Downgrading iTunes 9 to 8

Hi - I followed GangstaPenguin's instructions but just before 8.2.1 finished installing, I got an error message saying that a later version of itunes had been installed on the computer so 8.2 couldn't be installed I thought I uninstalled iTunes 9 but maybe I didn't. Can someone pls walk me through that process? Thanks so much!

You are right. New iTunes is absolute rubbish!!!!!! I hate it!!!!! Apple must do something.

Thanks so much, GangstaPenguin. That did it for me, too. I hated not only the nonresizeable columns, but the fact that I could not choose which columns I couldn't see and which I could.

All better now.

Thanks so much! Stupid Software Update let me install iTunes 9 on a machine that can't run Safari 4, which is necessary for iTunes 9 to access the store. Fortunately, I was doing a clean install on a new volume, so I didn't have an iTunes library to worry about.

ok..I did this and my music is back. But now my speakers are not working properly. The amp isn't working and I only have one speaker working. I installed itunes 8.2.1 and I'm running OS 10.5.5

This is without a shadow of doubt the worst f**kin POS I have ever used.

Unfortunately for me, my 14 month old Time Capsule literally blew up 2 days after upgrading to Snow Leopard so I cannot get hold of my previous library file! (And Apple - surely the new Microsoft - won't refund it so I have a pretty £400 brick).

In short I cannot listen to music any more. Music is my favourite thing. And all my music is stuck in some hideous, unusable, buggy database.

Oh why oh why did I ever trust Apple so much?

Not touched Windows since '98, but my rage at Apple is pushing me towards Windows 7...

I tried your suggestion and for sure itunes works, however, I am having trouble with the "old" iTunes library bit and also and more particularly connection my iPhone and iTunes opening and recognising the connection so I can sync.
Do you have any advice please.
Regards
Peter

Hello all,

I just changed from iTunes 9 to iTunes 8.2 as per the GangstaPenguin suggestion. So my iTunes is now back to iTunes 8.2 (yay!) but my playlists and content have been thrown back in time over one year (I don't know how this is possible since I carefully loaded back in the iTunes Library (I took it from the Previous iTunes Libraries folder) that was in use until JUST A FEW DAYS AGO (that is, just before my ill-fated upgrade).

I am terrified to do anything until I have some further guidance since this is far beyond my level of knowledge for Mac surgery....

Many thanks in advance!

Hi there,

I've had this before. Your preferences might have been reset so it's pointing at the wrong library. Quit iTunes and relaunch holding down the option/alt key. When you get a window asking for an iTunes Library, locate the one you usually use (check modified dates). There's no limit to the number of times you can do this so you could just search your HD for all iTunes Libraries and just try each one until you find it.

Good luck!

In order to do this, do we have to have our whole itunes library on a backup file?

Thank you Jowie. I was able to get a better library version installed, but now bout half of the 18,000 songs have grey circles with exclamation marks in them, appear next to the song titles.... If I have to manually relink each song name to the file, I am gonna cry.... I have read about this numerous times on the discussion boards, but typically it's an entire library that is exclamation pointed, so I am not sure how to proceeed. Any suggestions, anyone? Many thanks.

If you follow GangstaPenguin's instructions to the letter then hopefully that should explain how... But to quote from it:

4) Open the "Previous iTunes Libraries" folder and look for the backup of your old pre-9 library; it should be dated at about the time you first ran iTunes 9. Copy it back out to the ~/Music/iTunes folder, and rename it to "iTunes Library".

Thanks! I did that but I still have this problem with the exclamation points.... Disaster!!

Hmmm sounds like that's still not the right file because the links to most of your files are broken. Follow step 4 from my post above... Is that the file you tried originally? Have you moved any music files recently?

See if there are any other Library files you can try. Do you have Time Machine backups? It may be worth rolling back your library to before the time of the iTunes upgrade.

Apple have made such a mess of this situation someone could possibly make moneyfrom selling an iTunes Library Repair application!

Thanks for your continued attention to my problem.

I think I used the correct library file because the playlists are perfect.

This all started when I upgraded to iTunes 9 without realizing what chaos would ensue. But since last week I've gotten an iPod Touch and now I am dealing with a whole other range of problems (it does not like iTunes 8.2, and is demanding iTunes 9), and ON BALANCE, it might make sense now for me to finally upgrade the OS to 10.5.8 (even though there are compatibility risks to my Pro Tools set-up...) and upgrade iTunes to v. 9; then hopefully this whole situation will work itself out better (I'll probably have to manually re-link thousands of songs either way).

I agree that an iTunes helper application could make some good biz for someone, haha!

Again, many thanks for the dialogue. Any additional ideas are welcome.