How to downgrade iTunes 11 to previous version 10.7

Hi,

In iTunes 11, you can alter the way the search function work. The search box default to search entire library. You can click in box and deselect. You can also restrict search to artist, album, song or composer.

I have 40k + tracks - search whilst not perfect works quickly.

Jim

SUPER easy for Windows users:

1) Find your music folder (with all your song files) and album artwork folder, within your iTunes folder and MOVE to your desktop. (to get them out of the way of the uninstall path)

2) Uninstall iTunes 11

3) Download and Install 10.7

4) Though you uninstalled it will have kept "your previous iTunes library' database files, delete them

5) Move your music folder back to the iTunes folder where it originally was

6) When you run setup for iTunes 10.7 tell it to find audio files on your computer and all will be linked back up

If it's the iTunes 10 MiniPlayer that you miss, then I rewrote it open-source. I'll make sure that this will keep working with new iTunes versions!

http://peter-burk.rhcloud.com/miniplayer/

Pretty nice. Now if they would only stop removing useful things like the little spectrum readout that used to be in the space where the apple is, that would be really nice.

All this new focus on "clarity" from Apple has made some seriously ugly, bland and sparse interfaces.

This new push is taking away everything from the inferface that made me like Apple GUIs in the first place.

Large libraries? No way in **** am I trying to convert again. In my previous attempt, I lost 6 thousand podcasts, including some I now need to pay to replace.

Once something like that happens, no matter what any vendor does can make me trust them again. It's not worth the cost and wasted time.

Plus, the inferface is uglier, less useful than the 10.7 one was. And we lose little nicities like that spectrum readout when a song is playing. That was nice. Now it's gone. Certainly doesn't make me want to buy any new Apple hardware if you're stuck with iTunes 11 and overly animated everything that you can't turn off.

Disappointing to say the least.

Do you really need the spectrum? I didn't implement it in my MiniPlayer because I never use it, but it should be possible. The source is available for modifying if you want :-P.

There's no AppleScript hook for the spectrum display, but it

Need it? No. Liked it, yes.

There are too many problems with the UI of iTunes 11, the font, the "high school art student" look. It's just bland.

Apple is removing all the things that made their UI great and I have the alternative of not upgrading iTunes or their OSes. It's just a shame they are dumbing down and lowering the quality and look of their UI.

And then there was the massive data loss bug that I mentioned I was hit with when 11 was released. I've been burned too much to waste any more time or money on even considering moving to 11 or Mavericks. Fluff is being put ahead of function. Apple's UI direction is completely wrong and there's nothing I can do about it. So, I stay with what works.

In any case, I'd have to implement the spectrum display in code and that's too much time to spend that I don't have.

Decisions like this amaze me. A forced removal of a nice feature when they could have put a preference in the UI to simply turn it on or off.

Whomever is in charge of User Interfaces and the User Experience and Ive need to get some nasty letters about just how this new "Clarity" principle and dumbing down of the UI is not making a better user experience for the users.

I've tried to fight the battle before. Don't have the time for it now. It's really sad to see what was getting to be a nice UI (10.6.8) take a sideways turn and take backwards steps in visibility and usability, not just in iTunes, but across the board.

As of 10.6.8, you used to be able to get many parts of the UI to open instantly. Now, even showing a word definition (command control D) has so many phases of animation, the mere display of the item is a distraction in itself. And can all this popping and rolling out of everything just to see a small screen be turned off? Nope.

The new interfaces simply get in the way so much more than they used to.

Thanks for your contribution with this code, but the very reasoin that you have to do it in the first place is a prime example of where Apple is going wrong with their UIs.

I looked at it for 140k songs, but was too fearful to do it. So set up a smaller library and moved it across booting from a cloned HD.

I was so disappointed with the useless interface, I scrubbed it and went back.

Two main reasons - the search function (I think this is a global issue with Spotlight) no longer accepts more than 2 partial words and secondly, something as simple as not being able to more than one window open at the same time.

We are in an age where we are being sold change as improvement, where because we can do it, let’s do it, when in fact the existing products work just fine.

thanks for your help i have successfully returned itunes 10.7 with ratings and play lists.

i have one problem left although i can share all my files over a 3 mac computer network i get this message

The shared library "............. Library” is not responding. (18017)

Check that any firewall software running on either the shared computer or this computer has been set to allow communication on port 3689.

when i try to share my library. both the other macs are fine but are also lock out?

please help

Timothy Holt wrote:

We are in an age where we are being sold change as improvement, where because we can do it, let’s do it, when in fact the existing products work just fine.

Having worked in software development since '89 my guess is that development groups in Apple feel the need to always be "improving" a product otherwise what are they being paid for? Unfortunately this can lead to things like iTunes v11 which I find a huge step backwards in functionality compare to the later releases of v10.

Well here I am up against the wall again. I have two really big questions, and thought I would start on this tread, which appears to be still alive. .

I really want to upgrade my iPhone to iOS 7 and I MIGHT like to upgrade my Mini to Mavericks; I'm currently running iTunes 10.6.3 on OS X 10.8.5 and everything is working well enough, but a lot of the apps I use no longer work; the developers have released upgrades that only run under iOS 7 and with iOS 8 due to ship in a month or so, I know I'm going to be well and truly sc***ed soon.

Has anyone tried to run iOS 7 with an earlier version of iTunes? (You have no idea how much I want to ask someone with an iPhone running the current OS to let me connect it to my computer just to I can prove to myself that it will not work.)

Has anyone tried to scrub iTunes 11 (the putrid one) from a Mavericks volume and replace it with an earlier version?

I know I can spend $50 and discover some of the answers by simply trying, but to the best of my knowledge, there's no clawback from an iOS upgrade.

Anyone?