Itunes not responding, running extremely slow

I'll add my vote of thanks to the good people posting the Terminal way to remove the iTunes 'update.'
First time I've ever had the need to go anywhere near Terminal, however, I can say that if you follow the step-by-step instructions posted here, it will work. It's still as slow as the version before the latest was, but at least it is responsive and I can do stuff.

Thanks again!

I also broke down and re-installed the old version using Terminal. Not only can I use iTunes again, but I've finally been able to sync my iPad and iPhone for the first time since upgrading to 12.3.1. THANK YOU.

I'm so frustrated that iTunes 12.3.1 is running extremely slow. I just called Support and they were no help!

Did you have to remove iTunes and then install iTunes 12.3? I just don't want to lose my playlists!

I, too, have the same problem.

Until recently, I have about 350 GB of (99% music) stuff on my itunes library, on an external firewire hdd hooked up to my 2008 iMac on yosemite.

Yes, a very old computer I know, but it worked flawlessly, albeit a bit slow, on everything i throw at it.

Except for iTunes after the 12.2 update. I have the same symptoms: excruciatingly slow response, a 5-min spinning beachball just on clicking a song. (Which means if i want to skip a song, it won't happen until the NEXT song is finished playing).

I'm a bit OCD so I do have almost all album art covers and numerous playlists.

And to remedy that, I bought a brand spanking new, 27' 5K retina iMac. Top of the line.

The mac is one week new, but after i migrated the iTunes library from my old mac. it STILL ISN'T ANY BETTER. The spinning beachball IS STILL THERE.

Can Apple please, please, please fix iTunes?

The procedure I wrote works with iTunes 12.3.1.28. No downgrade to 12.3.0 is necessary. It is not a complete solution as Russell Madden pointed out, but much better status until Apple solves the problem.

The iTunes application resides in the Application Folder. The files that make up your personal iTunes library usually reside in the Music Folder. The specific files that contain the playlist info are iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Music Library.xml. Most, but not all the album artwork is in the Album Artwork folder.

Here is a link for what Apple says about iTunes Library files

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201610

When you delete iTunes 12.3.1 with the Terminal, you are deleting it from the Application Folder. This doesn’t affect the files in your Music Folder. However, you should have a good backup of your Music Folder at all times. I have hundreds of playlists and there is no way I could put it all back together if I lost the iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Music Library.xml files.

I am grateful to the people who figured out how to revert to iTunes 12.3.0 and shared it here. I read these posts and downgraded on October 26. I haven’t had any more spinning beachball problems since then.

To reiterate:

“This is from other people. Worked for me, anyway.

Download 12.3:

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/download-review/1957301/apple-itunes-for-mac-1110

Then:

1. Open the Terminal
2. Run "sudo rm -r /Applications/iTunes.app"
3. Re-install iTunes

Also, be aware that when it asks for your password, the password won't be visible as you type it. After you type password, hit enter and iTunes should be deleted.”

Hi Russell,

I'd just like to say many thanks for the solution you provided.

I'm sure you realize how much this means to all of us, regaining an operable iTunes. I know you went through a lot to get it back together.

Now when I click on something and not see the spinning beachball, I almost wanna cry.

I swear, I almost feel like it's my fault that there's so many songs in my library (350gb, not many compared to some ppl here).

I removed 12.3.1, installed 12.3.0. As far as I can tell, my playlists are okay.

Thanks, but I was just passing on someone else's suggestion. I guess we have to help each other since — from what I've read on these threads — Apple support still tries to "blame" the user, i.e., he/she has "corrupted" files. If that _were_ true, I think I would still have had problems after reverting, but I didn't. This problem obviously doesn't affect everyone, but there is definitely a subset of us that are badly affect. And I still wonder if part of the issue is the change from "iTunes Music" subfolder to "iTunes Media" subfolder (e.g., which appears if you create a new music library) under iTunes. Maybe that's a red herring, but I'm suspicious.

I think it seems to be an issue with people (like myself) who have external libraries. I booted up iTunes using my old library here on the computer and downloaded a couple of app updates and they were nice and quick. So I quit iTunes and booted up with my external network library and it went back to super slow again. When iTunes 12. whatever first came out, it was really quick with a network library but the subsequent updates have affected the speed badly.

Hey Julian:

My library is on my HD, and is close to 350 GBs. The newest iTunes is just plain awful. I've gone back to 12.3 and I've seen one beachball for a half second compared to 25 seconds on average with the newest one.

Well, I've just removed iTunes using Terminal and I've installed iTunes 12.3 and its STILL taking an absolute eternity to download app updates or songs. 8 minutes for a 77MB file over fiber optic broadband! That's just insane. That would normally take about 1 minute if things were as they should be. So downgrading clearly hasn't worked for me :-(

I'm having all the above mentioned issues with iTunes (iTunes not responding, it's not usable) without using an external HD drive or having external libraries and I have the latest 12" MacBook Pro that I bought 2015.

Interesting that your app updates were quick. But my library is on the internal drive, and I had all the same symptoms. So sounds more complex than just where the library is located. Maybe it is less where the library is and whatever changed in the library between your old-on-computer library and newer external library. Odd, to say the least.