Beware iTunes 7.2

Even though I'm a Windows user, I'm a huge Apple fan. To me, Apple epitomizes the incorporation of user-friendliness and attractive design into good functionality. I loved working on Macs when I was in grad school, and I adore both my iPod and -- usually -- the iTunes software.

That said, beware iTunes 7.2. After installing this upgrade, my tracks -- all 6509 of them -- mysteriously disappeared. M was a total sweetheart and pounded away at it until he was able to relocate the missing library and get the software to point to it. So the music is no longer missing, but I've lost a ton of preferences and all my playlists. (And if you've heard me talk about how much time I spend keeping my iTunes metadata "clean," you know that Sparklegirl is not amused by this turn of events.)

My least favorite part about it is that I have more tracks in my library than can fit on my current 20G iPod, and when M reconstructed the music library, all those tracks come across "checked" to sync -- resulting in the data equivalent of trying to shove a ten-pound turkey into ... something that it can't fit into. (I need more coffee this morning.) So I can't sync until I spend a couple of hours in iTunes and specify about 2500 tracks not to sync. Some of that will be easy -- I'll search by the genres "Christmas" and "Jambands" and un-check those tracks -- but some of it will take a lot of time, and as I've mentioned, I'm not really supposed to be forcing my hand around a mouse these days more than I have to.

I've always felt well-treated in the past by iTunes/Apple (I admit it: I drank Kool-aid), so this is a real let-down. Turns out, discussion of issues with 7.2 seem to be popping up all over the place, like here and here and here. Some folks who upgraded are recommending moving back to a previous iTunes release. The moral of the story: think twice before upgrading to 7.2.