How can I remove iTunes 11 and return to a functional version of iTunes?

What is it that is missing - find duplicates is gone - but after fooling around I have found all the features that I need.

The original side view is available from 'option-CMD-S' or in the view drop-down menu.

Minin palyer is still there - just from the upper right corner - rectagle in a rectangle icon.

They even brought color back to the side bar - yipeeeee.

MJ

=Downgrading from iTunes 11 to iTunes 10.7=

Back up your computer first, in case the wrong things happen.

Replace the iTunes 11 application with iTunes 10.7

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4553961?answerId=20431349022#20431349022

iTunes 10.7 for OS X http://appldnld.apple.com/iTunes10/041-7195.20120912.d3uzQ/iTunes10.7.dmg

You will have to rescue your old iTunes library from your Previous Libraries folder and rename it iTunes Library.itl because a newer version of iTunes irreversibly updates your library file. See:

https://discussions.apple.com/mesage/20401436 - turingtest2 11/2012 post on rebuilding empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash from previous iTunes library file.

iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451

Other issues:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4553961?answerId=20432309022#20432309022 - solution to mobile devices saying they need to be restored after downgrading

Thanks Michael for sharing wow I was going nuts!

No, it is a total fail. Functionality has been lost, it is visually chaotic, it is not as easy to use, most of the functions are so full of bugs or plain missing it's not funny. Seriously, is there a way to go back to 10? Or is the database now updated and there is no return to a "sane" GUI?

May i know how exactly you found about finding duplicates?

@What is it that is missing

The ability to move the browser columns (Artist and Album) to the left instead of up top on a horizontal split screen in song view...

Seems like a little thing, but it's not, particularly on a widescreen 13 MacBook air where vertical real estate is precious.

I don't have iTunes11 or a newer operating system but it sounds like the basic library structure has not changed. In that case you do not need to move all those folders to your desktop, and certainly not

Album Artwork (folder)

iTunes Media (folder)

Previous iTunes Libraries (folder)

It's only the application you need remove (which is not in your Music>iTunes folder), and restore the previous library file as in the instructions I posted (and was quoted). Of course restoring the previous library file will return the library to what it was at the time and date of installing iTunes 11 so if you have made changes you will need to bring things up to date. However, any content you have added will remain on your computer but you will need to add it to the library again (there is a script that will help with this and it is mentioned in one of the articles I linked.

As suggested earlier, do make a backup of your computer first since occasionally iTunes has been implicated in the unexpected.

Select "Show Sidebar" from the View menu.

Select "Artists" in the header.

You get this:

Select "Genre" in the header.

You get this:

Works fine for me. Great even. I really like it so far.

If you're in the mini player, and want to see how much time is left, you can click on the little picture at the left. It opens up an album cover with both time expired and time left.

Thank you everyone for offfering help. I went through a 6 hour nightmare yesterday as not only did installing iTunes 11 ruin my music experience, I foolishly synced my iPhone 5 with it. After I realized I just cannot live with iTunes 11, I tried to downgrade. The biggest problem I found was that for some insane reason I had no iTunes Library.itl since 9-14-2012. I had done not insignificant playlist creation since that date. Plus, I was getting -42408 errors upon iTunes launch and my iPhone 5 was not restoring to its previous state but one from months ago (losing texts, etc.) I will try later today once more to downgrade and I guess live with having to manually recreate my playlists from my iPhone (before syncing the phone with the downgraded iTunes).

Perhaps the biggest complaint I have about iTunes 11 that I have seen no one mention yet, is that if you click on Music in any view, and select a song or artist, then go and click on a playlist, then click on Music again, you are automatically brought back to the very top of your music collection (for me AC/DC). So you are constantly forced to scroll and search every time you want to listen to music (unless I only ever listen to AC/DC again). In iTunes past, you could click on an album (in beloved cover flow), drop a song into a playlist, play a song in a playlist, play a podcast, etc., etc. and then when you did click on Music again, you were taken right to where you last were still showing that album, which I never realized was as convenient as it was. So this to me perhaps more than anything else makes iTunes 11 useless.

I too of course miss cover flow which was how I browsed my music collection, and iTunes DJ and I never even knew about the function of having people vote on songs etc, I just liked having a quick view of random songs from my entire collection.

If anyone thinks there is a way I can downgrade to iTunes 10.7 (I have the .dmg on hand) and put back my iTunes Library.itl from 09-14-2012 but still keep my playlists as they exist today, please let me know.

The other variable is my iPhone which did not back up and restore properly and since trying to fix things last night it made like six backups in a row, I fear I may have no pre-iTunes 11 backup left to go to meaning losing several months of texts and contact updates. The phone is back to being how it was at 6pm yesterday which is great. The only issue I have is I have to live with iTunes 11. I do not know if I should risk going through hours of nonsense again like I did yesterday just to try to get back to iTunes 10.7, knowing eventually Apple will require the latest version of iTunes to get full iPhone functionality, etc.

Thanks for reading.....Jason

Correction to bad URL posted in earlier message:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4544824?answerId=20401436022#20401436022 - turingtest2 11/2012 post on rebuilding empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash from previous iTunes library file.

Hi Jason. Regarding "last played", I haven't fooled around with it much, but I went into "view options" under the "view" menu and checked "Last Played" under "sort by". Give it a try and let me know if this works for your purpose.

Cheers, Jim