iTunes 12.5.3 crashes constantly on macOS Sierra

Same issue. It's related to the iCloud music library/itunes match. Have talked with Apple and they don't have a resolution.

Same here, updated this morning and it won't stay open for more than a few minutes, it just crashes. Utterly unusable! Late 2014 Mac mini, macOS Sierra.

Let me add my name to the frustrated and growing List. iTunes no longer works - grrr. I guess we'll need iTune 12.5.4 - how long will that take?

Downgrading to iTunes 12.5.2 worked for me. Unfortunately, it does require that you have access to a backup of iTunes app.

Here are the instructions I found on http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/itunes-12-5-3-match-crashes-fix-available-in -thread.2011509/

****My preface: I could not find "iTunes Music Library.xml" on either of my Macs. On Mac #1, I had complete Time Machine backups so I was able to delete and restore the .itdb and .itl files. On Mac #2, I did not have backups so I left the files intact. Both ways worked.

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

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

(3) Restore iTunes 12.5.2 from appropriate 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-12.5.3; 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.

I've filed a bug report with Apple for this, able to reproduce, also annoyingly iTunes will crash on my machine while playing back music every few minutes, can't make it through a full 3 minute track without the application quitting unexpectedly.

As of now iTunes is completely useless on my machine.

I've been on Twitter with @AppleSupport regarding this, and pointed them to this thread as well. So far nothing has worked to fix the problem.

Same here, spoke w/ Apple Support and they suggested a complete re-install but that's out of the question for me...

Unfortunately I don't have a TM backup, so I'm stuck w/ 12.5.3.

I deleted the mp3s that I was trying to add from the library on my Mac and once I did that, the crashing stopped. Re-adding them started the crashing again. It doesn't seem to be those files specifically, as I also tried downloading a random mp3 and adding that and that also started the crash loop.

I deleted the tracks I'd added to my library today and it seems to have stopped crashing or at least not as frequently but that's hardly a long term solution

You may also find playback of music will cause iTunes to randomly crash. I managed to rollback to iTunes 12.5.2 using a Time Machine backup by following the steps at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7728668?answerId=30890895022#30890895022

You do need a Time Machine backup though to do this as iTunes 12.5.2 or earlier isn't available for download from anywhere that I know of currently.

I've found a link to the iTunes 12.5.2 download on Apple's servers if you don't have a backup of the application.

You will need to rebuild your iTunes library by removing the iTunes Library.xml and iTunes Library.itl files mentioned above from Music > iTunes in your home folder, if you're not able to restoring them from a Time Machine backup.

Hi Chris,

Have you tried the steps mentioned at Re: my iTunes keeps quitting after the latest update?

Thank you - seems to work 🙂