Can't remove Apple application support and Apple Mobile Device Support, and can't update iTunes

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Can't remove Apple application support and Apple Mobile Device Support, and can't update iTunes

I can't update iTunes on Windows10. Every time I get this message (in Dutch) (scroll down for rest of the question):

Everything else I tried, like downloading and installing iTunes manually from the internet, or from the Windows store, also did not work.

So, I read the webpages of Apple Support:

https://support.apple.com/nl-nl/HT204275

and I followed the recommended steps.

Apple recommends to uninstall all previous Apple software. So I tried to do so.

But that causes problems too!

First, I deleted iTunes, Bonjour and iPod from the folder 'Program Files'.

That succeeded.

Then, I opened the folder 'Common Files' --> Apple

The next step should be to delete the folders

Mobile Device Support

Apple Application Support

But whatever I try, I can NOT delete them. I keep getting the message that some files are still in use.

I tried to close all files, and startup the computer again. Still could not delete them.

I went to task management, to see if some processes are using these files.

I could not detect those files.

So, I'm stuck.

Maybe I should delete something in the registry?

Please help:

1) How to remove all (previous) apple software from my computer?

so that, in the next step I can re-install iTunes again, hopefully without getting any more errors.

Windows, Windows 10

Posted on Nov 1, 2019 7:16 AM

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Answer 1

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Loekarin Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 1, 2019 2:50 PM in response to Loekarin

Update:

I read this post: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3728380

The tip in that post helped me in the right direction.

1) Go to https://support.microsoft.com/nl-nl/help/17588/windows-fix-problems-that-block-programs-being-installed-or-removed

(Dutch),

English here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17588/windows-fix-problems-that-block-programs-being-installed-or-removed

The program is called:

MicrosoftProgram_Install_and_Uninstall.meta

The program examines the registry and then give you the option to remove the troublesome files.

You have to re-run it for each file to be removed.

And it is slow, you have to wait 5 minutes or more in some cases.

2) Remove all Apple programmes using this program:

iTunes

iPod

Apple Software Update

Bonjour

Apple Mobile Device Support

Apple Application Support (32-bit)

Apple Application Support (64-bit)

NB After doing so, when I went to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple

I still found the files of Apple Application Support and Apple Mobile Device Support.

Seemingly, they are really hard to erase.

I went on anyway.

3) Download the iTunes installer, in my case iTunes64setup

4) It did not work right away.

So I continued: I downloaded WinRar from https://www.rarlab.com/download.htm

I extracted iTunes64setup (using WinRAR) to a folder

Then I could separately re-install AppleApplicationSupport, AppleApplicationSupport64, AppleMobileDeviceSupport64

If necessery you can also re-install the other apple programmes in this way, like Bonjour and AppleSoftwareUpdate

Can't remove Apple application support and Apple Mobile Device Support, and can't update iTunes

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