How to downgrade iTunes 11

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Level 1

1 points

How to downgrade iTunes 11

Well, if you are like me, there are things about iTunes 11 you don't like and prefer the way things were done in previous versions of iTunes, this is not to say I hate iTunes 11 completely, I haven't really explored iTunes 11, but it leaves out some things I liked and used like iTunes DJ. So until there is a must have feature... I decided to downgrade to iTunes 10.7.

Anyway, since I didn't feel like trying to remember (and/or figure out) how to this seamlessly, I googled "drowngrading iTunes 11 to 10.7"

The 1st solution that I saw and tried, worked.

Since I have noticed many others wanting to do the same, I have decided to share this info (it's really quite easy to do).

All I did was uninstall 11, install 10.7, and repaired a problem with the iTunes library (this is what I was too lazy to figure out)

The toughest thing to do is repairing iTunes library info (and this is pretty straightforward too), iTunes keeps backups of things, and what you need to do is find the library file "iTunes Library" (extension "itl") delete this (or rename it or move it, just in case) then locate the backups, and replace what you just deleted (renamed,moved) with one of the backups (try the most recent, if not, then the 2nd most recent, etc) I copied a backup and renamed that copy.

Notes:

I have only tried this on my Windows 7 64 bit system, but the steps should be the same in other systems.

If you don't have 10.7, you should be able to find it here

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1576 (32 bit)

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1577 (64 bit)

or you can search apple for other versions

The iTunes library should be in the >> Desktop\Libraries\Music\My Music\iTunes (Vista, 7, 8) << folder.

>> My Documents\My Music\iTunes\ (XP) << folder

the backups should be in the >> Previous iTunes Libraries << sub-folder.

Also I guess if you use windows system restore, you could use system restore to roll back to a time when you hadn't installed iTunes 11.

Hope this helps you

Posted on Dec 6, 2012 8:32 PM

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Answer 1

area306 Author

Level 1

1 points

Dec 7, 2012 1:30 PM in response to area306

Correction, I incorrectly lumped Vista in with 7 & 8

And here's a link to apple support concerning where the librray is located

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1391

This is apple's explanation of what Library files are (it also contain the paths of where the library files)

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660

Apple gives the absolute paths where the files are, where as I gave paths relative to the user.

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Answer 2

glorie71

Level 1

1 points

Dec 11, 2012 9:04 PM in response to area306

What do you mean by "replace what you just deleted" in context of the back up to the deleted/moved library?

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Answer 3

area306 Author

Level 1

1 points

Dec 14, 2012 6:19 AM in response to glorie71

In order to get iTunes to work again, you need to delete the library file, but that file contains info on your current iTunes setup (ie songs you have, podcasts, apps, directories, etc).

The file that needs to be deleted (renamed) is

"iTunes Library.itl"

Once this file is deleted, you are back to square one, it is as if you just installed iTunes for the first time.

Fortunately, iTunes makes backups of this file and they are named something like this

(on my system they are named in this manner)

"iTunes Library 2012-12-11.itl"

So in order to preserve as much of your setup as possible, you need to is find the most recent backup (assuming you hadn't made drastic changes), before the upgrade to iTunes 11 and copy that backup file to where "iTunes Library.itl" was at and rename it.

In my case I copied the file

"iTunes Library 2012-12-05.itl"

and renamed it to

"iTunes Library.itl"

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Answer 4

lhtd

Level 1

0 points

Dec 20, 2012 5:46 AM in response to area306

For Apple users here's a site with functionnal instructions to downgrade iTunes 11 to iTunes10.7

http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=6745EEDC-D375-F653-E33254EEBCA1978C

Personally I think I'll quit my iPod and go back to win4mp to a basic mp3 player

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Answer 5

Itunes7

Level 1

0 points

Dec 24, 2012 2:51 PM in response to area306

Best way to revert back is : save your music to a new file, not in the itunes file. uninstall itunes 11, delete all itunes librarys, install itunes 10.7 then add music from new file to your new itunes 10.7

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Answer 6

Jan 5, 2013 7:25 AM in response to area306

Hi everyone,

I have a question. I am about to buy a new MacBook Pro in a couple of days and I'm wondering if iTunes 10 comes preloaded with it or if it is in fact, iTunes 11. I was also wondering if I can degrade from iTunes 11 to 10 using the AppZapper + Pacifist method on this new one if it comes preloaded with iTunes 11.

Thank you.

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Answer 7

Jan 8, 2013 11:15 AM in response to area306

Thanks tons. Worked perfect. Now I have all my libraries and playlists back.

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Answer 8

Stalin7s

Level 1

0 points

Jan 14, 2013 5:50 PM in response to area306

I get the -42408 error after downgrading to 10.7 on windows vista when I'm connected to the internet

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Answer 9

eccoboy

Level 1

5 points

Jan 25, 2013 9:26 PM in response to area306

The most recent previous library file I have is from 2 months ago so this method won't do me any good. There should be a way to use my current library file from 11 with 10.7

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Answer 10

Jan 29, 2013 10:16 AM in response to area306

i have exported library somewhere and uninstall i tunes 11 and setup 10.7 and import library

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Answer 11

Jan 29, 2013 6:24 PM in response to area306

So I did all these steps, but the actual iTunes application is nowhere to be found. Any help?

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Answer 12

turingtest2

Level 10

272,725 points

Jan 31, 2013 4:37 PM in response to area306

I love the new version of Grid view but some of the other changes feel like they still need some fine tuning. And I miss cover flow even if I didn't use it that often...

You can restore much of the look & feel of the previous version with these shortcuts:

Ctrl+B to turn on the menu bar
Ctrl+S to turn on the sidebar (your device should be listed here as before)
Ctrl+/ to turn on the status bar
Click the magnifying glass top right and untick Search Entire Library to restore the old search behaviour
Use View > Hide <Media Kind> in the cloud or Edit > Preferences > Store and untick Show iTunes in the cloud purchases to hide the cloud items. The second method eliminates the cloud status column (and may let iTunes start up more quickly)

Should you feel the need to roll back to iTunes 10.7 first download a copy of the 32 bit installer or 64 bit installer as appropriate, uninstall iTunes and suppporting software, i.e. Apple Application Support & Apple Mobile Device Support. Reboot. Restore the pre-upgrade version of your library database as per the diagram below, then install iTunes 10.7.

See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to scan the media folder and catch up with any changes made since the backup file was created.

tt2

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Answer 13

turingtest2

Level 10

272,725 points

Jan 31, 2013 4:41 PM in response to eccoboy

eccoboy wrote:

The most recent previous library file I have is from 2 months ago so this method won't do me any good. There should be a way to use my current library file from 11 with 10.7

If the method above isn't enough what are you looking for? I've written a script that can export selected data from one library and then import it into another. In principle you could save the current ratings, play counts etc. from the current library, roll back and then import the updated information. What data would you be interested in?

tt2

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Answer 14

eccoboy

Level 1

5 points

Jan 31, 2013 9:20 PM in response to turingtest2

I've had so many problems with iTunes that at this point I'm just going to stick with version 11 because it works well. I'm really bothered by the loss of several features with version 11 but I don't feel like messing with it anymore. Hopefully enough people submit feature requests that we get the old features back in a later version.

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Answer 15

Ryan462

Level 1

0 points

Feb 28, 2013 4:12 PM in response to area306

Thanks so much for this. I updated my iTunes to the newest version yesterday and it stopped recognizing my iphone. So glad this is available because I never liked the iTunes 11 anyway.

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