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Level 1

10 points

Downgrade from iTunes 11.3 Mac

I made the horrible mistake of updating to iTunes 11.3. Now I get an endless series of beachballs. Sometimes I'm told it's processing album artwork, other times I'm told nothing. I have a lot of podcasts on my machine.

I'm traveling now, but I'm wondering if I can downgrade by restoring from my Time Machine backup at home, once I'm back home next week, to blow away everything and restore it to whatever it was before 11.3. I'll lose two weeks of work, but I'm willing to do that to have a functional version of iTunes back to manage my podcasts.

Posted on Jul 11, 2014 3:10 PM

Best reply

Limnos

Level 10

411,253 points

Posted on Jul 11, 2014 9:03 PM

It may involve more than just the application file and the library files. At least you have the earlier version but normal downgrading involves a number of files and obscure locations. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4554293?answerId=20441404022#20441404022

I know this is for a different version but it outlines the complete process unless you intend to revert your whole computer back to two weeks ago.

Downgrade iTunes 11 to iTunes 10.7 - http://www.emacconsulting.com/apple/itunes/downgrade-itunes-11-to-itunes-10-7/

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21 replies

dinky2

Level 1

26 points

Jul 29, 2014 5:07 AM in response to Michael Rosenstein

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the suggestion. After doing this I am now on version 11.2.1 and unfortunately my problems are still there :-((

Still not able to select photo's via the media list and still not able to sync photos to iPad or iPhone. I suspect there is more to it than just replacing the app.

Jul 29, 2014 5:38 AM in response to dinky2

I'm sorry to hear that downgrading didn't resolve your problem. It definitely fixed the issues I was having with podcasts.

dinky2

Level 1

26 points

Jul 30, 2014 2:01 AM in response to Michael Rosenstein

Today I converted my unified iPhoto library to a native Aperture library and now both my problems have gone. So using the unified library concept is not a good idea.

Aug 2, 2014 9:25 PM in response to Obscuranta

I had similar problems for weeks, and thinking WAY back to Word and PageMaker on OS 7.5 tried a similar recovery that worked for me.

I moved the following four files to a temporary directory:
- iTunes Library Extras.itdb
- iTunes Library Genius.itdb
- iTunes Library.itl
- iTunes Music Library.xml
Then I started iTunes, which created new versions of these files.
I then quit iTunes and waited to make sure it had finished saving updates to these files.
I finally removed the new copies and put to originals back.

iTunes 11.3 now works fine for me. No uninstall/reinstall, and all my playlists and media survived.

Aug 11, 2014 3:17 PM in response to kent j. s.

Thanks ! great tip, worked for me. I upgraded to 11.3.1 a few days ago and iTunes would go non responsive even before fully launched, the window hadn't even loaded. Tried computer restarts but didnt help. Followed your procedure, works fine now. Also I don't have the previous problem I had before the update to 11.3.1 where iTunes would hang when I opened the podcasts List view while connected to the internet. A tip that I used to work around that was to turn off wifi on my laptop while looking through my podcasts. Now that problem also seems to have gone (I suppose that's one of the stated fixes the update refers to).

For the less knowledgeable it may be worth to point out that the files kent j. s. mentions are found in "Your Harddrive" > "Your User account" > Music > iTunes > the files

popsynic

Level 1

25 points

Oct 25, 2014 6:46 AM in response to Chris CA

But that was only a few days ago - so no biggie, just a few podcast downloads which i am fine to download again. although yep - if its been months between versions, then yep any new additions or changes to your library will be lost.

I dod this to rectify an issue I had with the latest version of itunes at the time, and there was bareley any difference in old library and new one in between

Downgrade from iTunes 11.3 Mac