unraveled

Dear Apple, Please Make Automatic Source Switching an Option in iTunes

Dear Apple,

iTunes is indeed the best digital jukebox on the planet. However, I have one small request: please make automatic source switching an option. By “automatic source switching,” I’m referring to how iTunes automatically switches the source whenever I connect my iPod or insert a music CD. I realize it may not be clear why I’m requesting this, so I came up with two scenarios from my everyday use of iTunes:

I have a 20 GB iPod, and as you know, it stores a lot of music. I rarely need to move songs to it, so I rarely need to view the contents of it. Even if I do want to move songs to the iPod, I don’t care what’s on it because iTunes only adds songs that aren’t there. In my case, one of the only times I want to see the contents of my iPod is when I’m deleting songs or albums, but this is rarely the case immediately after I connect it.

In the case of music CDs, sometimes I immediately want to see the contents of the CD, sometimes I don’t. Often when I’m creating playlists and I then insert a CD, I don’t immedately want to see its contents. When I do want to immediately see the contents of the CD, I don’t at all mind clicking on the CD title in the source list.

I hope you’ll come to the same conclusion as me and realize there’s often no need for iTunes to automatically switch the source whenever an iPod is connected or a music CD is inserted. If I could, I’d like to suggest a simple solution: make it an option in the iTunes Preference panel.

I hope you’ll consider this in future versions of iTunes.

Sincerely,

Joshua Kaufman

  1. Interesting idea. I have a 10 GB iPod and an iBook. I am constantly adding songs that I discover and deleting songs that I’ve realized are crap. So my music library is in a contant state of flux. Because of that, I’ve come to appreciate iTunes’ ability to automatically reconcile your music library with the iPod as soon as you connect. And since I’m using firewire, it’s all done in blink of an eye.

    I guess adding that feature as an option would help. As long as it’s an option and not the only choice.

    Louis Clotman on 31 Jan 04

  2. Digital jukebox. Is that what they call Macintosh nowadays…

    Joachim Krebs on 25 Feb 04

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