Are you having problems copying music from your iTunes library to your iPhone?
I've found iTunes to be one of the worst apps that I have ever used and everytime I need to use it to maintain my iPhone 3GS or copy music the whole experience is incredibly frustrating.
It is really refreshing to find an alternative method to copy music to the iPhone that does not include iTunes and is a really well structured and easy to use program.
The software is called Media Monkey and it functions as you would expect iTunes to. If you want to send a song to your iPhone you right click it and choose the option: Send To. Select your iPhone and the music will sync to it.
Simplicity itself and it really begs the question why iTunes is such a struggle to use and so frustrating to experience. Apple are supposed to make the most user friendly software but with my experience of iTunes this hardly seems to be the case.
I work in IT and expect to be able to use most software immediately. iTunes is the only piece of consumer software that I have found that not to be the case.
Media Monkey is free although there are also options to upgrade to premium versions. I highly recommend it and it is definitely worth a look if you are trying to find a way to manage your iPhone or iPod music library without using iTunes.
Sunday, 11 September 2011
iPhone Unable to Connect to Windows Vista iTunes library - Firewall Won't Keep Settings
iPhone Unable to Connect to Windows Vista iTunes library - Firewall Won't Keep Settings Error
I've been trying to get my iPhone to connect to my iTunes library on my Windows Vista PC using the iPhone Remote app. Initially the Remote app reports "Remote can't connect to your itunes library. Check network settings" having paused for some time "connecting"
I assumed this was due to the Vista firewall so I followed the instructions on the Apple website to add iTunes as an exception to the Windows firewall. Tried again and the same error message occured. I checked the Windows Firewall again and iTunes was no longer ticked, something had reset the firewall settings and removed the itunes exception.
To confirm that the Windows Vista firewall was causing the problem by blocking access to iTunes from the Remote app on my iPhone via my local wireless network I turned off the Windows Vista firewall. The Remote app connected immediately to the iTunes library showing that it was something in the Windows Vista firewall that was blocking the remote connection between the iPhone 3GS and iTunes.
On further investigation there are additional Windows Vista Firewall settings under Administrative Tools. These allow further configuration of the Windows firewall.
I found that there was an entry under "Incoming Connections" for iTunes that was set to disabled. I enabled this entry and changed the other 2 entries for iTunes under TCP and UDP protocols to be enabled as public profiles.
As soon as these settings were saved the Remote app on my iPhone 3GS was able to connect to the iTunes library.
I've been trying to get my iPhone to connect to my iTunes library on my Windows Vista PC using the iPhone Remote app. Initially the Remote app reports "Remote can't connect to your itunes library. Check network settings" having paused for some time "connecting"
I assumed this was due to the Vista firewall so I followed the instructions on the Apple website to add iTunes as an exception to the Windows firewall. Tried again and the same error message occured. I checked the Windows Firewall again and iTunes was no longer ticked, something had reset the firewall settings and removed the itunes exception.
To confirm that the Windows Vista firewall was causing the problem by blocking access to iTunes from the Remote app on my iPhone via my local wireless network I turned off the Windows Vista firewall. The Remote app connected immediately to the iTunes library showing that it was something in the Windows Vista firewall that was blocking the remote connection between the iPhone 3GS and iTunes.
On further investigation there are additional Windows Vista Firewall settings under Administrative Tools. These allow further configuration of the Windows firewall.
I found that there was an entry under "Incoming Connections" for iTunes that was set to disabled. I enabled this entry and changed the other 2 entries for iTunes under TCP and UDP protocols to be enabled as public profiles.
As soon as these settings were saved the Remote app on my iPhone 3GS was able to connect to the iTunes library.
Friday, 2 September 2011
iPhone - Unable to Delete Email Messages only Archive
As you can see from previous posts I've had a problem when upgrading my iPhone 3GS from firmware 3.1.2 to 4.3.3 which resulted in the phone being stuck in DFU mode and needing to be restored by an iPhone specialist.
My iPhone 3GS is now running iOS 4.3.5 which has a number of major differences to 3.1.2
Although all my apps have restored back onto the phone successfully there are a few features that have caused some confusion!
In particular a default setting in the iPhone email accounts has changed between 3.1.2 and iOS 4 (or 4.3.5) which allows you to delete email messages with either a slide of the finger or clicking the trash icon. In iOS 4 this no longer works for some email accounts and the message that appears is that you can only archive the message not delete it.
There is a setting that appears to be randomly set (some accounts had it others did not) within the Settings on the iPhone. To fix this problem and to allow messages to be deleted not archived on your iPhone you need to do the following:
1) Go to Settings, Mail Contact & Calendar
2) Go to the account that has the problem with archiving
3) Switch the flag "Archive Messages" from On to Off
You will then be able to delete messages from your iPhone inbox. There were some suggestions online that it is necessary to delete the account and recreate it but the option is much simpler than that and does not need any details to be reinput
.
If you need to go the other route and not delete messages from your iPhone but archive them instead then just switch the slider to On from Off.
My iPhone 3GS is now running iOS 4.3.5 which has a number of major differences to 3.1.2
Although all my apps have restored back onto the phone successfully there are a few features that have caused some confusion!
In particular a default setting in the iPhone email accounts has changed between 3.1.2 and iOS 4 (or 4.3.5) which allows you to delete email messages with either a slide of the finger or clicking the trash icon. In iOS 4 this no longer works for some email accounts and the message that appears is that you can only archive the message not delete it.
There is a setting that appears to be randomly set (some accounts had it others did not) within the Settings on the iPhone. To fix this problem and to allow messages to be deleted not archived on your iPhone you need to do the following:
1) Go to Settings, Mail Contact & Calendar
2) Go to the account that has the problem with archiving
3) Switch the flag "Archive Messages" from On to Off
You will then be able to delete messages from your iPhone inbox. There were some suggestions online that it is necessary to delete the account and recreate it but the option is much simpler than that and does not need any details to be reinput
.
If you need to go the other route and not delete messages from your iPhone but archive them instead then just switch the slider to On from Off.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)