync" differently as well? You know, like how you have trouble with the word "backup"?
<b>iTunes:</b> ...
<b>Me:</b> *notices that size of playlist exceeds capacity of iPhone*
<b>Me:</b> that's 17GB of music. For a 16GB iPhone.
<b>iTunes:</b> Yep! Awesome, right?
<b>Me:</b> Is that why you won't sync?
<b>iTunes:</b> Error messages are gauche. I don't use them. Everything is intuitive.
<b>Me:</b> Fine. Reserve space when selecting music: 1GB (don't need more extra space than that)
<b>iTunes:</b> NP! Here's 15GB of music.
<b>Me:</b> Wait, what? You're supposed to leave 1GB empty *of the available space* not the *total size of the device*
<b>iTunes:</b> Math is hard. ... You do it.
<b>Me:</b> Fine. Reserve 4.2GB?
<b>iTunes:</b> Done.
<b>Me:</b> Now I have a 28GB playlist.
<b>iTunes:</b> *pats self on back*
<b>Me:</b> Reserve 3.2GB ... and "delete all existing" and "replace"? Now does it work?
<b>iTunes:</b> 9GB for you
<b>Me:</b> *tweaks settings 2 or 3 more times*
<b>iTunes:</b> 10.5GB
<b>Me:</b> Perfect. That was totally easy.
<b>Me:</b> Sync
<b>iTunes:</b> On it! *hums to self*
<b>Me:</b> Why are you only syncing 850 songs when the playlist has 1700 of them?
<b>iTunes:</b> *continues humming*
<b>Me:</b> Fine. *wanders away*
<b>iTunes:</b> Done
<b>Me:</b> Sync
<b>iTunes:</b> *syncing 250 more songs*
<b>Me:</b> What the hell?
<b>iTunes:</b> Done.
<b>Me:</b> Sync
<b>iTunes:</b> *syncs remaining songs*
<b>Me:</b> This is ridiculous
<b>iTunes:</b> Done
<hr>
<ft>It has been pointed out to me that I am using this software in a somewhat archaic way: to wit, I am not allowing iTunes to synchronize all of my data to the cloud first. Had I done that, it is claimed, I would have had fewer problems. I am, however, skeptical. I think that a company that can't even get local sync working properly after 15 years has no business getting any of my data.</ft>