Apple released iTunes 12.7 yesterday. There are some major changes, and some minor tweaks. Here’s what you need to know:
No more App Store: As I wrote in this article, Apple has (surprisingly) removed the App Store from iTunes. This means that you can no longer browse, buy, or download apps on your Mac or PC, and you can no longer get updates that way. This is a problem for people with multiple iOS devices and limited bandwidth, since you will need to download apps and updates to each device.
No more app syncing: A corollary of the above point is that, since there is no more App Store, there is also no more Apps library, and you can no longer sync apps to an iOS device. You can, however, manually add apps that are already on your computer to your iOS device. See this article.
No more Tones: The Tones library, which housed ringtones and alert tones, has also been removed. You can sync existing tones – or ones you make yourself – using the above method. You can still purchase tones from Apple. To do this, on an iOS device, go to System Preferences > Sounds > Ringtones > Store, or to any of the alert tone options in the Sounds preferences, which also have a link to the Tone Store.
No more iTunes U: Apple has removed iTunes U and placed all that content in the Podcasts library. If you have any iTunes U content, or if you’re searching for any, you need to go to the Podcasts section of the iTunes Store.
New sidebar libraries: The iTunes sidebar has been changed a bit. Internet Radio has been moved from the Media Picker – the menu above the sidebar – to the sidebar itself. You can display this item by hovering your cursor over the section of the sidebar that says Library, then clicking Edit. As you can see here, there are other options that you can show or hide. Downloaded is new; this should show music that you have downloaded from Apple Music, but it only shows a couple of my downloads. And the TV & Movies entry is for videos you add to your library from Apple Music’s Browse > TV & Movies section.
Listening History: A new feature to be rolled out in Apple Music is the ability to share what you’ve listened to to friends and followers. If you check Use Listening History, in the General preferences, you are authorizing iTunes to share this information. I’ll write an article about this new sharing next week, when iOS 11 launches. If you’re managing iTunes for a child, and you want to prevent this sharing, you can block in in the Restrictions pane of iTunes’ Preferences. There are also checkboxes under playlist titles that allow playlists you’ve created to be shared.
There are a number of changes in the way certain items display: the download buttons on album artwork are no longer on the artwork, but below; there is no longer an Edit Playlist button, you just drag and drop and move and delete; and the process to create a playlist description is different.
Aside from a few minor changes to menu items and menus, that’s all I’ve found for now. If you spot anything, drop a note in the comments below and I’ll add it to the list.