iTunes forum: iTunes is a joke.

Last night I got tired of the crap selection of stuff to watch on Netflix, so I said, "I'll just find some stupid movie on iTunes with cool FX and watch that until I get tired."

It is approximately 11:00 PM at this point.

Big mistake. Should have known better, what was I even thinking? I had recently wiped my computer clean, but at least I had already jumped through the hoops to get iTunes installed on my computer (and was able to access iTunes about two weeks ago from the same install, on a different network), so I double click, log in when it asks me for my apple ID, and all the sudden I get an error.

Some security problem. Likely because I am on my home network rather than someone elses network like I was when I first installed iTunes. It wants me to "confirm" that I am who I say I am. Seriously, because I am on a new network? So it directs me to a website, and I have two options. Obviously I don't want to go through the hassle of bringing up my email just to click some link to reactivate stuff, so I click on the option to use the security questions. Great. Question 1: when was I born? Easy one. Question 2: Pwning nubz? What? Was I 13 when I set up this account?

Back to option 2. Email verification. Great, so I will just click this, put in my address, and get an email. Just click the email link, I am good to go. So I click "email verification." Great. I open a new tab, go to my college website, click on the email link, and log in a second time to a different account. I see the email, skim it looking for something that looks like "click here." I find it and click it. A new web page. , it wants a new password. I don't want to use a new password, I want to use the password that I already use. Whatever, I plug in another of my favorite passwords. Has been used in the last year. What? It's not a Swiss bank account for Christ's sake, it is a God damn Apple ID. Ok, a little steam coming from my ears, but whatever, I will play along. New password, go back to iTunes, try to log in again with the new password. That is the third time I have logged in to something. 10 minutes have passed.

So now I am finally in to iTunes. I click on the iTunes store. It wants me to log in with my Apple ID again. Seriously? I JUST LOGGED IN. I guess I just looked at it funny. Browse around. iTunes store, as usual, being super sluggish with my 6gb of RAM and Intel i7. An hour ago, I was playing Skyrim at 60 fps with NifSkope, 3ds Max, Photoshop CS5, and the Creation Kit running in the background and Netflix on a second monitor. Typical Apple product. I find a movie to watch in the store.

I rent the SD version, since it looks like a bad movie anyways and I just want to watch something as I fall asleep. Wants me to log in again. That's the fifth time. Whatever, I am so close. I log in. Nothing happens. Well, did it download or not? I wait about 30 seconds, then decide to try again, fully aware that iTunes might be so bad that it doesn't stop me and lets me pay twice for the same movie. Right as I click, it asks me to log in again, but at the same time I notice my downloads section on the left is getting some action, so I exit out and head on over.

56 downloads. 55 of them are useless "bonus features" that I have to stop from downloading each and every time I buy something on the iTunes store. I have no interest in listening to a fat guy with a beard talk about how he envisions Gimli from Lord of the Rings, I just don't care. So why am I being comupter-raped every time I download something on iTunes, having this stuff forcefully penetrate my hard drive? It is literally gigabytes worth of TRASH that no human being would ever want to watch, that came with other movies or tv shows that I purchased. I have never been able to figure out how to prevent them from attempting to invade my computer when I download from iTunes. Here is the hilarious part, they download in order from OLDEST TO NEWEST. Are you serious apple? All your "do everything with a single button" and you don't have the brain cells to download the most recently purchased item FIRST and the oldest last?

So, as usual, I hit pause all. I scroll down to the bottom, there is my movie. Meanwhile I am thinking about what a joke this program is. I buy stuff on iTunes and I get one single download for that item, ever. If it gets deleted, tough luck, buy it again for thirteen bucks. Yet when I buy something, it is not entirely mine, it is linked to my computer and I have to use all sorts of cloud servers or activation codes to get a 3 minute song to play on a second computer. Meanwhile, I can install Steam or even that horrible program Origin on any computer and download a game that I have already paid for as many times as I want. Not enough space on my computer? Delete a game. I know it is safe on Steam, I can always get it back later. New computer? I don't have to jump through hoops to get my entertainment back, no external hard drives, cloud servers, or what have you. I just install steam, activate the computer, and download everything I want. I hit resume. It downloads for a few seconds. I hit play, start watching. Intro credits, I lie down, finally about to watch the movie that is going to carry me off to dreamland with a beer in hand.

Error -50. Some "unknown error." It wants me to check to see if my internet broke. So I check. Nope, internet is working fine. Ok, I hit retry (like that has ever worked for any download error on iTunes, they should seriously just remove the button). Downloads about 2MB again and same error.

This would be the fifth time I have encountered an error like this when trying to download something. Funny thing is, each time, it is a different error code. So first thing is first, I punch it into Google and see what I get. First link, iTunes support. I click it. It tells me to check my firewalls. I have no firewalls and my antivirus doesn't care about iTunes. If it did, I would be getting the same error when iTunes attempts to violate my hard drive with "Iron Man bonus features." Option 2. Remove cached files. So I close out of iTunes and give it a go, deleting the cached downloads. Restart iTunes, log in for a sixth time, no dice. This time I get the error even sooner in the download.

That was my second mistake. The first was having iTunes installed on my computer, the second was thinking that I might be able to solve the problem with Apple's solution (which is usually within the realm of "is it plugged in.")

So back to Google. I find, as usual, millions of other forum posts about the same error. They contain some interesting gems. Turns out iTunes is freaking about because my network is not "Home Network" it is "Public Network." Or so says some guy on the interenet. So I disconnect from my wired connection, unlearn the network, plug it in, make sure it is "trusted." Delete the cached downloads, start up iTunes, log in for a seventh time, check for downloads, pause all the trash, resume downloading my movie. Error.

I restart my computer. Boot iTunes. Try downloading again. That makes 8 log ins. Error.

Back to Google again. Another guy says that he spent hours with support asking him if he had the "latest version of iTunes" encouraging him to download more junk from the Apple website. Basically asking him if it was "plugged in." He said that ironically, the newest version of iTunes was the problem, not the solution. I got a kick out of this. So I look up stable versions of iTunes. I find a site that has the old versions, and download the one from a while ago that was apparently stable. I uninstall my iTunes 10.6. I install the new iTunes. Restart computer. Start up iTunes. Typical, nothing happens after 10 minutes. I open the task manager, and there is iTunes, running in the background but never showing up in Explorer. I kill the process and run it again.

Error. Some archive that iTunes 10.6 did NOT REMOVE when I uninstalled it was created by a newer version of iTunes (10.6), so my old version wont start. Seriously? When I uninstall iTunes, it shouldn't be leaving anything on my computer.

So I email support, asking for a refund. I would bet my left nut they wont give it to me, instead telling me to with my firewalls.