Uninstall ITunes?

Hi. Frankly iTunes makes me crazy. Most recently, I have noticed that all my music, etc. on iTunes has disappeared. No idea how or why this happened. Another problem is that when I change identities on my Mac (which I do once a year or so) I can't switch my audio files. Once I tried and lost masses of good stuff -- in fact the new iTunes wiped out my iPod. This was very frustrating and scary and I would really like to get rid of iTunes to prevent future problems.

I already have VLC downloaded so my question is: can I uninstall iTunes and use VLC as my computer's audio player? And where does my iPod Nano fit into the picture? Will it behave like a regular mp3 player if it's connected to VLC? What will happen to files I have on the iPod now (the same ones that have disappared from iTunes on my computer?

In the past, I've bought a few tunes from the iTunes Store (but very few) and most of the stuff on my IPod Nano is Spanish language lessons, hypnosis tapes, and non-iTunes music from old cds or online sources. I don't pirate but I'm not very technical and iTunes scares the daylights out of me. My stuff is backed up on my computer and also on an external hard drive but still ...

Can anyone tell me if VLC (or some other player) will replace iTunes and how I go about uninstalling it and starting to use VLC (I already use it almost exclusively for movies, etc.).

I know I'm asking a lot of questions but will really appreciated whatever links and other help you can give me.

Computers don't loose things, Users do.

If you took a little time, watch Apples online support Videos, read a good book on iTunes and look through the Help, under the Help menu, you would know how iTunes works and not have this Crazy. If you don't like iTunes just drag it out of the Dock.

VLC does not load iPods.

Why on earth would you change your User Account regularly, mine has migrated since 10.1, over 11 years.

Well, you are undoubtedly right, Kaveman but I am a person who, according to my geek son, "should not be on the Internet". Nevertheless, here I am. He has tried to explain how iTunes works but w/o success. I doubt if an online video or a "good book" is going to do the job. I just don't get it.

Does VLC load mp3 players other than iPod?

You said, "Why on earth would you change your User Account regularly, mine has migrated since 10.1, over 11 years." If I have done this it was because I didn't remember I already had an account. "mine has migrated since 10.1, over 11 years" means nothing to me. Sorry.

Anyway, I appreciate that you are exasperated by ineptitude. Me, too, in my own field which is not technology, obviously.

No, only iTunes.

So you are saying that only iTunes loads mp3 players. How odd. So I have to use iTunes if I want to download audio files?

Also, perhaps what happened to my iTunes had something to do with installing the new MagicJack Plus on my computer, a couple of days ago. It killed my Internet connection and neither my ISP nor MJ techs seemed able to help. We finally plugged the MJ+ into the router. It still knocks our computers offline but the MJ+ works fine and as soon as the call ends the computers goes back online. So, not perfect, but it will do for now.

The only other thing that has happened lately is that we have just returned from Mexico. No reason I know of that this would clear my iTunes of all content including Playlists but something did it. I didn't even open iTunes until I downloaded some new audio files (paid for, btw), put them in a folder on my desktop and then opened iTunes to listen to one of them. Nothing there! Quite a suprise.

Anyway, my major conern with iTunes is still not being able to switch identities on my Mac w/o losing all my iTunes content. Of course, it's gone now but I do have backup. Hm, I could use the backup to reload the new iTunes in the new identity. Lol, well, that makes sense.

No, I'm saying only iTunes will load iPods. Other MP3 players have their own software too.

All your iTunes files are stored in your Home Music Folder in a Folder called iTunes. If this Folder is moved or deleted iTunes will not find your music. This Folder is stored in your User Account so moving to a different User Account requires you to also move your Files, Documents, Movies, and Music, if you don't then they won't be there.

The desktop is not the place to store them, you drag and drop them into iTunes and then iTunes will see them.

Okay, I give up. Thanks for trying.