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Apple releases iTunes 12.4 with redesigned interface, fixes bugs in OS X 10.11.5

Alongside a slew of other platform updates, Apple on Monday released OS X 10.11.5 — a maintenance update for OS X El Capitan — and iTunes 12.4, with an improved interface and a solution for music libraries being silently deleted.

The iTunes update reintroduces a sidebar for quicker navigation, and uses an enhanced Media Picker, making it easier to switch between different media types such as music and movies. Both components can be customized to show only specific items.

Apple has also spent time trying to simplify menus, and make it easier to flip through content by returning Back and Forward buttons to the interface, both for local libraries and Apple's online stores and services.

The update should also in theory solve a problem causing music to be deleted from a person's library without permission. Apple acknowledged the problem on Friday, promising an iTunes update early this week. While initial suspicion fell on Apple Music, some have blamed a database problem in the previous version of iTunes.

Apple has not gone into detail on changes in OS X 10.11.5. Release notes mention only bugfixes, performance improvements, and the elimination of various security vulnerabilities.

For Mac owners, both updates can be downloaded via the Mac App Store. Windows users will have to grab the new version of iTunes via the Apple Software Update tool.

Other releases today include iOS 9.3.2, solving glitches with Night Shift and Bluetooth, plus tvOS 9.2.1 and watchOS 2.2.1.