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evegrimm's avatar

Help with downgrading iTunes from 9.0 back to 8.0.x!

Asked by evegrimm (3714points) September 14th, 2009

So I (stupidly) installed the latest iTunes update.

However, it does two things that really bug me: one, the font and text color are difficult to read when things are playing. This is hard on my eyes! (The new colour scheme is too “modern” and yucky-looking, too.) The second thing is that the minimise button used to make the window into the mini player, which I used all the time. Now it just does like other Mac windows—makes them slightly smaller (reverts to the smallest size you previously resized the window to). Grr!

So I tried to revert back to an earlier version of iTunes, but it says
“The file “iTunes Library” cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes.”

(I do have 8.0.2 downloaded, but I can’t open it for this reason.)

I tried pulling a backup copy out of my “Previous iTunes Libraries” folder, renaming it to “iTunes Library” and tried to go from there, but no go. (Same error message…?)

Any ideas? I really want to go back to iTunes 8.x.x (I’m not sure what it was…the one before iTunes 9!)

Thanks!

Oh, I’m running Mac OS X.4.11.

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7 Answers

iwamoto's avatar

for your first problem…just edit

for the 2nd, press Cmd+Shift+M to switch to the mini player

good luck !

evegrimm's avatar

I actually figured out to fix this with this Apple Support thread…

I’m glad it worked! Yay to have 8.0.2 back.

(What you do is move your .xml and iTunes library to your desktop, open up your “target” iTunes version, file>library>Import Playlist and pick the .xml file that’s on your desktop. Then it updates! For real!)

I’m sorry to “spam” Fluther with this…I honestly didn’t realise it would be this easy.

Thanks anyway!

jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities's avatar

I nearly downloaded 9.0, but I’m glad I didn’t now. Thanks!

derekpaperscissors's avatar

i had a similar problem, i want the older version back. thanks for asking ahead! :)

Inofaith's avatar

I downgraded from 9 back to 8.2.1 succesfully :D!

- You move iTunes 9 to the trash and then erase it.
– Then you download iTunes 8.2.1 from: http://support.apple.com/downloads/iTunes_8_2_1
– before installing you recover your old itunes library.
– remove the current itunes library file (or rename it and move it somewhere else).
Then you have to get your last backup of “oder iTunes library” files which is in a folder in your ”-music/itunes/previous libraries/” directory.
– Copy and rename the old file to “iTunes Library”, move it into the main itunes folder.
– Now you can install iTunes v8.2.1 again.

- If you’ve added content in version 9, that won’t show up in your iTunes. You can put it back by dragging your whole “iTunes Music” folder back into itunes. or just the folders that where modified after the date you upgraded to iTunes 9.
MAKE SURE THAT COPY INTO LIBRARY IS SWITCHED OFF.
It will read mp3 tags again etc.

here is a link to the discussion on apple support site:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2157090&start=0&tstart=0

pfigalilly's avatar

Okay, I uninstalled itunes 9 altogether. Then I downloaded 8.2.1 and am still getting that i Tunes Library.itl created by newer version error message. Why didn’t that go away when I uninstalled iTunes 9? I can’t even find that file when I do a search to delete it. Now what???? How do I delete or rename said library file??

pfigalilly's avatar

Nevermind, I found more instructions elsewhere and I think I’ve got it working now. Thanks!

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