iTunes has stopped working. Why?

Remove iTunes Preference files. Some of the files that iTunes stores settings and preferences in may be unusable. iTunes saves its preferences in two folders. Move one of them to the desktop and test to see if the issue persists. If it does, move it back and remove the second folder. The locations for the preference folders are:

• c:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\iTunes
• c:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes

After I'd done this, itunes started working! I'm so glad it works. Thanks bro!

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

I tried this and i'm still getting the "itunes stopped working" dialog box and then it closes the application

For general advice see Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.

The steps in the second box are a guide to removing everything related to iTunes and then rebuilding it which is often a good starting point unless the symptoms indicate a more specific approach. Review the other boxes and the list of support documents further down the page in case one of them applies.

Your library should be unaffected by these steps but there is backup and recovery advice elsewhere in the user tip.

tt2

The copy paste worked for me, but is there a reason why this hasn't been patched yet? To be honest this is unacceptable.

When it works it is likely to be because you have an old outdated copy of the .dll file in the wrong folder. Copying in the current version of the .dll on top will allow iTunes to run, but it will break again next time that .dll file is updated.

tt2

Thanks for the advice. I have tried what has been suggested with copying the files from the C Drive Common Files folder to the location of the iTunes folder but this has not resolved the problem. Any other ideas?

Rip it up and start again...

For general advice see Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.

The steps in the second box are a guide to removing everything related to iTunes and then rebuilding it which is often a good starting point unless the symptoms indicate a more specific approach. Review the other boxes and the list of support documents further down the page in case one of them applies.

Your library should be unaffected by these steps but there is backup and recovery advice elsewhere in the user tip.

As given previously, manually copying .dll files from one path to another may occasionally serve as a workaround (assuming you even have the right version of the right .dll in the wrong place to copy) but otherwise it doesn't help and may cause further problems.

tt2

Thanks for the advice. I'll give this a try. I back up and use an external hard drive to link to for my library and iTunes Media. When deleting files; should I be deleting files from the external drive or just the C Drive?

Read the guide. The only files that need deleting are those of the iTunes application and its supporting components that might remain after you have uninstalled them. These will normally be somewhere within C:\Program Files and/or C:\Program Files (x86). Leave your library and media files alone.

BTW. If your library is on an external drive then you really ought to be backing up to yet another drive for security. See Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy.

tt2

Thanks. I have read through the guide and completed the steps you gave. I'm still coming up with the problem of a screen coming up when I login that says "iTunes has stopped working". I'm starting to work through the article "iTunes for Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8: Fix unexpected quits or launch issues"that I think you posted.

I was actually referring to this guide: Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.

tt2

Thanks. I have now completed the uninstall and reinstall in the above article and as long as I click cancel when the login box appears when first entering iTunes it seems fine. Thanks for all your help.

What login box is that? Do you some mevio.com podcasts? They shut up shop recently and if you have any feeds that were hosted there you may get a login request when iTunes checks for new episodes.

tt2

It is the normal apple store login. This has only started recently to prompt me for my username and password when I open iTunes. I don't have any mevio.com podcasts. It seems fine if I ignore the initial login and then continue to use iTunes normally.