If you find this helpful, can you help me out and make a donation via my PayPal widget? Or if you’re in the NJ & NY area and you or someone you know needs my consulting services … I need new clients. Hurricane Sandy has seriously effected my business here on the Jersey shore, and my livelihood. One thing I’ve been reminded of recently … there’s no shame in asking for what you need … you just might get it. Thanks … Joe

UPDATE 05.16.2013: Apple updated iTunes 11 to 11.0.3. With this update Album Art was added back to the Songs View. The Mini Player was also updated, as were other features and bug fixes. They also increased the speed of searches in large music libraries. Sorry to say, Cover Flow is still not back. I wrote a new blog article about 11.0.3 because I did do the upgrade & will use it now. But before I went crazy I tested that iTunes 11.0.3 can also be downgraded back to iTunes 10.7 with my How To below. If you still ned to downgrade … read my How To below. Thanks … Joe

Sometimes even I regret blindly upgrading an Apple application without doing any research. This was the case installing the iTunes 11 upgrade. Lots of pretty eye candy … but the loss of many features. Ones that many people use every day.

You may have your own reason for wanting to downgrade, but rest assured, the procedure outlined after the break, worked 100% for me. So it should work for you. The operative word here is … should.

It took much looking to piece this together. I’m posting it here just for reference. Make sure you have a backup of your data before proceeding. Then use the most recent TimeMachine backup BEFORE your iTunes 11 install.

One other thing … if you are downgrading to iTunes 10.7 because Apple removed a feature you used, or for whatever reason you downgraded … let Apple know! Go to the Apple iTunes Feedback Page and leave feedback about why you downgraded. If enough people register their reasons why, and what features they’d like back in future iTunes versions … Apple has been know to bend to the will of the people and return features. So when you’re done … come back here, click on the link, and make your voice heard. And now back to our regularly scheduled downgrade …

The following instructions are for Mac users only.

 

How To Downgrade iTunes 11 to iTunes 10.7:

Please make sure your computer is backed up.
Caution … proceed at your own risk.

Easy Method

Before starting, quit all open applications. Close all Finder windows. Disconnect any iPods, iPhones, iPads connected to your computer. It just makes life easier.

You will need your computer’s user account password.

This method might have more steps, but does not require a previous backup of your iTunes folder or use of Terminal.

Read through the instruction AT LEAST once, to familiarize yourself with what’s needed, before starting.

Here we go …

1) Download Pacifist here.

2) Open Pacifist_3.0.10.dmg file.

3) Drag Pacifist application to your desktop or to your Applications folder.

4) Download iTunes 10.7 Mac if you need it, here.

5) Launch Pacifist from your Applications folder.

Pacifist is a shareware utility. You can use it for free, or pay $20.00. If you use it for free, you will have to wait 15 seconds before you can use it each time it’s launched.

Once open you will see this window:

6) Drag and drop the iTunes 10.7.dmg file onto the main Pacifist window.

When you do this you will see the window change and say “Drop a package, archive, or disk image file here.

Drop A Package Here

This window should open:

This window should open:

7) Click on the “Not Authorized” lock icon. Enter your computer account user password.

Click on the “Not Authorized” lock icon. Enter your user’s password.

8) Select the first line in the list, “Contents of iTunes 10.7.dmg” and click the Install arrow icon.

9) Check “Use Administrator Privileges” then click the “Install” button.

At this point file processing will happen, then you will get a number of dialogs popping up telling you “A file already exists” or something similar. For each dialog, check “Don’t ask again …” and always click the “Replace” button. Do this for every dialog that pops up through the remainder of the install.

10) Quit Pacifist when the install is complete.

11) Open your iTunes Music Folder.

If you never moved your iTunes folder it’s located here:

Your HD/Your User/Music/iTunes

Or go to the Finder type:  Command + Shift + G

Go To Folder
Paste this into the the dialog:  ~/Music/iTunes

If you moved it to another hard drive, you will know where to locate your iTunes folder.

12) Open the “Previous iTunes Libraries” folder.

13) Find the most recent copy of the “iTunes Library 2012-xx-xx.itl” file.

Normally it will the last file at the bottom of the list.

14) Holding down the Option key, drag a copy of the file into the iTunes folder. Or hit Command + D to duplicate that file and drag the COPY to the iTunes folder.

15) Delete the “iTunes Library” file.

16) Change the name of the “iTunes Library 2012-xx-xx.itl” to ”iTunes Library” with no .itl extension.

17) Launch iTunes 10.7 by clicking on the iTunes icon in your dock, or however you normally launch iTunes.

If you launch iTunes and your music library is empty. Don’t freak out!

  • Quit iTunes 10.7
  • Go back to your ~/Music/iTunes folder. (step 11)
  • Add .itl extension back to the iTunes Library file you had previously removed it from.
  • Launch iTunes 10.7 again. Voilà … your music should be back.

{ At some point in time Apple changed how iTunes wrote the iTunes Library file to your iTunes folder. Early versions used no file extension. But at some point Apple changed that and started using the iTunes Library.itl as the default written library file. If you installed your version of iTunes or your Mac came with iTunes installed before this change … your library file remained extensionless and that’s why you needed to remove the extension. If your iTunes version and install was after this change, your iTunes folder requires iTunes Library.itl. Okay …TMI? ;)  }

After you do the downgrade the iTunes icon in your dock may still look like the iTunes 11 icon. Not to worry. It will change to the (blue & black) iTunes 10.7 icon after the first time being launched.

That’s it. All should be right with your digital world.

You should now be able to do all the things you need, including syncing your iDevices, without the nasty iTunes -42408 error many people have been getting before this method.

Enjoy iTunes 10.7 … again!

 

 

How To Downgrade iTunes 11 to iTunes 10.7:

Please make sure your computer is backed up.
Caution … proceed at your own risk.

Original Method (Pre-Pacifist)

This method will require a TimeMachine backup, and the use of terminal, or you knowing where these folders are located.

1) Open Terminal and run:

sudo rm -rf /Applications/iTunes.app

This will delete the iTunes 11 application.

 

2) If your Music Library is in its default place, also in the terminal:

open ~/Music/iTunes

 

3) Using Time Machine restore the following files:

  • Album Artwork   <– Folder
  • iTunes Library
  • iTunes Library Extras.itdb
  • iTunes Library Genius.itdb
  • iTunes Library.xml
  • iTunes Library.itl
  • iTunes Music Library.xml
  • Previous iTunes Libraries  <– Folder

No need to replace your iTunes Music Folder.

You may not need to replace all these files but it can’t hurt.

 

4) Back in the terminal:

open /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks

Use Time Machine again to restore the following files:

  • AirTrafficHost.framework
  • CoreFP.framework
  • DeviceLink.framework
  • iTunesAccess.framework
  • MobileDevice.framework

 

5) Download iTunes 10.7

http://appldnld.apple.com/iTunes10/041-7195.20120912.d3uzQ/iTunes10.7.dmg

 

6) Install iTunes 10.7.

 

I rebooted for good measure, but it’s probably not necessary.

You may be prompted the first time you start up iTunes 10.7 for your password. Enter it. You should now be able to do all the things you need, including syncing your iDevices, without the nasty iTunes -42408 error many people have been getting before this method.

Enjoy iTunes 10.7 … again!