There are many iTunes utilities on computers throughout its history and this software / music store has given a lot of itself since it originated with the iPod 20 years ago. And although it is still present on Windows computers, on Macs it has been missing for 2 years. Do you want to know the reason? Keep reading.
It was a very functional program. Too functional
Download music or video content, serve as a player, synchronize content between different Apple devices, be the manager of backup copies, updates and restorations of iPhone, iPad and iPod… There were many functions that iTunes had. So many that even Apple itself dared to joke about it, stating in a satirical tone that they were going to add a dock, calendar and even their own browser (minute 1:44:30 of the following video).
In that WWDC of the year 2019 shown in the previous video, with the presentation of macOS Catalina , the Californian company announced the disappearance of iTunes as such from its computers due to that excess of functionalities that sometimes generated too much chaos, causing a user experience not very intuitive and especially for Mac first timers.
Of course, the essence of this off-road application is still present because its functions were divided into different apps that landed for the first time on macOS. Things related to music or its reproduction, went to the new Music app, the video content to TV and the podcast to the homologous app, Podcast. Meanwhile, the synchronization functions of devices such as iPhones were integrated into Finder, which shows access to it when one of these devices is connected via cable.
It must be said that all that content stored in iTunes has not been lost. So those who had a movie or song purchased in that extinct iTunes, will continue to have it in the respective TV and music applications respectively. Applications that, by the way, are the ones that also serve to access Apple’s streaming services in these areas (Apple Music and Apple TV +).
Computers on which iTunes is still very much alive
As we already said, it was in macOS Catalina (10.15) the version from which iTunes was no longer present. However in macOS 10.14 Mojave and earlier it still exists. Therefore, any Mac that cannot update to ‘Catalina’ or that has not been directly updated by user decision, can continue to enjoy this program in the same way as before.
Also on Windows computers it is still available with the same capabilities as always and that they also had on Macs. Much has been said that Apple could launch its separate applications in Microsoft‘s operating system, but the truth is that today it continues to fail and there is still no indication that it will happen anytime soon. Therefore iTunes is still the necessary app to synchronize devices such as iPhone or iPad with a PC.