TuneUp: Frustration Itself

[Edit: There have been new developments that are relevant to this article. Click here.]

“How the hell do I keep TuneUp from loading whenever I open iTunes?”

“I know! Goddammit, I just wanted to listen to a song and now this program is slowing my hardrive down and taking up half my frigging screen. Who invited TuneUp to the party, anyway?”

The TuneUp problem seems to be a growing concern on the internet and judging from the message boards at apple.com, at tuneupmedia.com, and a whole slew of tech sites, users are still having trouble solving it. I actually didn’t even know at first what the heck TuneUp was, never mind how it got onto my hard drive.

First thing’s first. TuneUp is a program designed to get your digital music library in order. It fixes mislabeled songs, recovers missing artwork, and more. (See the TuneUp FAQ.) Well, that all sounds great actually. My library is a mess.

“…I don’t remember ever downloading TuneUp…”

Except, wait a sec. I don’t remember ever downloading TuneUp. And I can’t seem to control how it operates. Which is strange. Since according to the designers, if you want to stop TuneUp from starting up with iTunes it’s wicked, wicked easy!

From their own forum, Prevent TuneUp from launching when launching iTunes?, one member complains that when you try to delete TuneUp a dialogue box warns that doing so will affect other applications. Which, SHADYZZ, no relation, says is a bullshit tactic sleazy programmers use to keep users from trashing their applications.

“…TuneUp people, you should be ashamed and [you should] apologize…”

SHADYZZ: “[TuneUp has] been trying all they can to avoid telling you [how to uninstall/remove the program] in hopes to get more subscribers. TuneUp people, you should be ashamed and [you should] apologize.”

Well, one of those Tune Up peeps, Isaac from TuneUp Media Support, responds with this: “We never hide the fact that there is an uninstaller available for both the Mac and PC version of TuneUp, and gladly provide this information whenever requested.”

Besides the fact that removal methods shouldn’t have to be “requested” (they should be as user-friendly and intuitive as most apps) it isn’t so easy. I’m on a Mac. Sick and tired of TuneUp loading with iTunes, I found and tried three different solutions recommended by the TuneUp camp:

#1) I navigated to Macintosh HD/Libraries/iTunes/iTunes Plug-ins to delete a file called ‘TuneUp Visualizer.bundle.’ But it wasn’t there.

#2) Thinking the above method was outdated I tried another recommended method and searched my computer for a TuneUp folder. Even after using Terminal to show my hidden files I couldn’t find anything. The only TuneUp file was the application itself. Another bust.

#3) The last “easy” method I tried seems to be the one that will work. “It’s  in the Preference pane, just click on Prefences,” the TuneUp people say, “and then opt out of the auto start. Easy!”

Errrrrrr. Problem: when TuneUp is opened there is no Preferences option. Usually with a Mac you get to the Preferences by clicking on the name of the application in the Menu Bar at the top of the screen. Like so:

Here's the traditional way to open your Preferences---

TuneUp, for some reason, does it differently:

And here's the sleazy TuneUp way!

When you click on TuneUp in the Menu Bar nothing at all happens. As if there aren’t any options whatsoever. Now, it took me a minute but I figured out that there’s a TuneUp icon on the right side of the Menu Bar.

Ah ha, you sneaky bastard!

“Well finally! There it is. Now, I’ll just click on Preferences. Oop. Nothing’s happening. Click…. nothing.”

That’s right. The only thing that happens when you click is TuneUp pops up like your snot nosed neighbor selling magazines, begging you to subscribe, subscribe, subscribe!

“…I’m drinking the Kool Aid now and it’s delicious…”

I admit, I thought SHADYZZ was paranoid at first. But I’m drinking the Kool Aid now and it’s delicious. SHADYZZ’s right. All these roundabout, labyrinthine methods of disabling/uninstalling TuneUp must be intentional. For me to simply keep the program from opening with iTunes I have to subscribe to it and register? How does that make sense? Well, I can think of only one way: forcing people to subscribe will up TuneUp’s subscription numbers. So:

Option #1) Subscribe to TuneUp and then disable it from auto-starting with iTunes in the Preferences pane. Maybe you do want to use the program to organize your library. Although, who knows what other BS comes with this option–given what we’ve learned so far about the tactics of TuneUp..

Option #2) Delete TuneUp without trying it first because you’re so damn aggravated with figuring out how to disable it from auto-starting with iTunes without subscribing to or trashing it.

“…this seems like an awesome program…”

I’m taking Option #2, sadly. Sadly, because my library really is a mess and this seems like an awesome program to clean it up. But it doesn’t bother me that much.

So, what have we learned? Deleting TuneUp does keep it from auto-starting with iTunes. Phew! Although it wouldn’t surprise me if it turned out to be a zombie app. And as for how TuneUp got on my hard drive in the first place, apparently it piggybacked on a Vuze update. (“Goddammit, Vuze! Go to your room, we’ll talk about this later.”)

“…the more I think about it, the more distrubing it is…”

But I do have better reason for deleting TuneUp other than pure aggravation. In fact, the more I think about it, the more distrubing it is. Do you have any pirated media in your digital library? One song or two, or three, or four thousand? How do we know TuneUp won’t pass that information, your information, along to the RIAA or some other agency?

Does the fact that it piggybacks off a BitTorrent client like Vuze make TuneUp torrent friendly, or does it just make it seem that way?

According to their Privacy Policy, “subject to your permission or agreement, Tuneup Media will not sell, exchange, or otherwise share Your Information with third parties, unless required by law or as provided hereby.”

“Subject to your permission or agreement?” Again, given the tactics we’ve seen TuneUp employ already, do users really know what they’re agreeing to? Also, in this, the Information Age, we’ve seen companies completely ignore their own privacy policies to make a quick buck. Will TuneUp be next?

Does TuneUp know where you purchased your media? If so, does it keep track of this information? The possibilities here are disturbing. For all I know TuneUp is not nefarious whatsoever and all of these sleazy strategies are just mistakes. But until these mistakes are rectified, I won’t subscribe. So far, TuneUp isn’t coming off very trustworthy.

Stay tuned for more, as I field these questions to a TuneUp rep!