Shenzhen, Guangdong -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/22/2016 -- Apple rolled out a new version of iTunes earlier this week to improve some designs and fix several bugs. The design improvements include a drop-down menu (Media Picker) and a left-hand bar that allows iTunes users to view their Music Library in new ways. But the biggest change in iTunes 12.4 is a bug fix that includes "additional safeguards" to prevent music files from getting deleted on computers.

More recently, a blogger and musician James Pinkstone wrote in his blog that his 122 GB of music was deleted from his computer, including original tracks he created himself. And he suspected that his Apple Music subscription was to blame. That post went viral and aroused extensive discussions. Some claimed that there was a software bug for iTunes and they had experienced similar troubles themselves, while others put forth a different opinion which basically boiled down to user error.

Apple has since said it was a bug, so it rolled out this iTunes update to address the issue. "In an extremely small number of cases users have reported that music files saved on their computer were removed without their permission," the company official spokesman said in a statement provided to TechCrunch. "We're taking these reports seriously as we know how important music is to our customers and our teams are focused on identifying the cause. We have not been able to reproduce this issue, however, we're releasing an update to iTunes early next week which includes additional safeguards. If a user experiences this issue they should contact AppleCare."

According to TechCrunch, the iTunes update includes a bug fix for the music deletion issue that has been affecting a handful of users like James Pinkstone according to Apple's recent statement. While people claims that it does fix the bug, but it could not reproduce the bug. The curious issue of music deletion doesn't appear to have been fully solved. "Delete Songs" box is still the default in the new version of iTunes, and the "Remove Download" button still sends files to users' Trash. So it's unclear whether these "additional safeguards" work.

In the meanwhile, the Apple Support Twitter account is responding to some users' complaints that their music library and playlists disappeared after installing iTunes 12.4, but these could be general upgrade issues unrelated to this specific music deletion bug.

The new iTunes update also includes a simpler design that brings back the old left-hand navigation bar to show users' library folders and playlists. The icons for various sections, such as music, movies, TV shows, etc. have been replaced with the previous drop down menu. The current playlist is now a separate buttons outside the play area.

Actually, iTunes has been widely criticized for the way it handles local media files. And obviously Apple has not solved the issue perfectly at this time, which leads people to find other ways to protect their media files, like using the third-party data recovery software to restore deleted data or using iOS data transfer software to backup files.

About Echo
Echo, the fulltime web content writer for the Chinese software company - Leawo Software, a multimedia solution and iTunes utilities provider. She is skillful and professional at tips for iPhone backup and data recovery, who writes about news and tips of Apple products. The programs she has used and reviewed include iTunes, iTransfer, iOS Data Recovery, and so on. These programs are the main sources that she writes articles or news about.