Why does iTunes delete my itunesprefs.xml?

Dear Mr. Ex-Brit, I never posted that McAfee was disgraceful or disgusting in anything I've written on McAfee forums or here on Apple's. I feel embarrassed for you that you would write something like that. All I'm doing is making people aware that there is an alternative to endlessly waiting for McAfee to fix their problem. It is not an iTunes problem. As I said before, if a user deletes McAfee, installs another antivirus program, even a free one, the problem disappears. As to McAfee support staff, they were great. They couldn't fix the problem and apologized repeatedly. It was with customer support that things got a little tense, but I'll give them credit too. As an unpaid volunteer, I'm amazed and impressed with the ferocity you defend McAfee, particularly when they admit they have a serious problem with their code. Very impressive indeed. Have a good evening.

I haven't entered this debate until now, but have been following the correspondence, both on this and McAfee's board. And I have been suffering from the McAfee/itunes problem for a number of weeks. I'm actually quite shocked by the behaviour of those representing McAfee in deleting some of the contributions on their board. I had read these before they were removed, and they weren't particularly outrageous. Censoring them is a childish action and not exactly going to win the McAfee the hearts and minds of otherwise quiet and patient customers like me.

this process has worked so far for me bit of a pain and time consuming.

1) Uninstall McAfee from Control panel

2) Run the MCPR cleanup tool from the link

3) Reboot and download installer from online account using home.mcafee.com

4) Verify if the content version is 1722 and update If required following above instructions.

andymoore1972 wrote:

this process has worked so far for me bit of a pain and time consuming.

1) Uninstall McAfee from Control panel

2) Run the MCPR cleanup tool from the link

3) Reboot and download installer from online account using home.mcafee.com

4) Verify if the content version is 1722 and update If required following above instructions.

Wonderful instructions, I would change items number 3 and 4 with download MSE from

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download

and forget about this whole ordeal forever.

@ExBrit

Community etiquette

Apple Support Communities exists to enable community members to help each other get the most out of their Apple products and services. To keep this community useful to everyone, follow these guidelines:

• Post only technical support questions and answers, unless otherwise noted.
• Be polite, constructive and stay on topic.
• Search for questions similar to your own before submitting a new question to the community.
• Reward helpful community members by marking answers to your questions as helpful and correct.
• Avoid speculation and rumors.

fromsouth-I did follow your steps 3&4 with MSE and iTunes works perfectly, including wifi sync.

Thanks to those of you who helped to conquer this issue. It is very appreciated! :) The fix seems to have indeed fixed the problem. Come December 25th, my subscription will be ending and I will be using a 6 year licensed program through my work. Thanks again for all the help and work put into fixing this issue! -PSkilton

I'm getting this itunesprefs.xml deletion on a Windows 8 machine that does not and has not had McAfee on it at any point... Any suggestions?

What AV software do you have? What is the manufacturer of the PC?

tt2

Only running Windows Defender, built the system myself. XFX 280i mobo and a gtx 560 gpu with up to date drivers on both. Only oddity is that my iTunes library is on my D: drive, but its internal and actually just a partition of the primary in any case.

Hi Ex_Brit! Just to let you know I have recently updated to the latest version of iTunes 11.1.4 and my prefences are not being saved(License agreement and tutorials appearing again)This doesn't happen everytime but intermittently. I also have the most current version of McAfee. It was just amazing that the two sides(Apple & McAfee) were playing nice for a month and a half, I was hoping for longer than that or the problem going away period. I am really not sure who's at fault here Apple or McAfee. I'm definetly no expert on any of this. Would you please put in the word to McAfee for us customers experiencing this problem again. Your help is very well appreciated, Thank You!

There's one report of same on the McAfee forums but none of us Mods who have iTunes are experiencing it. Technical Support is the only way to go. It's free after al and available by phone or online chat.

Each person's setup is different so the forums are a difficult way of troubleshooting it, support is the only route in this case.

<Edited By Host>

I experienced this issue when iTunes 11 came out and I used some fix in this thread or another one that had me edit the xml file in notepad or whatever and then things were fine. However, with the massive issues that came with upgrading to 11.1.4 I've been having a ton of issues with iTunes and related programs (had to make iCloud stop opening at startup) and now I'm experiencing this "no more prefs for you" garbage. I'm on Windows Vista and I don't use McAfee (I have Webroot) and I've done the "remake your localdata itunes folder" thing now. Why does this happen with each update? And what was the "edit the prefs file" stuff that I'm 99% sure I did last time to fix this for good?

I have Norton Security and have not updated to 11.4 (still have 11.1.3.8). Have you heard of anyone with Norton updating to 11.4 having issues? I had problems with McAfee and changed to Norton. However, I am now 'gun shy' with updates! I would appreciate any feedback on the 11.4 with Norton Security. Thanks, CJ

Hi jhlgreen,

I just wanted to put up this last post with regards to this issue.

I have switched my security to Comodo Internet Security. It is a full fledged security program for Free. Comodo is a full fledge security suite for free. It has all of the features that I used with Mcafee and more FOR FREE. I love it. They also have a paid version with parental controls etc. Here is a link to the free version http://www.comodo.com/home/internet-security/free-internet-security.php.

My next move will be to find a replacement (hopefully free) for Itunes.

Hi again Ex_Brit. Maybe others have this issue too but now my itunes preferences are deleted anytime there is a microsoft update, eventually I can get my preferences to stick after the fourth launch into itunes. I bet the preferences will be deleted again the next time there is a microsoft update which makes me believe you are correct that this might be a issue with Apple's coding and not McAfee or any other anti-virus service. Not that long ago I was talking to Apple support about a syncing issue with my ipod and he admitted they were having issues with recent microsoft updates. Anyway, you're informative updates have been very helpful, Thanks!