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iTunes 9 got you down? Get back to the iTunes 8 days

Invariably when the "new, great, faster, amazing" software hits the market and we all upgrade immediately hoping to take advantage of all the fantastic features, some of us run into a case of downloader's remorse.

Joe Aimonetti MacFixIt Editor
Joe is a seasoned Mac veteran with years of experience on the platform. He reports on Macs, iPods, iPhones and anything else Apple sells. He even has worked in Apple retail stores. He's also a creative professional who knows how to use a Mac to get the job done.
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Joe Aimonetti
2 min read
Invariably when the "new, great, faster, amazing" software hits the market and we all upgrade immediately hoping to take advantage of all the fantastic features, some of us run into a case of downloader's remorse. In the case of iTunes, you can revert, but it could lead to lost settings.

So, the disclaimer, right off the bat, is that you could lose your Library settings and information--playlists, play counts, ratings, etc.--though the process below should maintain everything. Of course, before doing anything like this, you should have a stable backup of all your important data. And now, for the process via ASD user "GangstaPenguin":

  1. Be sure to quit iTunes 9. It may also be best to quit other non-essential applications during this process though they shouldn't be affected.
  2. Delete iTunes 9 (drag from the Applications folder to the Trash bin).
  3. Navigate to username > Music > iTunes. Delete the "iTunes Library" file.
  4. Open the "Previous iTunes Libraries" folder and look for the backup of your old pre-9 library; it should be dated at about the time you installed iTunes 9. Move the file to username > Music > iTunes, and rename it "iTunes Library".
  5. Download iTunes 8.2.1. Run the installer as usual and you should be good to go, running iTunes 8.2.1. In the case that you have issues, you can always re-download the latest version of iTunes (currently 9.0.1) from Apple.
For comments surrounding downgrading from iTunes 9 to iTunes 8.x, read this Apple Support Discussions thread. Experiencing issues, have questions, want to let us know about an issue we should report on? Email Us!

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