How to downgrade itunes to 12 to 11.4 in windows 7 64 bit?

Question

How to downgrade itunes to 12 to 11.4 in windows 7 64 bit?

I HATE itunes 12! Among other reasons, it changed the name I gave my iphone 6+ to just "iphone," which renders my phone undiscoverable by any of my blue tooth devices until I set them all up again using the new name...and I can't find a way to change the name of the phone back to what it was....I can't even get to the phone "pages" in itunes! And that's just the "first verse" in my litany of complaints. I won't bore you with the rest, but I really NEED to get rid of this thing...and I will NEVER upgrade again without first finding out whether people like it or not!

So how do I get rid of 12 and reinstall 11.4 in Windows 7 64 bit without also restoring the phone to factory settings??? I'll even do that if it's the only way, but I'd rather not. The version in my downloads file is 11.3.1.2...if I uninstall 12 and install it, itunes will want to "upgrade" it, but will go directly to 12. So where do I find a downloadable 11.4?

Help will REALLY be appreciated!

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8.0.2

Posted on Oct 30, 2014 1:58 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

turingtest2

Level 10

272,783 points

Oct 30, 2014 2:04 PM in response to MistressPeg72

If you really want to roll back to 11.4 uninstall all iTunes/Apple components, restore the pre-upgrade version of the library as described in Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash, then download and install from one of these direct links:

iTunes 11.4.0.18 for Windows (32-bit) - iTunesSetup.exe (2014-09-09)
iTunes 11.4.0.18 for Windows (64-bit) - iTunes64Setup.exe (2014-09-09)

If you have trouble uninstalling or reinstalling see Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.

tt2

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Answer 2

Oct 30, 2014 2:12 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for the quick reply, t'test! If I understand you correctly, I save my libraries to a back up (save to a flash drive?), then remove all traces of iTunes..it'll be as if it was never here--and then install 11.4 and restore my libraries as if I were putting them on the computer for the first time?

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

272,783 points

Oct 30, 2014 2:22 PM in response to MistressPeg72

You should be backing up your iTunes library as a matter of course, but in this case I'm referring to the backup of the database file that is automatically created during significant updates to iTunes. If you uninstall the current version of the application and the supporting software and install iTunes 11.4 your library will remain unchanged and iTunes will refuse to open it. Restore the backup database and it will work. Your media itself should be left untouched by the process, though you may to redo any changes made to the library since you installed 12.

tt2

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