Apple recently released iTunes 12.3.3, which contains a number of small tweaks and changes. But there’s one thing I didn’t spot, and that a correspondent pointed out to me yesterday. The iTunes Store quick-access menu – the one you display by clicking your user name in the app’s toolbar – is crippled if you don’t use Apple Music.
I have two Macs, and I use Apple Music on my MacBook, but not on my iMac. I still don’t want my main music library corrupted by iCloud Music Library, and if I want to stream music, it’s easier to just use the laptop.
Here’s what the store menu looks like on the MacBook, with Apple Music.
As you can see, there are shortcuts to your Wish List and your Purchased List.
On the iMac, however, without Apple Music, here’s what I see:
No Wish List, no Purchased list. You can still access these lists, in different ways. Click iTunes Store in the navigation tab bar, and, in the sidebar at the right, you’ll find those links, among others.
It seems a bit odd that Apple would cripple this menu. The Wish List and Purchased list have nothing to do with Apple Music; they are for items that you want to buy in the iTunes Store, or for quick access to your iTunes Store purchases. My correspondent told me he had contacted Apple support, and they told him this was the expected behavior. But it makes no sense. (I’ve filed a bug report with Apple, in case it is just an unintended glitch.)