How do I revert to iTunes 9 or 10? 11 Has Ruined my library!

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Level 1

9 points

How do I revert to iTunes 9 or 10? 11 Has Ruined my library!

Does anyone know an easy method to revert back to an older version of iTunes? I just upgraded to Windows 8 and also "Upgraded" to iTunes 11.

Now I have a completly disorganized library, I can't edit details, (change genre and so on), can't delete, can't view my library the way I used to and have lost many, many albums and songs. My library, which is on a seperate hard drive, is now in shambles! I spent extensive time cataloging all songs and albums in specific genres and now it is in complete disarray.

I am SO angry!!! Apple has completly lost my faith. No more purchases from Apple! And to think I thought of going to a MAC.

I am utterly disgusted!

Thanks for any assistance.

Best regards,

John

Posted on Feb 1, 2013 8:42 AM

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Answer 1

Brij011

Level 2

166 points

Feb 1, 2013 11:44 AM in response to Blacksheep36

Have you checked the actual music files on your hard drive? iTunes can't do anything to them unless you've asked it to.

If they are intact then I'd start again; remove iTunes and anything associated with it from the computer, reinstall iTunes and then copy the music files from the hard drive into the new iTunes folder on the PC.

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Answer 2

Blacksheep36 Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 1, 2013 2:17 PM in response to Brij011

Hi and thanks for the assist.... But..

Yes, the files are intact and I have removed the program twice now. Plus, I dont want the media on my hard drive, there isnt enough room - I should be bable to point iTunes to the dirctory of the music and not be forced to load it on my HD.

The problem with the new version is that it is "too bulky" looking and assumes too much and makes changes to files without consent.

I liked the older versions where I could "see" my music on the top (Genre, Artist, Album) and the other info on the side. I know how to use the side bar but the center is just too big and doesn't display enough information.

I absolutly hate it.

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Answer 3

Brij011

Level 2

166 points

Feb 1, 2013 2:45 PM in response to Blacksheep36

I don't see what you mean; i'm no great fan of iTunes 11 either but I've got it set up so that it's pretty much the same as my iTunes 10 was in terms of functionality and views (except for the artwork viewer of course).

In my case it hasn't made any changes to files or settings at all and I've got a big library with 24,000 songs. I can still edit all the meta data as I could before.

Are you using iTunes match, that might explain it?

P.S. I don't have Windows 8 though, that could also explain it. Why on earth did you upgrade? There wasn't much wrong with Windows 7 and almost everyone i know who has Windows 8 hates it.

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Answer 4

Brij011

Level 2

166 points

Feb 1, 2013 3:30 PM in response to Blacksheep36

There's some tips in this thread on going back to iTunes 10.7 it that's really what you want.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4639029?answerId=21108220022#21108220022http://

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

272,905 points

Feb 1, 2013 3:45 PM in response to Blacksheep36

iTunes has two options that control how it behaves when you add new media. Under Edit > Preferences > Advanced look at the options for Keep... and Copy... and make choices that suit your needs. You can also hold down shift as you start iTunes to get an option to choose or create a library. You can create your entire library on the external drive, move the media inside the media folder before adding to iTunes, and then no extra copies are created.

With iTunes 11 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
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 anduntick 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.

If iTunes has "lost" data during the upgrade you can also use the technique above to try to get it to upgrade the database again, without rolling back the application to iTunes 10.7. This is usually successful.

tt2

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