How to downgrade iTunes 11?

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Level 1

2 points

How to downgrade iTunes 11?

I have had nothing but problems with iTunes 11, regardless of updates. I am using Windows 7 X64 with Service Pack 1 and all official updates for Windows from Microsoft.

On a side note, despite being supposedly so much easier to use, I really missing the old jukebox looking CoverFlow in iTunes 10.

I've already tried defragging my hard drive repeatedly. I've already tried running Disk Cleanup and also run CCleaner. I have both the latest version of iTunes and iCloud Control Panel installed. I've already tried turning off my Anti-Virus. I've even tried doing a clean boot using MSConfig and killing 100% of everything non-essential needed by Microsoft and I still get the constant "Accessing the iTunes store" where it hangs either indefinately or for a very long time on updating apps. With iTunes match, even when I tell it not to change the way I have my music library, it does it on its own and messes up by playlists and how I have my album library set up. I've also already tried the trick to de-authorize re-authorize trick. I've made certain that iTunes has every possible file authorization I can find, including making my user account (that is an administrator) full-access permissions. I've tried turning off UAC. I've also tried making myself the owner for every iTunes folder I know of and can find on Windows. So-far, I have little if any success.

I really do not want to have to completely re-download all of my apps, re-download and re-copy my CD collection, if that is at all possible. Even with the use of iCloud and iTunes Match, I really despise the braindead decision to remove the old backup library to CD/DVD function that used to exist.

Getting back to what I was saying, is there any known, easy to follow step-by-step method to save my current music, book, and app library and downgrade to the last known good functioning version of iTunes 10 on Windows? I'd also like to know what version of it, i.e. should I just go with iTunes 10.7, or a previous version of it that users have the best success with? Also, I am currently using iOS 6.1.2 on both my 4th Generation Wi-Fi iPad, and my AT&T iPhone 5.

Any suggestions, tips, and advice would be greatly appreciated.

iPhone 5, iOS 6.1.2

Posted on Mar 7, 2013 10:22 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

272,783 points

Mar 7, 2013 10:29 AM in response to m4t7h3w

I love the new version of Grid view but I still 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:

ALT to temporarily display the menu bar
CTRL+B to show or hide the menu bar
CTRL+S to show or hide the sidebar
CTRL+/ to show or hide the status bar (won't hide for me on Win XP)
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)
If you don't like having different coloured text and background in the Albums view use Edit > Preferences > General and untick Use custom colours for open albums, movies, etc.

Should you still feel the need to roll back to iTunes 10.7 first download a copy of the 32 bit installeror 64 bit installer as appropriate, uninstall iTunes and supporting 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 2

Laiki

Level 1

4 points

Sep 19, 2013 8:10 PM in response to turingtest2

Thank you for this very helpful information.

One important detail deserves a mention: QuickTime must be uninstalled as well. Until I did this, even though I'd done all the other steps to roll back to 10.7, iTunes would not load (it would hang with the message "Accessing the iTunes Store," and until I killed the program, nothing else in Windows XP would work either).

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