iTunes Stops Working For Windows XP Users

An anonymous reader writes: iTunes users who still run Windows XP started to experience connectivity issues this week. As documented in an Apple Support Communities thread, they can't log into the iTunes store, meaning functions like buying content, watching already purchased movies and TV shows, playing DRM-protected content, backing up, updating, and syncing all do not work.

Comments

Re:Figures

[Opportunist]

This may well have less to do with Apple being mean and cutting off XP users from their fix and more with Apple dropping support for ciphers that are anything but secure anymore, with XP simply not supporting the more current ciphers with better algorithms and more robustness (like forward secrecy). If they didn't, the rant would not go away but simply shift to "Apple's sloppy handling of security puts your content at risk".

Re:Unsupported obsolete OS

[Nemyst]

This. XP is dead, get on with the times, especially something like iTunes where the old excuse of corporate software forcing you to stay on XP most certainly doesn't apply since it's strictly a consumer application.

Re: Figures

[tlhIngan]

It seems unlikely that development support of XP is more costly than the revenue generated by XP users. And Apple has plenty of cash. But this may still be shrewd - let's see if there's a bump in Mac sales this quarter. These users represent existing Apple customers running an OS that Microsoft abandoned. They don't need to know about how fast Apple abandons hardware, but to be fair Apple does upgrades pretty nicely. They can blame MS and gain the customer, all by hosing said customer. Devious and clever.

Well, Apple knows how many XP users use iTunes. They know how much those XP users spend and can easily determine if they're just a tiny fraction of those using Vista or later, or significant enough to continue supporting them. Apple has all that data.

And I've seen it too as my main machine is XP. I'd love to upgrade it if I had the cash (I do have a Win 7 machine used for other purposes so I'm not SOL). Thing is, iTunes still does work, it's just crapping out randomly a bit more than usual - Monday was plagued with the inability to log in (but closing and restarting iTunes several times fixed it), and app updates seem to be an on and off thing (mostly off).

And how fast Apple abandons hardware? Maybe for iOS where you get 50% more support time than the main competition (at least in cases where you get supported updates). Macs that can run Yosemite date back to 2010 or so.

Apple though, does abandon older software a lot faster - they only do support the last two versions of OS X and iOS in general.

This may well have less to do with Apple being mean and cutting off XP users from their fix and more with Apple dropping support for ciphers that are anything but secure anymore, with XP simply not supporting the more current ciphers with better algorithms and more robustness (like forward secrecy). If they didn't, the rant would not go away but simply shift to "Apple's sloppy handling of security puts your content at risk".

Here's the thing - iTunes runs on a virtual version of OS X - one of the reasons it's so big is that it brings with it a bunch of OS X libraries adapted for Windows. Things like ciphers and SSL and all that, Apple already has ported versions of the OS X libraries for that they update - it doesn't use the OS libraries for it.

And in fact, there's nothing wrong with iTunes itself - my version of iTunes worked perfectly until the past week or so - and no, I didn't install any new version of iTunes. So Apple changed something that broke iTunes on its end because iTunes worked before and it wasn't changed

Re:It's not about the cost, it's about convenience

[crmanriq]

So my wife says, "Can you buy me this song?"

So I go to my computer and open my Windows Virtual Machine.
And I start Itunes.
And it tells me that since I haven't used Itunes in months, I need to update iTunes to the latest version. So I do.
And then I find the song.
And I buy it.
And download it.
And then since my wife wants it for her mp3 player, not for an apple device, I need to run it through SoundConversion.
And then I can put it on media and give it to my wife to use.

Or, I could go to TPB or KAT and download the album, already in mp3 format.

Yeah. Same amount of work.

Re:Upgrade

[gstoddart]

The special DB on an iPod is a pain.

Well, it was a concession to the music industry to make it hard to copy other people's music. So, yes, they have done it differently.

But, for me one of the best features is that special DB ... I have playlists based on the metadata which only Apple keeps (as far as I know at least) across devices. Like "songs I haven't played in six months or haven't played at least five times". You practically have a query language ... so you can pick all of your punk rock which isn't also Christmas (and, yes, I have that problem).

Sure, if I wanted to grab my music folder out of iTunes and import it into another player I could go back to the same level of technology I was using on FreeBSD in 2001 ... but honestly, I'd rather stick with iTunes and the playlists and metadata that special DB give me.

I don't ever manage my music by dragging and dropping ... so while your way is good for you, I'd rather just select which playlists to sync.

Me, I just load on a half dozen playlists, put it on big random, and let the playcount cycle them out on the next pass so I can work through all my music and hear it all. :-P

For me, the massive time investment I have in iTunes means when I rip a CD and assign a genre like "cuban/hip-hop" or "punk/xmas" they magically fall into the playlists where they belong because rules put them there ... and I won't hear a punk version of Silent Night in June. ;-)

My playlists are almost self curating now precisely because of that DB. And when you have Cuban hip-hop and punk Christmas albums you really want that.

At least I do.