Upgraded (!) to 10.4.6, now iTunes complains "the file itunes library cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes"

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Upgraded (!) to 10.4.6, now iTunes complains "the file itunes library cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes"

This is a very legacy G4 iMac, still going strong, like they do. It was never upgraded in 10 years office use, I now wish to use it to record music at home and at the school I teach guitar at. I purchased an audio interface of the same vintage, which requires 10.4.x, so I upgraded to that - actually its 10.4.6. I will further upgrade to 10.4.11 when this machine is online.

I have searched extensively using the error message, but it always seems to be a different scenario, hence this question.

All I did was upgrade the OS, not, I thought iTunes. Was that upgraded automatically? I need iTunes in lessons to be able to play various backing tracks, CDs etc.

All advice gratefully received,

Stephen

Posted on Jul 27, 2015 10:17 AM

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Answer 1

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Limnos

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Jul 27, 2015 10:52 AM in response to Bousque

It is quite possible you had upgraded iTunes to a newer version than your Tiger installation disk had on it and you now have an earlier version of iTunes trying to open a library file modified by a later version. You may be able to determine/remember what version of iTunes it was you had earlier and upgrade to that point, though you may also find limited offerings in terms of older iTunes versions limit you. I use Tiger and have stayed with iTunes 7.5 because I didn't see anything in newer versions I needed or wanted. iTunes 9.2.1 is as far as you can go with a G4 but you may not need to update that far unless that is what you were running before. In general and iTunes version you can run on a G4 is very far behind the features on a newer iTunes so forget about Apple Music or Match. I am not sure if the iTunes Store is even still accessible with iTunes 9. I know it is not with iTunes 7.5

General search for available iTunes versions - http://support.apple.com/downloads/#itunes

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Answer 2

Bousque Author

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Jul 27, 2015 11:10 AM in response to Limnos

Thanks for that! But I am as sure as its possible to be that the original iTunes was what the machine came with back in 2002. That machine, and its friends, just sat and worked, and nothing, really nothing, was ever done to them to maintain or service them.

One thing I remember distinctly that would date it would be that when making a playlist it was only possible to make a separate playlist, not nest it within a folder.

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Answer 3

Limnos

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Jul 27, 2015 11:25 AM in response to Bousque

Well the error message is saying it thinks the library file was opened by a newer version of iTunes. I have yet to see it mean anything else. I do not think the older library versions were so radically different that a the version of iTunes that came with Tiger (I don't remember which but I think it was iTunes 5) would mistake an iTunes 2 library file for an iTunes 12 library. You only have limited iTunes versions available to you now anyway because Apple pulls most old versions once newer ones come out. Probably iTunes 5 or whatever it is the Tiger disc put on there. iTunes 8-something, and iTunes 9.2.1.

iTunes 7.5 does let me put a playlist into a folder.

It is either that or your iTunes library file is corrupt and would have to be rebuilt from the .xml version. You could do that but you will lose ratings, play count, and date added.

By the way, note many G4s do not have audio-in ports unless you have a third party card or USB digitizer.

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Answer 4

Bousque Author

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Jul 27, 2015 11:40 AM in response to Limnos

So right now iTunes won't open enough to see which actual version it is, so I'll see about getting the old imac online and see what it updates to and if that fixes it.

The interface is a firewire box, Focusrite LE.

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Answer 5

Bousque Author

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Jul 27, 2015 12:50 PM in response to Limnos

Updated the machine to 10.4.11 plus found an ilife 08 disk and put that version of iTunes on - and it STILL says the same thing.

Somehow I think its getting things the wrong way round.

Within the overall iTunes folder there's an Album Artowrk folder, a folder with a name from one of the playlists, an iTunes doc called iTunes 3 Music Library and dated from 2012, one the same but called iTunes Library from 2010. Then there's an iTuens Library Extras.itdb, an iTunes Library Genius.itdb, both a few years old, an iTunes Library.xml from 2011, a folder called iTunes Music which seems to give a folder to quite a few individual audio tracks but then lumps literally dozens and dozens into one called Unknown Artist. Then there's an itunes Muic Library.xml, a Library.xml and a folder called Previous iTunes Libraries, which contains a few others with the same name! all these seem to be dated around 2009-12.

The last time something was changed would have been June of this year, near the end of term.

Is there are straightforward thing to move somewhere so the itunes application sees the right thing?

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Answer 6

Limnos

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411,217 points

Jul 27, 2015 2:47 PM in response to Bousque

The thing is it sounds like iTunes is seeing the right thing. If you start iTunes and it cannot see a library file it will say so and offer to let you create one or select one. If it sees a corrupt library file and cannot open it it will say the library file is corrupt and do you want to create a new one? If it opens and sees a library file which was started by a later version of iTunes it will give you the message you are seeing.

Here's what all those files mean. Basically it is a complete library.

What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html

Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391

iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847 - plus supplemental information about organizing to new structure https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6477809?answerId=26404702022#26404702022

Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7392

Previous libraries are archived versions of iTunes [Music] library.itl files copied to that folder whenever the iTunes application was updated. If you are seeing something in there dated 2009 it means that computer was definitely not simply ignored after 2002! Realize that computer cannot run anything higher than iTunes 9.2.1. I don't know all the dates of what was released when but iTunes 9.2.1 dates to roughly 2009 and that is what you will have to install now. You know it won't run under the present iTunes. You can try installing iTunes 8 and see if it will run under that. If that doesn't work the only other iTunes available to you (and the computer) is iTunes 9.2.1 and you need to try that. Either do it incrementally if you are not interested in 9.2.1, or just go straight to that version. Unfortunately my library file at least does not say which version of iTunes it needs to open it so your options are to keep trying different versions until you find one that does.

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Answer 7

Limnos

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Jul 27, 2015 3:06 PM in response to Limnos

By the way, if there is a library file ending in ".itl" that suggests to me it is a fairly late version iTunes file because Apple introduced the .itl in later versions than my iTunes 7.5

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Answer 8

Bousque Author

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Jul 27, 2015 4:05 PM in response to Limnos

Its getting more and more helpful, closer to being fixed but in a funny way rather more confusing!

I eventually managed to get 9.2.1 installed, which was a great surprise, but it seemed happy enough. Now what iTunes does on opening is - come up with the Playlist options from my main, recording laptop! All the playlists are listed, but they don't connect to the audio, and the reason for that may well be that any connection between the two is several years ago, when presumably I took the iTunes structure and copied from the laptop to this ancient iMac when I inherited it.

I've got a nasty feeling I may end up having to refashion the entire lot. Well that's my summer holiday accounted for if so!

I'm going to have to leave this question for now, so umpteen thanks for the help, and the only reason I'm not marking it has Solved is in case there are any other views.

FWIW and notwithstanding the points made, there is no way the version of iTunes on this machine prior to the update was other than a really really early one, the one that has few of the later features like playlist folders - I used it, with its clunky interface for a couple of years, so I really do know! There must have been some other thing happening ...

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Answer 9

Limnos

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Jul 27, 2015 8:02 PM in response to Bousque

It's always the little things people don't tell us here, like copying files from a laptop a few years ago...

If all you copied was the iTunes folder and not media then of course it will only open to whatever version of iTunes you had on the laptop, and it won't find the media files unless you copied those too. In reality an iTunes library is everything in the iTunes folder. You can have media stored someplace else if you know what you are doing, but if you don't preserve the exact file folder structure to the media then iTunes won't find it.

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Answer 10

Bousque Author

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Jul 28, 2015 5:01 AM in response to Limnos

Yes, and I understand your frustration. Of course, I had no idea if I'd copied the files from the laptop, it was 3 years ago. The weird thing is that while the playlist structure from the laptop is present in 9.2.1, it wasn't like that at all on the iMac prior to the upgrade, not least, it couldn't be because it was an early version of iTunes that couldn't make folders within which to organise playlists (eg by genre, like I like to do). It was just a long list of playlists.

So now, iTunes 9.2.1 opens happily and doesn't complain about the version of the library.

I've studied all the advice in those links (Macworld etc) for which, many thanks. Most it seems assume the simple situation of unmodified versions of everything, or the issues of splitting the library. The one element within the itunes folder that I didn't see mentioned in them was the one here called "iTunes 3 Music", so there seem to be slightly differently named "iTunes Library" files, and I've tried swopping them out and in particular, leaving behind the ones dated at the time I started using the machine, Sept 2012. The application just opens either completely blank of pre-existing folders or as before, with the folder organisation from the laptop, even though its not connected with the audio! Going round in circles!

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Answer 11

Limnos

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Jul 28, 2015 5:24 AM in response to Bousque

Re. your first paragraph: I don't know why it is weird. It looks different because it is a different iTunes version. Apple makes changes to iTunes every new release and some have major effects upon appearance or functionality. It is like saying it is weird that a 2005 Ford Mustang look different to the one from 1968.

You can have multiple iTunes libraries. I have 4. I think they get the name from the top level folder name. My first one is simply "iTunes". Mind you if you change the folder name you may need to tell iTunes where the library is located because you have broken the path it has stored telling it where the library file is located. You change libraries by holding down the option key while starting iTunes and select the library you wish to use. iTunes does not like you moving or renaming anything in its folder structure.

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Answer 12

Bousque Author

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Jul 28, 2015 6:27 AM in response to Limnos

Ah, well by 'weird' I wasn't referring to the differences in appearance in the different versions. Its this; my laptop, my first OSX Mac, where I record audio in Logic, has an iTunes structure with nested folders by musical genre, within each folder it is organised by project, by CD contents, etc. Before the upgrade of the iMac from 10.2.x to 10.4.11 the then-iTunes version would not do these folders, so it was a long list of playlists alphabetically running down the left side of the window. No way to organise except by choice of name. Now in 9.2.1 the playlist structure was coming up with the laptop derived, presumably, structure.

Aha! now I've tried again (first time it didn't seem to work) starting with alt key down, and it would be led to start with the library called "iTunes 3 Music" which is dated Sept 2012, and it opened with the right playlist down the side, and those I tried have worked!

So it seems that until forced to choose by starting with alt, 9.2.1 was either choosing a different library or maybe making its own when I took all except the '3' library out (which I tried). Does this suggest the original version of iTunes was 3? Why the whole thing of the error message maybe doesn't matter now.

Fingers crossed this is it fixed; namely start with alt and choose the right library (by date in this case). Very many thanks and a hug for the cat ;-)

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Answer 13

Limnos

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Jul 28, 2015 7:13 AM in response to Bousque

iTunes, like other applications, has preferences settings. Part of this is indicating which iTunes library to use, whatever the last one happened to be. If it cannot find that library in the location last designated it automatically creates a new library in the iTunes folder. "3" doesn't refer to the iTunes version but could well refer to the default library name assigned by iTunes when somebody last created new libraries by holding down the option/alt key.

I jumped from Soundjam (the application on which iTunes was based before Apple took ownership of it) to iTunes 7 so I don't know about folder structure. My iTunes 7.5 does show folders in the left panel, but they have nothing to do with Folders in Finder, they are simply ones I made to store groups of playlists.

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