You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Latest iTunes on Windows 8.1 broken

I've tried asking the internet at large, and can't come up with any answers there, so here I am. I just installed iTunes on my laptop - never installed on this system before. I'm running Windows 8.1. At first I tried previous versions, as I didn't like where the design was headed from iTunes 10 to 11, and figured 12 wouldn't agree with me. I tried 10.6.something, and on opening the installed program, had a clear window. The basic outline of a window, that is, with the appropriate drop-shadows, but nothing actually there. I tried 11.something, same thing. Gave in and used the most recent installer from Apple, for iTunes; totally different problem now. Now, it opens just fine, and there's a window that's clearly iTunes - but I can't interact with it properly. Rather, anything I do (right-clicking, going after the minimize button, etc.) works, but the window never updates if I scroll or click on a different icon within the program. Minimizing it and then expanding it again leaves me with a purely white box that I can still right-click in and have things pertaining to specific music tracks show up. I really don't understand why it's doing this, and I'm only back to iTunes because for whatever reason importing my whole library to Winamp didn't leave me with tracks that actually existed.


I've tried creating a new iTunes library. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling. I've tried opening iTunes in its safe mode (shift + control). The window still isn't properly interactable and doesn't update based on what I'm doing in it. I hope someone can help.

Windows 8, Acer laptop

Posted on Mar 14, 2016 1:37 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 16, 2016 9:36 AM

For general advice see Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.



The steps in the second box are a guide to removing everything related to iTunes and then rebuilding it which is often a good starting point unless the symptoms indicate a more specific approach.


Review the other boxes and the list of support documents further down the page in case one of them applies.


The further information area has direct links to the current and recent builds in case you have problems downloading, need to revert to an older version or want to try the iTunes for Windows (64-bit - for older video cards) release as a workaround for installation or performance issues, or compatibility with QuickTime or third party software.



I would also make sure that your video card drivers, direct X and .NET framework are all up to date.




Your library and device backups should be unaffected by these steps but there are links to backup and recovery advice should it be needed.




tt2

6 replies
Sort By: 
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 16, 2016 9:36 AM in response to dmwingon

For general advice see Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.



The steps in the second box are a guide to removing everything related to iTunes and then rebuilding it which is often a good starting point unless the symptoms indicate a more specific approach.


Review the other boxes and the list of support documents further down the page in case one of them applies.


The further information area has direct links to the current and recent builds in case you have problems downloading, need to revert to an older version or want to try the iTunes for Windows (64-bit - for older video cards) release as a workaround for installation or performance issues, or compatibility with QuickTime or third party software.



I would also make sure that your video card drivers, direct X and .NET framework are all up to date.




Your library and device backups should be unaffected by these steps but there are links to backup and recovery advice should it be needed.




tt2

Reply

Mar 18, 2016 12:58 AM in response to turingtest2

Everything is up to date, and the computer is less than a year old. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling Apple components, as I said initially (with the exception of AirPort, which I need to manage my router).


The version for older video cards gave me the same problem as installing iTunes 10/11, with the invisible window you can see the edges of:

User uploaded file

Reinstalling with the 64-bit installer gave me this problem, where I can scroll but nothing moves or reacts, I can't click to any other sections of iTunes, and as you can see, right-clicking in the window after scrolling around a bit gives me song info for something further down in the list:

User uploaded file

Reply

Mar 18, 2016 4:48 PM in response to dmwingon

Make sure your graphics drivers and .Net components are up to date. I haven't seen anything similar lately but I seem to recall that toning down hardware graphics acceleration might possibly help with such problems.

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/hardware-acceleration-windows-7


tt2

Reply

Mar 18, 2016 8:48 PM in response to turingtest2

I play video games on this computer every day, my graphics drivers and .Net components are always up to date because otherwise things often don't work properly, and I said they were up to date in my last reply. It's possible that there's something in Windows Update that might solve the problem, but considering that the last time I updated I couldn't get back into my computer until I deleted the updates, I'm not inclined to try it just to see if it makes iTunes work.


Following the instructions in your provided link didn't get me anywhere, as the settings windows didn't even look the same as in the link, presumably because that was for Windows 7 rather than 8.1. I did a search for how to disable hardware acceleration in 8.1, and found that if there is no Troubleshooting tab visible, then the graphics card doesn't even support hardware acceleration. I had no Troubleshooting tab.

Reply

Mar 20, 2016 3:01 PM in response to dmwingon

The problem has been resolved, somehow. I tried yesterday to upgrade to Windows 10, had several problems with it (but iTunes was working!) and ended up rolling it back to Windows 8.1, and iTunes is still working as intended. Now my only problem is that it couldn't locate about 800 songs from my library (which I just moved from my Macbook), and it's being remarkably obtuse about when it can locate more than one song in the same folder at a time. I'm starting to think iTunes got dropped on its head recently.

Reply

Mar 21, 2016 2:22 AM in response to dmwingon

The "missing file" error happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, one of its parent folders, or the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter, or you've moved a non-portable library to a different path (see Make a split library portable for details). It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place.


Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to Get Info, then click No when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the file tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, a folder renamed, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions. If the difference between the two paths is an additional Music folder in one path then this is a layout issue. I can explain further if that is the case. If everything is where it is supposed to be try Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows.


In some cases iTunes may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps with Get Info but this time click Locate and browse to the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links. Although it says something like "use the same location" I think it expects to find the tracks in the same artist & album layout they were in previously, with one systematic change to the path.


If another application like Windows Media Player has moved/renamed the files, or the library has been moved from OS X to Windows, then the chances are that subtle differences in naming strategies will make it hard to restore the media to the precise path that iTunes is expecting. In such cases, as long as the missing files can be found somewhere, you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes. See this post for an explanation of how it works.


If you want me to try to provide specific advice please post back the following details:

  1. The location of the media folder under Edit > Preferences > Advanced
  2. The location of a sample missing track shown under Get Info > File > Location that begins file://localhost/
  3. The true path to the file whose details you gave in 2.



tt2

Reply

Latest iTunes on Windows 8.1 broken

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.