How to reset iTunes on macOS
Sometimes to go forward you need to go back. iTunes is one of the most popular apps in the world, and Apple has made some great strides over the years. There is no denying that iTunes is the media hub for many, but sometimes a new version arrives that is broken, or introduces a feature that you don’t like, or removes a feature that you did like.
That’s why in this guide we’re going to show you how to take full control over your version of iTunes. We’ll cover how to reinstall iTunes, clean up iTunes junk files, perform a complete uninstall of iTunes and possibly even downgrade to an earlier version of iTunes.
Are you ready? Let’s get started!
Nov 17, 2012 This video is unavailable. Watch Queue Queue. To clean up the whole iTunes library, you can simply click on “Auto Fix” button on top of music list. This will help you to fix missing music tags, aulbum artworks, edit music tags, clean up duplicate songs, only by this one click. If you’re using the free trial version, the program will prompt you that the limitation of. How to fix a damaged iTunes library. The dreaded exclamation points in your iTunes library! Edited metadata that doesn't show up outside of iTunes! Most of us have had at least some of these issues, and if you're unlucky most or all of your library can end up like this.
Reinstall iTunes
A healthy iTunes is a great experience but if the app starts behaving strangely then it’s time to take action. If iTunes keeps playing Britney Spears music for no reason, your Mac is probably demonically possessed. Unfortunately, you will have to set fire to your Mac. It’s the only way.
However, if you iTunes is merely crashing or freezing then a simple iTunes reinstall should solve the problem. You could first try to download the latest version of iTunes and run the installer.
Even if it’s the same version as you have installed, this will reinstall iTunes without any hassles.
If that doesn’t fix the problem, you should completely uninstall iTunes before you run the downloaded install.
Completely Uninstall iTunes
Whether you want a more effective reinstall of iTunes or if you want to remove the app from your life for good, we’ve got you covered. You may have realized that Apple doesn’t make it easy for you to uninstall iTunes, so it requires a few extra steps.
Note – A complete uninstall iTunes app will remove your user settings, playlists, etc.
To completely uninstall iTunes follow these steps:
- Drag the desktop iTunes icon to the trash - if you receive an error continue to step 2, if you don’t skip to step 6
- Right-click the iTunes.app file in the Applications folder and click Get Info
- Click the padlock icon and enter your Admin Password
- Expand Sharing & Permissions and set 'everyone' to Read & Write
- Close the window and try step 1 again
- Empty the Trash
- Type Activity Monitor into Spotlight and launch the app
- Find iTunes Helper and remove it
- Navigate to Library > Preferences and remove files with 'com.apple.itunes' at the beginning
- Restart your Mac
Clean iTunes Junk
Speaking of cleaning iTunes, if you use the app – even if it runs perfectly - you should try out CleanMyMac’s specialist iTunes Junk cleaner. You wouldn’t believe all the wasted space iTunes takes up thanks to broken downloads, copies of apps, old backups, and all sorts of other junk.
A quick scan from CleanMyMac and you’ll be given the option to clear up a lot of space – space that can be used for more important things.
No, not Britney Spears albums.
Downgrade iTunes to an earlier version
There comes a time where a new version of iTunes makes us wish we never updated in the first place. We want to be clear that the best thing to do is give the new version time, see if there isn’t a workaround to solve
whatever it is that’s bothering you and submit feedback to Apple.
If you’re impatient and you want to roll back iTunes now, then there is a method that could achieve exactly that. This solution will only be possible if you use Time Machine to create regular backups.
Important Note – Before you begin make sure to create a Time Machine backup. If anything goes wrong, you can just restore to the current version of macOS.
Here's how to downgrade iTunes:
- Type Activity Monitor into Spotlight and launch the app
- Find iTunes Helper and remove it
- Type Terminal into Spotlight and launch app
- Type sudo rm –r /Applications/iTunes.app and press Return
- Type Time Machine into Spotlight and launch the app
- Restore the version of iTunes you want from the relevant Time Machine backup
- Also, restore these files from the ~/Music/iTunes folder:
iTunes Library Extras.itdb
iTunes Library Genius.itdb
iTunes Library.itl
iTunes Music Library.xml
iTunes should now be reverted to an old version, with all your settings and data intact.
Putting the “I” Back In iTunes
We hope that this guide helped you to feel more in control of your iTunes for Mac. There is no doubting that iTunes is an awesome app, but Apple’s insistence can be a bit overhanded at times. Now you can make iTunes cleaner with CleanMyMac X, fix a broken iTunes, downgrade iTunes to an earlier version and even uninstall iTunes completely.
You have the control and the power. Use it wisely*
*By never downloading Britney Spears songs.
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Jul 19,2019 • Filed to: Manage Music • Proven solutions
Is your iTunes library in a mess? Do you want to fix your iTunes library easily?
With years of downloading, importing and exporting media files in your iTunes library, it comes the nightmare of cleaning and organizing hundreds of gigabytes that kind of data as well. The odious task of fixing your sprawling library becomes an uphill battle. One aspect that is common in music loving Apple device users is the bedraggled iTunes library and the hesitance to clean it. This happens because without appropriate paraphernalia, your endeavor to organize the iTunes library goes in vain.
Part 1. The Common Troubles to Fix iTunes Library
There are some common troubles when you fix iTunes library on Mac or fix iTunes library on Windows:
- The metadata information of the audio files helps iTunes in cataloging it. Since there are multiple sources from which the tracks are imported to your library, the accuracy of the metadata becomes nebulous. Tweaking this massive mesh of untangled metadata is the major trouble that is faced while fixing the library.
- The duplicate tracks that occupy your device’s memory is another issue of of a huge iTunes library. Deleting these tracks manually can take hours.
- In today’s scenario, you, like everyone else, would want to visually enhance the experience of listening to the music. This is accomplished by the attractive album cover arts. Many a times the cover arts are missing from your tracks/album. It is difficult to manually search for the appropriate covers and insert them in your tracks.
- The ID3 tags of tracks are often missing, or the incorrect information is inserted in them. Tweaking these tags manually can be a challenging process due to the limitations of the human brain to remember the entire information of all tracks present in your iTunes library.
The most common approach to fix all the said issues is the manual orchestration of all the tracks in your iTunes library with the help of organizing options that are provided by iTunes itself. However, there are many disadvantages of this method:
Open Itunes Library
- This is a time-consuming and implacably exhausting process.
- You are required to search the missing cover arts online manually if you want to add them to the albums or individual tracks.
- Sometimes iTunes treats each track of a compilation as a separate album, and this scatters the track throughout the album view. Resolving this issue manually can be difficult and tedious.
- You can lose out on important data from your library because sometimes during auto-synching, iTunes deletes the unrecognized files automatically.
To be saved from the ruthlessly enervating process to fix iTunes library, you can use a third-party tool to fix iTunes library for you. One of the best software applications available till-date is iMusic that is an official music organizer developed by Aimersoft. You can easily fix iTunes library and the other data stored in your iDevice using this program. iMusic is an exquisite tool with a healthy set of features that can alleviate the pain of fixing your gigantic iTunes library. Besides organizing your library, the program has several other remarkable features which include transferring data between your Apple devices without having to save it on your laptop PC.
Although iMusic is a paid application, the admirable and impressive features it possesses make it worth the asking price. The software is available for the Mac OS X, and Windows users.
Fix Itunes Library Free Mac Free
iMusic is the professional Apple device manager. As soon as you install and launch the application, it automatically syncs with iTunes that is pre-installed in your device. After synching with iTunes, iMusic displays the contents of your library in the primary window.
Here we will show you how to fix iTunes library from different aspects as followings.
iMusic - Fix iTunes Library with One Click
- Fix Your Tag Information
- Remove Duplicate Tracks from Your Library
- Fix the Missing Album Covers
- Fix All Music Tags At A Time
- Fix Your Tag Information
- Burn Music to CDs in One Click
- Remove Music DRM Protection and Convert Downloaded M4P Music Files to MP3 Format.
Steps to Fix iTunes Library by iMusic Easily
Step 1: Launch iMusic.
Step 2: Click TOOLBOX from the top navigation of the interface to enter the toolbox page, then select the option of CLEAN UP ITUNES LIBRARY.
Step 3: Once done, a Scan window will pop up, select the Missing Tags option on the pop-up interface.
Step 4: Once the list of tracks with inaccurate tags appear in the popup window, click the Fix button from the top-right corner.
Note: When you do so, iMusic automatically fixes all the missing and incorrect tag information of the tracks in your library.
Step 5: After finish fixing the missing tags for a while, click Save button once you are satisfied with the changes.
Fix iTunes Library - To Remove Duplicate Tracks from Your Library
In order to optimize your experience of listening to music, finding and removing duplicate tracks in iTunes is very important, and here you could easily search and remove the duplicate tracks by using iMusic as well. Assuming we have entered into the Scan window as we mentioned above.
Step 1: Click the option of Duplicate Tracks, a window of Delete Duplicate Songs will pop up. And the duplicate songs will be found and the duplicate parts will be checked by default which make the unique one exist. But you can manually change the checked options by needs too.
Step 2: Click the button Delete Duplicates. A new pop-up window will double-confirm with you if you want to delete the selected duplicate files, click OK if you are sure of this step.
Step 3: Once you have confirmed it, All the checked duplicate tracks will be removed in a single go.
Fix iTunes Library - To Fix the Missing Album Covers
Just like the above steps, you could use iMusic to search and fix all the missing album covers in iTunes.
Step 1 :Click the Missing Covers option from the iMusic Scan Window.
Fix Itunes Library Free Mac Downloads
Step 2 :Once the list of all the tracks without a cover art is displayed, click Get Covers at the top-right corner on the window.
Itunes Mac Download
Step 3: Click the Save button when done to save the changes. Then the album covers would be updated in iTunes.
Fix iTunes Library - To Fix All Tags At A Time
If you want to fix the music tags and covers, delete duplicate tracks as well as remove missing tracks at one time, then you could choose to click Scan button. Then all the tracks which should be fixed will be listed by type.
Then click Fix button after scanning, and the tracks would be fixed very soon.
You could see the results showing on the following interface.