A later version of Apple Application Support is already installed on this computer.

What's your current iTunes version?

Well, you have iTunes 12.0.1.26. So you can't update to iTunes 12.0.1.26. Because it is already installed.

When you removed iTunes, did you do so by following the steps in this support document? Remove and reinstall iTunes and related software components for Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 - Apple Support If not, then all of the components were probably not removed. Try this again.

See this user supplied tip from fellow user turingtest2. Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates

It addresses many iTunes and Windows installation errors with newer Windows and iTunes versions. This should help.

Also, the use of Programs and Features to uninstall does not remove all components, that is why Apple provides the support document that I linked.

Good Afternoon, JohnHT2!

I think I have the fix to your issue.

I've been experiencing the same issue as you describe above. The issue occurred for me during the upgrade process from version 11.4.0.18 to version 12.0.1.26 (which is the current version downloadable from Apple). The installation sometimes appears to be okay, but the Apple Application Support fails to update correctly. In other instances, the iTunes installation fails completely with error 1603 (which is generic "fatal error" code).

Symptoms:

Just some of the symptoms I've noticed in my environment.

- In Programs & Features, there is no Apple Application Support to uninstall.

- In Event Viewer's Application log, you may see Event ID 10005 from Source MsiInstaller, stating the dreaded error message "A later version of Apple Application Support is already installed on this computer."

- In Event Viewer's Application log, you may see Event ID 1000 from Source Application Error, stating "Faulting application name: MsiExec.exe" along with a bunch of other error details.

- When attempting to start iTunes, you may receive popup error "Apple Application Support was not found. Apple Application Support is required to run iTunes. Please uninstall iTunes, then install iTunes again".

- Uninstalling and installing iTunes fails, including via the steps described for a "full uninstall" as described here on the Apple site (for instance: Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates)

- Installing Apple Application Support via the extracted MSI (AppleApplicationSupport.msi) fails with the same error: "A later version of Apple Application Support is already installed on this computer."

- Installing previous versions of Apple Application Support fails with the same error (tried versions 10.7.0.21, 11.0.0.163, 11.0.1.012, 11.0.3.42, 11.1.0.126, 11.1.3.8, 11.2.2.3, 11.3.0.54, 11.3.1.2, 11.4.0.18). (now that I know the issue, I'm confident any previous version of the installer will fail).

- If you run the MSI installation with verbose logging, you may see lines stating: "PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding BNEWERPRODUCTISINSTALLED property. Its value is '1'." and "PreventDowngrade. Return value 1."

There may be other indications, but these are things we ran into. I'm trying to be detailed so that other folks who run into this issue may feel better about the below fixes being an option for them.

Resolutions:

I've found two ways to remedy the issue in our environment. You can either use the Microsoft FixIt utility to clean up the previous installation for us, or you can edit the registry manually to repair the installation. We're in an office and prefer not going computer-to-computer to fix everyone's issue independently, so we had to go via the registry. I was able to fix it via both ways, though.

Fix 1: Run the Microsoft Program Install Uninstall Troubleshooter.

For this fix you will need to be logged in as an administrator for the computer.

Here are the steps:

1. Download and Run the Microsoft Program Install and Uninstall FixIt: [FixIt Link]
2. In the troubleshooter, choose: Detect problems and apply the fixes for me (Recommended)
3. Choose Installing
4. From the list, select Apple Application Support and click Next. (it actually does appear here!)
5. Select Yes, try uninstall. This step could take a while to process once it starts.
6. Once it confirms it is fixed, click Next.
7. Select "Yes, the problem has been fixed" and click Next.
8. Finish/close the FixIt tool.

Now the Apple Application Support will install successfully on your next attempt.

- If you don't have iTunes installed, you can simply run the latest downloaded installer: iTunes64Setup.exe

- If the other iTunes components are already installed, you will need to go to Programs & Features (or Add/Remove programs) and uninstall the iTunes program, then re-install the program from the downloaded installer: iTunes64Setup.exe

- If you have the MSI, you can simple run AppleApplicationSupport.msi and carry on happily. Make sure it's the right version of the MSI (right-click it, select Properties, go to the Details tab and verify the Comment line says "Apple Application Support 3.1"). If you don't know what an MSI is... ignore this and use the installer.

iTunes should work perfectly normally for you now.

Fix 2:

If you're like me and you need to repair iTunes over a larger number of computers, then Fix 1 quickly becomes too time consuming. Thankfully, a quick registry edit will resolve the issue as well.

For more advanced users; if you're not sure what the Windows Registry is, please tread very carefully and make sure you back up the registry before you change anything!

You'll need to be an administrator on the computer to do this.

1. Start Registry Editor.
   • In Windows 8.1, you can right-click the start menu (flag in the bottom-right corner) and choose Run. Then type "regedit" and click OK.
   • In Windows 8, go to the Start menu, click the magnifying glass (or just start typing) and search for "regedit". The first result should be "regedit.exe" - click that.
   • In Windows Vista, click the Start menu, then click the little arrowing pointing to the right (>) and choose Run. Then type "regedit" and click OK.
   • In Windows 7 or XP, click the Start menu orb, and choose "Run...". Then type "regedit" and click OK.
2. Make a backup of your registry.

   In Registry Editor, right-click on "Computer" and choose "Export". Save the file somewhere on your computer. You'll probably never need it.. which are famous last words. Better safe than sorry!

3. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\ED0FAC38B3D873C46A13B2F861CE0313\
   • If the key "ED0FAC38B3D873C46A13B2F861CE0313" doesn't exist, then go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products and make sure "Products" is highlighted.
   • Go to the Edit menu and choose "Find...".
   • Do a search for "Apple Application Support".
   • Your first result should be a ProductName value of "Apple Application Support".
   • Verify at the very bottom of Registry Editor that your current location is "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\[GUID], where GUID is an alphanumeric string that's 32 characters long.
4. Right-click "Version" and choose "Modify".
5. In Value Data, type 0 (the number zero) and click OK.
6. Close Registry Editor.

You should now be able to successfully install the AppleApplicationSupport.msi or re-install iTunes. If, for whatever reason, it still detects the wrong version, go back to the Registry Editor and delete the entire key from above (so, right-click on the 'folder' named "ED0FAC38B3D873C46A13B2F861CE0313" and select "Delete"). Should never be necessary, though..

In a Windows domain there are many ways to update the registry so use whatever works best for you. I'll be adding this as a special extra step in our SCCM deployment.

I hope this helps! It took us a good many hours to track down what was stopping us from resolving the issue (and/or causing it to begin with). Suffice to say we now have a whole bunch of users who are very happy to no longer get iTunes error messages when they log into their computers or attempt to start iTunes itself.

Have a great day!

Hey John!

I'm glad to hear that we're experiencing the same issues along with the same deployment environment. Consistency is a fun way to feel confident that we're on the right path to a solution :-)

We're running SCCM 2012 R2. Our iTunes deployment is an Application that contains deployment types for the MSIs of Apple Application Support, Apple Mobile Device Support, Bonjour and iTunes (we skip the update msi). We deploy the iTunes MSI and instruct it to use Application Support, Mobile Device Support and Bonjour as dependencies. The application itself is configured to supercede the previous version (I think with uninstall, but honestly not 100% on that right now - not in that office today).

To fix the issue in my environment, I created a new deployment type which is simply a small script to edit the registry entry as above. I also have it create a small file on the computer that I use for the detection method... there's probably better ways, but I was eager to test it. We can deploy the Apple Application Support MSI with the script as a dependency so that it can clean up the registry if needed prior to installing the necessary component.

In our environment, the product GUID is consistent among all the problem computers. I'm not an expert on the registry in general, but my understanding is that this product GUID would be the same anywhere for this version of the software.

The version number in that registry key points to the 3.1 version of Apple Application Support. I wonder if an easier way of fixing this issue would be to edit the MSI via Orca and transform a version number in there. Just brainstormin' there :-P

I can't speak for anyone else, but I have to wonder if the problem we're seeing has something to do with how our deployments are configured. If I may ask, how do you deploy your iTunes in SCCM?

We'll get there!

Cheers,

Jeroen

Hey John!

SCCM 2012 has two beasts in the application deployment realm, one of them is "Programs" just like you see in Config Mgr 2007, the other is "Applications". Honestly, you are going to be blown away by how much more productive and flexible you can be with Applications. I found SCCM 2012 and 2012 R2 to be a huge improvement over the previous versions. You're right in assuming that dependencies and the like are a newer feature, I don't recall there being anything like that in the 2007 version, unfortunately!

Like I mentioned, I'm not in that office today so I can't really test any deployments... but from my recollection, I was able to delete the entire key (ED0FAC38B3D873C46A13B2F861CE0313) and have it be recreated during installation.

Assuming you have a PC you can test this on, here's what I would try:

In SCCM:

1. Create a new batch file basically just the line "REG DELETE HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\ED0FAC38B3D873C46A13B2F861CE0313 /f"

2. Create a program to deploy the batch file.

3. Create a task sequence to deploy in the following order: the batch file > appleapplicationsupport.msi > applemobiledevicesupport.msi > bonjour.msi > itunes64.msi

On a Test PC:

1. Clean uninstall iTunes from the Test PC (remove from Add/Remove programs, then follow with the Program Install Uninstall FixIt to be sure).

2. Reboot PC.

3. Load registry and do a search in HKCR\Installer\Products\ for "Apple"... you may get multiple results, or (hopefully?) no results.

4. Install the previous version of iTunes (whatever is in the office prior to 12.0.1.26)

5. Reboot PC.

6. Do another search in registry and see what keys are installed in \products\ now... note any changes

7. Apply the Task Sequence from above. See how far it gets...

8. Pass or Fail, check in on those registry keys again and note more changes.

I wonder if the TS works?

Good Morning, John!

Just a really quick update in case you're still working on this. I was able to successfully perform the installations via a task sequence by running my programs under a different deployment account. In your test environment, try running your programs under a domain admin account to test and see if it installs as expected.

I don't know why it may be the case, but our default deployment account will cause with the error we've been discussing (even though it has been successful with previous version of iTunes as well as any other software deployments). Oh well!

Good luck!

Cheers,

Jeroen