Another day just like the day before
ME: Hey, iTunes! Since you’re so stupefyingly incapable of handling it properly, could you delete all the music off this iPhone so that I can put it back on from scratch, please?
ITUNES: Sure thing, Stuey! I’ll reinstall every one of the 800-odd apps on your iPhone – even though they’re all there already – right now!
ME: No, iTunes! The music! Not the apps! I didn’t ask you to do anything to the apps! There’s nothing wrong with the apps! Just delete the music!
ITUNES: Sorry, Stuey, I’m already busy reinstalling all these hundreds of apps like you asked. Be with you in about 12 hours!
ME: I really, really hate you, iTunes.
.
(11 hours later)
.
ME: So, iTunes – after all that time, what you’ve actually done is reinstall all the apps that I didn’t ask you to reinstall, and deleted precisely none of the songs I asked you to delete?
ITUNES: Yup! Anything else you’d like me to do?
ME: Why don’t you try syncing all the music back on now, just in case that somehow magically sorts it out?
ITUNES: There is not enough memory available for this operation. Another 1.43GB is required.
ME: I hope everyone involved in your creation dies a slow and awful death, iTunes.
But it's what Steve wants.
Do you ever back it up, incidentally? How long does it take with that many apps?
It does a backup whenever you sync, and it only backs up what's changed since the last one, so it only takes a minute or two.
I read iTunes' part in a Bitch Stuey voice. It made it fun.
I had to email itunes recently to get them to rid me of my unwanted downloads list. Admittedly this was done with great efficiency but it's weird you have to email them in the first place to get the job done. It's as if they have to wipe your bum for you. It's odd.