How do i downgrade from iTunes 12.4

You people are so wrong, it's laughable. There is no law preventing you from installing an older version of itunes. Quit trying to scare people into thinking that using their computer the way they want to is a crime. Illegal, your posting on the internet should be illegal.

First, you need to uninstall. To do that simply open applications folder, right-click on iTunes icon, get info, sharing & permission, change "everyone" to "read & write". Now you can delete the app.

After cleaning the trash, you will be able to install another version.

PeterHlondon wrote:

My computer has automatically upgraded to the latest version of iTunes which is an horror to try to figure out. It has mixed my Series, Movies and Music together an I am unable to get a complete view of my library anymore. The only view i get is recent played and edit playlist.

Can anyone help me to get rid of this disaster of a software ?

thank you in advance

The only way I can see accomplishing what you want is using your most recent Time Machine backup from before your system's update. If you don't have a Time Machine backup, you have no recourse. I have iTunes open right now, and my Music library and TV Shows library are not mixed together. Can you take a screenshot of how your iTunes looks? Perhaps we can walk you through fixing it.

And be sure to uncheck "Install app updates" in your System Preferences > App Store, because it will reinstall iTunes 12.4 back again. That you don't want to happen. 😢

My comment had been removed because :

Yeah, no. iTunes comes bundled with OS X. Any installer you find on the Internet for any component of OS X is not only dangerous, but illegal. The only proper way to downgrade your system is through a Time Machine backup, and yes, I am aware you cannot downgrade only one portion of your system.

But how come you can freely download the stand-alone 12.4 installer here :

https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

ITunes is definitely not only bundled with OS X, but it can be legally downloaded from Apple web site and saved for further re-installment.

Sorry, but I did the trick, and it's working perfectly well, and I'm back to 12.3.3 with my compilations albums back in my "Albums".

sygar666 wrote:

My comment had been removed because :

Yeah, no. iTunes comes bundled with OS X. Any installer you find on the Internet for any component of OS X is not only dangerous, but illegal. The only proper way to downgrade your system is through a Time Machine backup, and yes, I am aware you cannot downgrade only one portion of your system.

But how come you can freely download the stand-alone 12.4 installer here :

https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

ITunes is definitely not only bundled with OS X, but it can be legally downloaded from Apple web site and saved for further re-installment.

Sorry, but I did the trick, and it's working perfectly well, and I'm back to 12.3.3 with my compilations albums back in my "Albums".

It's illegal because once OS X is updated, as it recently was, previous versions of OS X are no longer available. That means you can't "hit up Google" and find the installer for an individual component of OS X that is no longer legally available. You're telling people to break the law and seriously compromise their systems when they find this installer god only knows where. If iTunes 12.3 was available on the Apple website, you'd have told them to go there, but you said to "hit up Google," which implies an illegal download. iTunes 12.4 is the current release, and that's why it's available on the Apple website. There's a difference between what is current and what is not. I won't find Safari 6 or iTunes 10 on the Apple website, and you know why? They're not legally available anymore.

Well, that doesn't mean that iTunes 12.3.3 doesn't work with the most recent release of OS X. I have Final Cut 7 still working fine on my machine running on 10.11.5. And that product is way out of life. The thing is, I don't want Apple to impose me a software that I don't like because it is the current version. Legacy versions of software as important as iTunes should be available on their website. The compilations reordering with iTunes 12.4 made me furious. Especially when you have that kind of library :

Sorry PeterHlondon for hijacking your post.

sygar666 wrote:

Well, that doesn't mean that iTunes 12.3.3 doesn't work with the most recent release of OS X. I have Final Cut 7 still working fine on my machine running on 10.11.5. And that product is way out of life. The thing is, I don't want Apple to impose me a software that I don't like because it is the current version. Legacy versions of software as important as iTunes should be available on their website. The compilations reordering with iTunes 12.4 made me furious. Especially when you have that kind of library :

Sorry PeterHlondon for hijacking your post.

No offense, but the size of your iTunes library is immaterial. I have a huge library too, but no one here cares. If you don't like 12.4, and I'm no great fan of it myself, send Apple feedback and then move on, because that's your only recourse. You don't illegally download installers to no-longer-current versions of OS X or any component of OS X. You're absolutely missing the point here.

And finally, by the way, I do download and carefully keep stand-alone installer of every iTunes versions available because of that kind of mess, which is not the first time it happened. I said Google, but I could have said, call a good friend who is as careful as me.

iTunes is not a component of OS X. It's a software like Photos, GarageBand, and so on. I can get rid of iTunes and my computer will still be working.

sygar666 wrote:

iTunes is not a component of OS X.

Yes, it is. All software that comes preloaded with OS X is a component of OS X.

Sorry, those are Apps. I can get rid of all of those and my computer will still work. I would not be able to listen to music, watch photos, synchronize my iPad, but my computer would still work. But there are alternatives on the AppStore that I could buy to do that kind of stuff. You don't seem to understand the difference between OS Components and Apps.

The only one I would keep is the AppStore app. Duuhh... 😁

I had this problem also; needed to revert to iTunes 12.3.3 due to removal of convert ID3 Tags feature. I found that the following steps allowed me to do this; it only works because I had a Time Machine backup with 12.3.3 on it (happened to be the day before the 12.4 version appeared on the App Store). It is also highly recommended that you do another Time Machine backup before performing these steps so that you can recover back to the unwanted 12.4 if you need to again.

(1) Stop the itunes helper app using activity monitor utility if it is running

(2) delete the current itunes.app with terminal command:

sudo rm -r /Applications/iTunes.app

(3) Restore iTunes 12.3.3 from appropraite Time Machine backup.

(4) ALSO restore, from the same TM backup, the following files in the ~/Music/iTunes folder:

iTunes Library Extras.itdb

iTunes Library Genius.itdb

iTunes Library.itl

iTunes Music Library.xml

NOTE: not sure if all of those are necessary to restore but wanted to make the folder as close as possible to its pre-12.4; definitely the .itl is necessary. If you don't restore these you will get a message when you start the older iTunes that it cannot read the music library because it was created with a newer version of iTunes.

After performing the above, I was able to run iTunes 12.3.3 with music library still intact and it worked fine, including the Convert ID3 Tags feature.

Keep in mind, though:

(1) You will get prompts to re-update to iTunes 12.4; I have auto update disabled, so I just ignore the update in the app store updates list.

(2) The next time your version of mac os x is updated, it may contain a newer version of iTunes, so you would have to repeat the above process, only using a newer TM backup of 12.3.3 in case the content of the .itl and .itdb files has changed.

Just an added note: Apple released another update to iTunes - 12.4.1; in this update they put back the convert ID3 tag feature, so downgrading (at least for me) is no longer necessary. In the 12.4.1 the convert option is available as part of the File menu -> Convert and can be now be used for views other than just the "song" view - much more convenient.