iTunes 12.4: Editing the Sidebar

Hey, remember how iTunes used to have a sidebar? And remember how we all liked it so much better than recent versions? Yes, we did. Dissenting opinions aren’t allowed here.

Well, it seems that Apple’s been listening, as they just released iTunes 12.4, which adds the sidebar back and lets you edit it to your liking. Heck, I’m inclined to believe most anything is better than those icons we had before.

Sorry, Apple. I don’t mean to insult your interface decisions.

Anyway, first of all, if you don’t see anything I’m talking about in the screenshots below after you’ve updated iTunes to the latest version, you can click on the “View” menu at the top of your screen and choose “Show Sidebar.”

Afterward, check out the new look! Pretty, huh?

Instead of the icons, you’ll get a drop-down near the top-left of iTunes’ window, from which you’ll select the type of media you want to view.

To change the stuff you’re looking at, you can pick a different option from there. 

If you only need a few of those media types to show up, pick “Edit Menu” from that list as I’ve done above, and then turn off the media you don’t ever use. For example, I don’t have anything in this library that’s not music, a movie, or a TV show, so I’m toggling everything else off.

Now the source menu will be much cleaner! 

This is something we could do with previous versions of iTunes, but hey, it’s cool, so I thought I’d mention it. With iTunes 12.4, though, you can also switch up what’s showing on the new sidebar. To do that, hover over where it says “Library” and click the “Edit” button that’ll appear.

Then select or deselect as your heart desires. Of course, these options will change depending on what media type you’re configuring. 

When you’re finished, click “Done” in the upper-right corner, and things’ll be all cleaned up and ready to go! And maybe you’ll find iTunes a bit more user-friendly after this update.

 

No promises, though.