How To Switch Off Ping

By Giles Turnbull (8:40 am, Sep 06 2010)

Got Ping? Wish you’d not bothered?

You might be over the moon about Apple’s baby social network, but on the off chance that you’re not, here’s a quick’n'simple guide to de-Pingifying your iTunes. It’s not difficult.

In iTunes, go to the iTunes Store by clicking it in the sidebar.

Look at the far right side of the black iTunes Store navigation bar – you’ll see your account ID here. Mouse over it to see a little disclosure triangle on the right – click this to see a little menu. “Account” is the top one; click this.
You may be asked to enter your Account password at this point.

About half way down your Apple Account Information page, you’ll see a panel saying “Ping: On”. To the right of this there’s a button marked “Turn Off”. You know what to do.
iTunes will have a brief “OMG WTF??” moment and ask you:

at which point you can make your point by clicking the Turn Off button again, extra forcefully.

Congratulations, you have successfully unPung your computer.

30 comments »

About the author

Giles Turnbull is a freelance writer in England. He writes for the Press Association and The Morning News. He has a website you can ignore and a Twitter account you needn't follow.

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Posted in How-To, iTunes, News |

Daniel Andrews
Problem is, it’s still in the sidebar.
Helius
Nice one – Thanks. Been regretting turning it on right from the start – Waste of CPU Cycles.
kirkmc
CPU cycles? Seriously? It’s just a web page rendered in iTunes. It doesn’t use any CPU…
http://www.albertkinng.com albertkinng
WHY TURN IT OFF? I like it and a lot of friends too. maybe you were looking for a facebook kind of app, this is just a better way to know about people and music.
http://www.alwaysonmessage.com/ app developer
I guess if it really offends you go ahead and turn it off; but I’m not convinced it’s using any system resources.
Even though I don’t see myself becoming an avid Pinger, I’m leaving mine on just to see where the journey takes us…
ejg2
I just don’t get all the hate towards Ping. It’s free, it’s kinda fun, and it’s a more appropriate forum than facebook for my Lady GaGa essays. It seems that everyone laments that it doesn’t have full-blown facebook support, but I kinda enjoy the idea that it is an island. For those of us that don’t have cute toddlers or Vegas plans, facebook can get pretty boring.
Michael Logue
WHY TURN IT OFF? Why turn it on? I never plan to use it so I never turned it on. The compulsive neat freak side of me wants it gone from my sidebar. Its icon offends my sense of order.
I belong to the anti-social internet club that has one member, me.
miguel_a
@Michael Logue
I belong it too (anti-social internet club), social networking is such a waste of time
samue23
Hey can I join that club (Anti-Social Internet Club), all my associates/friends make fun of me because I don’t tweet, myspace or facebook. I think it is such a waste of time.
Misty
this is like the stupidest thing ever!!!! this is pointless and a waste of time seriously.. my favorite band KUTLESS wasn’t even on there so i was like why should i even be bothered with something sooo pointless and such a waste of time.. if you want to know what’s up with the band or where they’re going it’s called go to their website and check tour dates and such.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH APPLE…. of all changes, they should be making, if ANY.
is to make it so that you can delete DEFAULT, POINTLESS, USELESS, apps from the ipod touch *cough* STOCKS *cough* i dont even get that at all when the majority of people who use ipod touches are teenagers. that’s completely useless
http://seancapelle.com Sean
I see Ping as playing in a sandbox with Steve Jobs. “No, you can’t do it like that! Do it my way!”
I signed up for it but haven’t even looked at it in days. I’ll hold on to the account because I’m sure Apple has already heard an ear full and will make some changes.
As it stands now, it’s a waste of time, and the article’s information is good to know.
porkchop1234
Ejg2 quote:
I just don’t get all the hate towards Ping. It’s free, it’s kinda fun, and it’s a more appropriate forum than facebook for my Lady GaGa essays.
You poor misguided bastard. Reach out from the darkness towards the light. Real music awaits you in the light
scotts13
On removing the icon from the sidebar, I’ve taken the easy way out – I disabled the iTunes store entirely; it’s the only way I’ve found that works. I’m sure this is EXACTLY what Apple wants to happen.
Happy
Is the Anti-Social Internet Club on facebook, I’d like to follow!
Marco White
I just want the F***cking Genius Results sidebar back! Ping sucks. They should give users a choice on whether they want the Ping sidebar or the Genius sidebar.
I’d like to go back

savanna
how to get Genius back follow all the steps above but instead of going to turnping off go to recommendations & ping posting click manage panel and turn it off and genius goes back on side bar

strawbarigurl
Well, I don’t like ping in my sidebar. Period. And I like the old iTunes better, because it wasn’t so B.O.R.I.N.G.
Driek Zwaan
It’s very arrogant to customers of iTunes to design a dragon like ‘ping’ without a feature to switch it off completely.
Wake up Apple stop this manner of changing things; be more social!!
Not every change is an improvement (especially when it can’t switch off without a trace) i don’t like this but I see it allover my music library (tasteless and shocking)
Jai
Thank God for that.
Tash
I find it pointless and annoying. I have a facebook account, and visit it no more than once a fortnight … why add another? Apple’s just trying to put in it’s 5 cents worth in the social networking department, and it’ll probably work, but I can’t be stuffed doing it. I just wish I could remove it from the side bar, the tab at the top and the right click in my music … it just pushes the ‘get info’ button too far down … :(
I don’t like it, but I’m sure that there are people who will <3 it … just not me.
The irony is I can't be stuffed learning too much about it, but I can be stuffed writing a comment complaining though. :D
Simone
I also do not like seeing the word ping all the time and what I listen right now is of nobody’s business. But unfortunately switching off does not work. The store annoys me too (why need a creditcard for free apps?). So indeed, I am going to switch off itunes store NOW. Thank you for the hint.
Jeremy
I think the problem is why didn’t they just tie into an existing social network such as Facebook instead of trying to create yet another social networking tool to manage.
http://www.yahoo.com jackiefab
Good. Now I turned off Ping. How do I get Genius back?
If I can’t get it back, where can I find something like it?

savanna
so i found out how to get Genius back follow all the steps above but instead of going to turnping off go to recommendations & ping posting click manage panel and turn it off and genius goes back on side bar

Lori
Thank you!
savanna
so i found out how to get Genius back follow all the steps above ut instead of going to turnping off go to recommendations & ping posting click manage panel and turn it off and genius goes back on side bar
soaplove
I think this is another invasion of privacy by default. I cannot find a way to get logged on, unless I go back and start all over, with a new address, etc. If I am not registered, I cannot get to the side bar. Hmmm. I don’t need anymore people in my business. I already hate the idea of people who feel free to do automatic renewal. I don’t want to see something on my credit card that I did not expect. And I was not happy to have to replace a card because of someone trying to charge thousands of dollars on it. Oh well, I will figure this out, or just take itunes off my computer. I do not want any ping of any kind. Ping was not a smart name to call whatever this social networking is suppose to be.
Zerk
Yes, Ping is GONE! Thanks for the info.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jez-Summers/677492173 Jez Summers
Whose idea was Ping anyway??? It’s even more annoying than Bing!!!
brubakers
iTunes still bugs you to enable Ping. It sucks….