iTunes 12.6.0.1 - What have they done to the mini player?!

[yep-sure]

Just updated Sierra and the new version of iTunes came along with it.

The mini player is now huge and you can't make it smaller. I had customised all my toolbars in Safari, Pages, etc... to slot the miniplayer over the top without obstructing windows underneath. Now it's this huge grey block, and you can't make it smaller. There's nothing new on there, they just changed it for the sake of it. You can't keep it always on top without allowing an inch of the screen at the top/bottom or 3 inches on the left or right. Madness.

What are everyones thoughts on this? Is it just me having a whinge or does it annoy the majority?

 

[gwang73]

Vote #2 for annoyingly too large. They must've made it that big for people using 4K 21"/27" monitors at 1:1 pixel scaling, lol.
To top it off, there's a bug in the mini player where the maximize button on the mini player doesn't always show.

 

[yep-sure]

Yeah I've noticed that too. The minelayer is useless to me now. I'll just resort to running iTunes fullscreen on another desktop space. :rolls eyes:

 

[BarracksSi]

I haven't used the old mini player window in so long, I've forgotten what it looked like.

 

[MacGizmo]

There are actually two mini-players in iTunes now.

One you get by hitting the little album art icon of the currently playing song (or selecting it from the menubar) in the iTunes window. It is scalable, and you can hide the artwork by resizing the window vertically. You can size the window so as to show album art, controls, and upcoming/history/lyrics list, down to just the controls.

The second mini-player (which has window widgets) is accessed by holding the Command key down while clicking the current album art icon from the iTunes window. This mini-player contains controls and album art and cannot be changed.

You can have both open at the same time.

 

[chriscl]

There are actually two mini-players in iTunes now.

One you get by hitting the little album art icon of the currently playing song (or selecting it from the menubar) in the iTunes window. It is scalable, and you can hide the artwork by resizing the window vertically. You can size the window so as to show album art, controls, and upcoming/history/lyrics list, down to just the controls.

The second mini-player (which has window widgets) is accessed by holding the Command key down while clicking the current album art icon from the iTunes window. This mini-player contains controls and album art and cannot be changed.

You can have both open at the same time.

If I hold Command and click on the Album Art, I get the second mini-player (shown to the right in your picture) but I can certainly resize it, simply by moving the cursor to the lower-right corner, clicking and dragging as with any other window?

 

[yep-sure]

The issue is that the minimum size of the main mini player (the one on the left in the post above) has been changed in this new version of iTunes to be a large grey box that takes up a lot of real estate.

Previously you could size it down to something quite small, with just the play/back/forward buttons, which you could then overlay on the top of other windows without obstructing any view or workflow.

 

[cynics]

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding but this?

iTunes 12.6.0.100

 

[yep-sure]

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding but this?

View attachment 693916

View attachment 693918

iTunes 12.6.0.100

That's the one.

Prior to this latest version, it could be reduced to a smaller size.

Best screenshot I could find:
http://cdn.osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/itunes-micro-player.png

You could adjust it to be the height of a standard toolbar that appears in native apps, like Safari. And could reduce the width to pretty much just back/play/forward buttons.

Now it's about 1.5 times the height of a toolbar, at its smallest.

 

[dbagg]

This change is very annoying, it must be a bug but I never seem to get the X to dismiss the mini player.

 

[jgelin]

It has thrown off all the sizing on my 2nd monitor. Used to have Calendar, 1Password, Mini Player and messages in a quad arrangement. Now it just covers the calendar no matter what. Bigger... isn't always better.

 

[bladerunner88]

There are actually two mini-players in iTunes now.

One you get by hitting the little album art icon of the currently playing song (or selecting it from the menubar) in the iTunes window. It is scalable, and you can hide the artwork by resizing the window vertically. You can size the window so as to show album art, controls, and upcoming/history/lyrics list, down to just the controls.

The second mini-player (which has window widgets) is accessed by holding the Command key down while clicking the current album art icon from the iTunes window. This mini-player contains controls and album art and cannot be changed.

You can have both open at the same time.

Hey MacGizmo, Your post totally helped me out! 🎉 Thank you was able to figure out to re-shrink my MiniPlayer! Having just installed iTunes 11.4 onto Big Sur for some Ol Skool goodness 😂