iTunes 8.0.1: browsing the iTunes store causes crashes

When some users attempt to access the iTunes store, the iTunes application will crash. This problem seems to happen randomly, and for most with this problem, it appears to affect the whole system.

Apple Discussions poster Laura in CT writes: "I'll be browsing and suddenly--no warning, no spinning beachball--my entire computer is non-responsive. I can move my mouse, but no buttons work, cannot force quit, and I must shut down via the power button."

While this problem has cropped up for some uses more recently with the iTunes 8 upgrades, a similar problem, in which the store would crash iTunes immediately when users clicked on it, has been ongoing for other users since iTunes 7. While this problem persisted in iTunes 8, users were able to fix the issue by updating to iTunes 8.0.1. As such, for any of these problem users should ensure they have the latest update installed for the program to ensure known bugs are addressed.

For the current issue at hand, however, some users have not had success with updating to iTunes 8.0.1, and some have even gone so far as to reinstall the operating system using an Archive and Install, but that has resulted in the same problem. For some, this issue cannot be readily replicated, but for others, it happens repeatedly for certain actions such as scrolling down the main iTunes page.

This type of behavior suggests a faulty QuickTime installation; when iTunes attempts to display new content in the main window it crashes. This may be related to reports of iChat freezing when users attempt to run video conferencing after installing the latest version of QuickTime, which was released around the time of the iTunes 8 upgrade. Reinstalling the QuickTime update worked for some of these users.

Potential Fix

Reapply the iTunes and QuickTime updates It is recommended that users try downloading the updater files for both QuickTime 7.5.5 and iTunes 8.0.1, and applying them when booted in Safe Mode. The files can be downloaded from the following links:

• QuickTime
• iTunes

When the files have been downloaded, reboot the computer and hold the shift key to get into safe mode. Then apply the updates and restart the system.

Perform standard fix attempts Standard fixes for these problem might include running a permissions fix on the hard drive with Disk Utility, and removing the iTunes and QuickTime-related preference files. These files are located in the following directories:

Resources