Downgrading iTunes 9 to 8

Well good luck with the upgrade if you choose to! Does Pro Tools not like 10.5.8 yet?

I've had this nightmare with my iTunes Library before in the past, when some files on my old HD corrupted. There are a few AppleScripts out there that may help you in your plight. Have a look here:

http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/searchTheScripts.php?mysrchterm=dead

I think I have one or two other useful ones lying around if you like, one that creates a log file of all the missing files, the other creates a playlist of all missing files.

Do you normally keep your iTunes Library organised automatically?

THanks for the info!

I looked at the info for "Bring Out Yer Dead v1.1" It's possible I am misunderstanding what this piece of software does but, in reality I know exactly where all the "missing" files are and so I don't need software to find them (unless it will automate the process??), which makes it even more frustrating that the Mac cannot look for them and link them by itself. (ProTools does something like this when there is a problem, btw.)

Re how I organize iTunes, I am not sure what you mean. I put stuff in the libray, and they're organized by Artist name and album name in folders on the hard drive....

Thanks!

What I mean is in iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > Keep iTunes Media folder organized (or whatever the iTunes 8.2 name is)... But I'm guessing from your comments made that you already do this. It is only an issue if you don't like iTunes organizing your music for you.

Personally I think that iTunes should go the same way as iPhoto and keep all media in a Package file, that way losing data like this would be a lot less likely to happen!

I'm not sure what would happen if you choose "Consolidate Library" from the Advanced menu... But don't do that unless you make a backup first. "Bring Out Yer Dead" is probably a good starting point.

It may even be the case that iTunes 9 works better in situations like this... Though since I can't guarantee that I won't recommend it! 🙂

I since after downloading 9 get that **** beach ball for EVERY SINGLE THING I DO it's slow to boot. But even just picking one song the ball comes out for awhile before I'm allowed to play it. Anyone else have this problem????? I have an iMac 17" flat screen running OSX 10.4.1.1

THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS. Does it really work? The "techs" at Apple are saying it can't be done once your in 9 ****. BUT they often are told to say these things even if they know it's false. I just want to be sure so I don't lose my library. I'm so sick of the beach ball.

great tips...

also make sure you use app cleaner that is freeware

http://www.freemacsoft.net/AppCleaner/

also make sure to cancel out your itunes helper by going to system preferences/accounts/start up items and uncheck itunes 9 helper

then reinstall itunes 8

We ALL must file bug reports with Apple itunes techies

after installing itunes 9...could not burn CD's

thank god for this. after spending a month and a half staring at that god-awful white background and being thoroughly unable to listen to ANY live or otherwise gapless albums due to iTunes 9 being utterly unable to properly play gapless albums when ANY other programs are running (seriously, am I the only person on earth experiencing this problem??), I could no longer take it! thankfully the whole downgrade was quite simple and seamless thanks to everyone's help in this thread, and I now have that lovely, easy-on-the-eyes grey background, and my albums play gaplessly again. I have never before been so thoroughly disgusted and ashamed of any Apple product. I refuse to budge from iTunes 8 until Apple stops with this iTunes Store/Homesharing/iTunes LP nonsense garbage and goes back to making a program that does what its supposed to do without causing headaches and ulcers.

Another satisfied dismember thanks to GangstaPenguin. I am now on my old reliable itunes 8. thanks again!

@GangstaPenguin - awesome, clear advice - thanks so much for posting!

As a short tip to those of you who roll back to iTunes 8, and need to find songs that you bought in iTunes 9: what I did was go to Finder, and type "mp3" in the search box, then narrowed the search by Created Date > after > 9/9/09 (date of my previous iTunes library), and then added the songs back into iTunes just by playing them. Also did search with "aac" in search box, as I've got both types of files on my computer.

Hope this is helpful - BOO iTunes 9!

Re: Step 2...Did you "uninstall" iTunes or just delete iTunes.exe? Or delete the whole iTunes file?

First I should state that have an old 17" flat screen G4 1GB computer.
Given that take this advice accordingly. I too has serious problems with itunes 9 at one point my ipod would no longer show up on menu, my airport quit working, beach balls abound, and no way to safely eject my ipod. I called Apples support demanded to speak to someone in the US or Canada. This is important these days other countries hate us and give service accordigly. Oh and my cordless mouse quit working as well.
I demanded free service from Apple and got it. We worked on it for a long time but neither of us knows exactly what we did. When I still have problems with airport I just reconnect until it hooks up about 1 to 3 times. The beach ball makes a far less appearence now and my old Logitech mouse (will Apple ever learn to make a decent mouse?) works fine now.

Okay so i followed the directions to a T on my Imac PPC 20 inch. First off, i was unable to trash the iTunes 9 app because iTunes Helper was in use so i had to quit the process and remove it from the startup items in account settings before it would delete. I did not delete any prefs files.

I deleted the application, tried emptying Trash, got a message about itunes helper being in use, then stopped the itunes helper process, removed it from my startup items, emptied trash and it worked, then renamed the old itunes library.xml file to something else, went into the previous folder took the latest one and renamed it to itunes library.xml, moved that were the previous itunes library file was, installed 8.2.1.

Launching the application brought up a message saying the library was created in a newer version of iTunes and thus the app would not open. I renamed 2 other previous versions, same thing. I was lucky i had a backup prior to the itunes 9 install and i just copied the folder and overwrote it on the my main system. That solved my problem. My itunes files reside on my system hard drive, the music on an external hard drive. Does anyone know what went wrong?

God iTunes 9 is so horrible! Why would they break such an awesome app? Seems everything coming out of Apple these days is a bit rotten. This from a die hard mac fanboy for 20 yrs. Last time i blindly upgrade trusting all will be fine.

Someone mentioned that the new ipod touches don't work with 8.2.x with the updated firmware is this true? I was considering buying my first ipod touch and never want to go back to itunes 9 in order to use it.

okay i think i may have figured out what happened. so in my iTunes folder there are 2 files:

iTunes Library
iTunes Library.xml

I think i made a foolish mistake by renaming one of the previous library files (iTunes Library 2009-10-27) to iTunes Library.xml and let it replace the previous iTunes Library.xml file, which explains why it was confirming that i wanted to add the .xml extension. I guess the .xml file does not need to be renamed but the the main iTunes Library File right?

Still would like to know about the new ipod touches and 8.2.x

Thanks GangstaP, you are THE MAN!
I am listening to my air tunes again without drops, skips, or beach ball. iTunes 9 is beginning to confirm my fears; the more OS X gets like windows.........the More OS X will be like windows nuf said.

I did this, but it didn't work for me. Although when I installed v.9, it didn't even open at ALL, and the downgraded one won't either. Maybe it's a different problem altogether.