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Apple Software Update keeps telling me to update iTunes when I have the latest version already?

About 8 months ago Apple Software Update started having problems with updating iTunes on my computer. What happens is that whenever Apple Software Update runs it thinks I'm not running the latest version of iTunes and says I should update. If I try to let it run the update, it tries to download and apply the update and then it fails to upgrade. However, if I run Apple Software Update again, it just starts all over and thinks my installed version of iTunes is not current.


If I wait until a new version of iTunes comes out that is NEWER than what I have installed and let Apple Software Update do the update, it still fails to update to even a new version.


I have tried completely uninstalling iTunes and Apple Software Update and after reinstalling everything fresh the same thing just happens all over again.


iTunes is working fine, but I have to manually download and install iTunes when a new version comes out.


There must be some sort of registry/cache corruption for Apple Software Update, but I can't figure out how to resolve this?

Posted on Mar 15, 2019 9:29 PM

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5 replies

Mar 16, 2019 6:02 AM in response to Audiophilia

Try repairing Apple Software Update from the Programs and Features control panel, then uninstall it before trying to reinstall iTunes. If it won't repair try the Microsoft troubleshooting utility mentioned in note 1 of the following guide. If it still won't uninstall you can remove all Apple components that will uninstall then use the steps in Install missing components to install everything apart from Apple Software Update.



For general advice see Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.



The steps in the second box are a guide to removing everything related to iTunes and then rebuilding it which is often a good starting point unless the symptoms indicate a more specific approach. When reinstalling right click on the downloaded setup file and use run as administrator. It may also help to temporarily disable any non-Microsoft anti-virus.


Review the other boxes and the list of support documents further down the page in case one of them applies.


The further information area has direct links to the current and recent builds in case you have problems downloading, or want to revert to an older version if the current one won't work properly for you at the moment.



Your library and device backups should be unaffected by these steps but there are links to backup and recovery advice should it be needed.



tt2

Mar 16, 2019 2:08 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks. Unfortunately, I have tried all of those steps with no success. I have no problems uninstalling/repairing/reinstalling iTunes and it doesn't throw any errors. It's just that Apple Software Update constantly wants to update a current version of iTunes.


After following the steps of uninstalling everything (bonjour, application support, software update, etc...) and then rebooting into safe mode and deleting all the folders, I still have the same problem.


I install itunes 12.9.3.3 x64 with no problems. Afterwards I run Apple Software Update and it shows this screen:



Then if I tell it to download/update, it downloads a bunch of data and comes back with a green check mark that it's been installed. Like the screen below and when I click the OK button, Apple Software Update refreshes and reverts to the screenshot above saying there is new software to update. If run it, it just goes through the whole process again.



This is not the end of the world as everything in iTunes seems to work fine with my iPad and iPhone, it's just the Apple Software Update program seems totally broken and useless.

Apr 14, 2019 1:12 AM in response to turingtest2

I’ve tried running as administrator with no success. Still can’t find a way to fix this.


Now that I think about it, I suspect this all started when I did an update and then the next day I had another app crash and lose configuration so I used the Windows System Restore to rollback a day and fix my other app. Ever since then I have had this problem.

Apple Software Update keeps telling me to update iTunes when I have the latest version already?

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