"It stopped working!" We see this comment from time to time in our Market listing reviews but have
no way to respond. We test Hyperfine Remote for iTunes extensively before every update, and
after the update we watch the comment thread to see if perhaps we missed something in our testing. Because
of the way Hyperfine Remote for iTunes works and the way it is written, we know that any problem we've
inadvertently introduced will affect many thousands of users, if not all of our users. If you're having
a problem, especially after an update, it's worth looking at our Market comment thread to see if others are
experiencing it. If so, you should see lots of comments. If not, the problem is most likely due
to something local to your configuration. This strategy for resolving problems applies to most of the applications
you download from Google Play Store.
So why do we occassionally get the "It stopped working" complaint? It's important to remember that
Hyperfine Remote for iTunes is one component in a cooperative chain of software and hardware, the
most important of which is iTunes. iTunes is not just a music player; it's a server. Any
server which stops cooperating is going to reflect poorly on the clients that try to communicate with
it. We know through thousands of hours of iTunes usage that the iTunes server does not run forever
without problems. Occasionally, it needs to be restarted, and especially on a Mac, the iTunes computer
needs to be rebooted. Once the iTunes server is restarted, communications problems with clients such
as Hyperfine Remote for iTunes tend to resolve themselves. The "It stopped working" comment indicates to
us not that there's a problem with Hyperfine Remote for iTunes, but that the customer probably just
needs to reboot their computer.
Similarly, routers need to be rebooted from time to time. Call your ISP for assistance when
you've lost internet connectivity and the first thing they'll have you do is reboot your router. They will
even suggest you do this every month or so in order to avoid problems. The reason is the same for the
iTunes server. Software often needs to be reset.
Consider the full pipeline of hardware and software when you find a connection problem with using
Hyperfine Remote for iTunes, read these tips, and review what might have changed in your network configuration.
Reboot your iTunes computer, reboot your router, and reboot your Android device before giving up on the problem.
Finally, send us email if you're completely stumped so that we can point you to the most likely cause. We
cannot help you if all you do is leave a product review comment, since we have no way of knowing who you are.
Many of the lists in Remote for iTunes let you fast scroll with alphabetical indexing, which is convenient for scrolling
to songs, for example, that begin with the letter S. Depending on the content of your list, this feature may not work
well and the list will appear to scroll either randomly or repetitively. If this is the case, you can turn off
the alphabetized scrolling in the Settings page. This will allow you to fast scroll, but without the incorrect
alphabetized indexing.
Remote for iTunes attempts to match iTune's alphabetizing rules, and when there is a mismatch, you will see the problem
described above. An example of an exception to alphabetizing include titles that begin with "The" as in "The Beatles." This
would be listed under "B" instead of "T." Remote for iTunes makes exceptions for "The", "A", "An", and "(".
If you notice that alphabetized scrolling does not work for you on some lists and you're able to detect which title is
causing the problem, we'd appreciate hearing from you so we can update the exception rule list in a future update.