Comments on: Prevent iTunes from creating unnecessary clutter and cruft

By: B Jarvis

B Jarvis — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:21:47 +0000

Get a seperate laptop, have nothing but i tunes in it, and only plug ether cable in when purchasing music, sincerely hope it screws up their entire policy.

By: Scott Haneda

Scott Haneda — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:39:45 +0000

@Arcane, good points, and we would like to one day cover Quicklook as well. However, this process does explain a method that is valuable to know for other files that can open in more than one application. Especially with Snow Leopard getting rid of resources within the file that tell it what app to open in. Now only the file extension is used to determine what app is a file is opened in; at least in near all cases.

While audio files are one, a text file may always open in TextEdit, but now the user will know how to make the file open in Pages, Word, or whatever they desire.

Also, some files, like image based files will always open in Image Capture, PhotoShop, Preview, or any number of applications, which may not be what the user wants. This allows the user to learn a way to alter that behavior. Or a .zip file that keeps trying to open in Disk Utility, instead of the BomArchiveHelper.app.

Double clicking a file, as well as auto opening files from downloads in a browser are both things that are not going away any time soon. Users will get familiar with the simplest way for them to accomplish a task; that method will become the way they do things for some time forward.

This site is trying to help people learn in a procedural way, how to accomplish the basics of learning their computer. As they get more advanced, and as we have more time to cover more topics, we will eventually get to a point where we are writing about alternate ways of performing some of our first tips and suggestions.

Thank you for the comments.

By: Arcane

Arcane — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:54:12 +0000

This article is good for older versions of Mac OS X. Both Leopard and Snow Leopard, however, feature the “Quick Look” feature that allows you to preview a file by hitting the space bar when the file is selected. So you don’t even need to open them anymore—meaning there’s no real reason to switch their default program anymore, and iTunes can regain its position as the Macs’ primary multimedia solution.

By: John

John — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 15:46:46 +0000

Just started reading this blog. I’m a long time Mac user and continue to find useful tidbits. Thanks for all the effort it takes to keep something like this going.

By: David McMillen

David McMillen — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 14:43:32 +0000

There’s an amusing article on “cruft force” ratings that gives a good sense of what’s meant by the term “cruft”:

It means something between “bloat” and “accumulated unnecessary stuff”. Between the user and various applications, little changes and tweaks start to pile up on the system, and it gets increasingly hard to guarantee that they won’t interact with each other in unexpected ways — that’s crutf.

By: dan carter

dan carter — Sun, 23 May 2010 13:05:14 +0000

i searched high and low for a solution to this pain in the arse problem, you’d think apple would have stuck it in a preference menu somewhere, anyway thanks for the very helpful info. i can stop screaming at the mac now, at least with regards to this problem, cheers mate

By: Arne Olsen

Arne Olsen — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:37:38 +0000

Great “mini” tutorial for a simple operation. even tho i am an experienced mac user, sometimes even the smallest of things bother my mind. Great stuff !

By: Scott Haneda

Scott Haneda — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 00:20:45 +0000

@Pattie, what are some of the TV shows names? About the only thing I can think, is these are podcasts, and you have subscribed to them. Podcasts are the only thing I am aware of that would do this, since TV shows are generally a paid for item, and would not download without asking your permission first.

Look in the podcasts listing, and see if there is any relation, feel free to write back here with more details.

By: Pattie

Pattie — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 11:55:57 +0000

How do I get rid of TV shows that keep downloading on my itunes? There is a list of 50 of them that I no longer want to download but they keep coming up and trying to download when I want to download a new song. I’ve tried deleting and then removing them by all this does is to stop the process for now.

By: Scott Haneda

Scott Haneda — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:46:02 +0000

@Marcia, same steps as in the article. Just locate one of the files in your downloads folder. Select it, get info on the file, and tell it to always open in Quicktime, and you should be good.

It should be covered in the post above, if you have any other issues, let us know.

By: Marcia

Marcia — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:36:10 +0000

Help? How do I prevent my Vonage messages from automatically downloading and playing in itunes? I don’t get a chance to even change the application because when it downloads it automatically plays in itunes and I would much rather it play in quicktime.

By: Scott Haneda

Scott Haneda — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:02:54 +0000

@Matt, yeah, I am sorry. If all goes as planned, I should get a bunch more posts in the queue this evening. We got a little bogged down dealing with some of the back-end stuff to the site, as well as a pretty terrible update in the software we use to publish the site. We are not going anywhere, so hold tight, and thanks for the support!

By: Matt Nikos

Matt Nikos — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 03:39:30 +0000

Hi, Scott,
Hope you’re okay. You’ve got us hooked on your column; you’re not allowed to disappear for very long at a time.

By: Scott Haneda

Scott Haneda — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:16:13 +0000

@Jim, “Cruft” is more or less not a real word, at least, not one recognized by a mainstream dictionary. Caroline and I debated over the use of this word for a few seconds.

The general consensus is it is a computer jargon term used to define a mess, or junk laying around.

@MikeP, glad we were able to put the puzzle together and help you out.

@Norm, QuickLook is also a perfect way you deal with this as well. We covered QuickLook in a few weeks back in a simple way. I have this feeling QuickLook will take a while to get into peoples heads, whereas the 2x click is something that everyone habitually does. QuickLook certainly is awesome, and has the added benefit that you need not even wait for QuickTime to launch, regardless of how quick QuickTime is to launch.

By: Norm

Norm — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:32:07 +0000

sorry, here’s the image:
http://www.copelandramblings.com/images/musicquicklook.png

By: Norm

Norm — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:31:31 +0000

Great idea! Another solution would be to get into the habit of using quicklook (simply hitting the spacebar on the mp3) to listen to audio clips. They play with out being added to iTunes. Example below:

By: MikeP

MikeP — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 03:20:00 +0000

You are my hero. Sometimes the easiest answers are the hardest find. I use small comedic sound effects in Keynote to aid in the Teaching of English as second language, so my iTunes library just fills up with this, as you so eloquently put it, “cruft” (I think I’m going to teach my students that word, it’s beautifully descriptive).

I knew that QT was a media player, I knew that I could change default file types in the info box and I knew I didn’t want iTunes full of “cruft”. I just didn’t add the parts into a whole. Thank you.

By: JimB

JimB — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:13:27 +0000

What’s cruft?

Anyhow, I’d no clue quicktime was anything more than a vid player~the education continues.

By: Scott Haneda

Scott Haneda — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:17:11 +0000

@Seth & @Doug, thank you so much for posting your corrections. We do not at all take it as picking, so feel free. I write these posts very much as they come to me, in a sort of stream of thoughts.

Caroline then takes them and proofs them. I read them once to make sure I am being coherent, but stuff will indeed slip. Feel free to post corrections, or, just email us and let us know, but thanks.

By: Doug Adams

Doug Adams — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:37:26 +0000

…And shouldn’t the title of this article be “Prevent iTunes from *creating* unnecessary clutter and cruft”? Or perhaps “*Free* iTunes from unnecessary clutter and cruft”?

By: Seth

Seth — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:41:34 +0000

First of all, let me say that I enjoy reading this guide. It is part of my morning routine along with the Globe and Mail, BBC Online, and the NY Times. I am not a new user, and yet find something useful on these pages regularly. Thank You.

So, when a typo is pointed out – please don’t take it as nit-picking. Its just an attempt to help polish the passage.

In section “Forcing a New Default Media Player”, 2nd line down, you wrote “… opened in iTunes, hold of on …”. I think you meant to “… hold off …” (second ‘f’ added).

Please feel free to not post this comment, I don’t know that it adds anything of substance.

Thanks Again.

Seth