How to do a clean reinstall of iTunes?

My problem is that today when trying to clean up my iTunes library I accidentally erased all music from my Mac (oops).
So now I have +60GB of mp3s on my 5G iPod and am very scared of losing it all.
How do I do a clean reinstall of iTunes, then re-connect my iPod all my music will copy into iTunes?
Thank you in advance for your help!

A 'clean' install will not help you.
What ever you do - do not plug in your iPod or iTunes will update and erase the iPod.
Plug in your iPod and hold down the 'Option' +  Keys at the same time until the iPod appears in the Devices section of iTunes. This will prevent iTunes from updating the iPod.
You can also use the following to recover your tunes from the iPod. Senuti - http://www.fadingred.org/senuti/ or Podworks at - http://www.scifihifi.com/podworks/
MJ

Similar Messages

How do I do a clean reinstall of iTunes?

I had been converting my cassette library to MP3 files and using iTunes (10.1.2) to burn CD's therefrom. I was using separate iTune libraries saved on an external disk when a 'my bad' moment caused the loss of the libraries. No harm, as I had already burned CDs of the now gone-forever libraries, but now iTunes references a bunch of missing/empty libraries and other intertwined iTunes files.
How can I strip iTunes and related files completely and get it back to a 'brand new, never been used' state? I have downloaded the iTunes 10.1.2 .dmg from Apple's download site.
Thanks---

Thanks for the suggestions--I knew about using the Option key, however what I finally found were three nested folders, each named 'Previous iTunes Libraries' that held grayed-out .MP3 audio files (my lost files) that were not accessible. I trashed these folders.
I have subsequently created several new iTune libraries and can open them via the Option key. However, if I just open iTunes, it always opens up with the previously opened library instead of opening empty. I guess that's just the way it works.

I want to do a clean reinstall of itunes...

If I uninstall itunes, delete all of the folders and reset my ipod to factory settings, can I reinstall it and redownload the music and movies I've purchased?
I don't want to lose all my Battlestar Galactica, Chappelle and Heros
Thanks!

"can I reinstall it and redownload the music and movies I've purchased?"
You can't download purchases from the iTunes Store over again. Back your stuff up first if you intend deleting anything from your computer so you can add it back again afterwards: How to back up your media in iTunes

Clean reinstall of iTunes and APPROPRIATE apps for iPhone 3GS?

Hi Guys,
I know it's been asked before (sorry) but I would value everyone's opinion and answering a couple of questions
to avoid messing up.
I want to clean erase my iPhone 3GS and also ensure I get the correct iTunes default folder structure setup in Windows by doing a
clean iTunes install.
What I would like to do is fourfold:
A. Backup contents of iTunes
B. Total erase and restore iPhone to default.
C. Copy back most (but not all) of my media
D. Copy back only apps that will work well on 3GS. (avoiding apps that may have inconsistencies with 3GS or OS4)
Questions:
A. Before I reinstall the latest iTunes, I presume all I need to do is move the whole of the
   iTunes folder structure to another safe place like the desktop, where it can be used as a backup?
B. I figure it's easy to carry out a total erase of iPhone is easy but do I need to do anything like unauthorise phone or iTunes before I do all this?
C.I then intend to create a subfolder e.g. New wave, and then drag each relevent music file to the relevent subfolder - Or is that not a good idea?
   i.e. Is it best to just let Playlists sort the categoeries?
Finally, do I simply select Add Folder in iTunes and add all the music folder to the library - or will that create duplicates?
D. I have a large number of apps purchased through the Apps store.
    I intend to drag and drop these in the Mobile Applications folder. Is that a good idea?
    Is there a quick way to ensure each app is compatible with the latest OS, the latest iTunes, and my iPhone 3GS?
Thanks guys in advance
Pete

Sounds like a lot of work and complication for little or no benefit.
Concerning the Apps.... there is no need to manually go through the list and add specific apps, just tell iTunes what you want to sync to the device and what not to sync. All of this is handled IN iTunes, no reason to try and deal with it elsewhere.
As for the music, if there is content you no longer want, delete it.
Is the music folder currently unorganized?
I just see no reason, based on your posting, to undertake this enormous task.

How to do a clean reinstall of everything

When I got my new MBP, I did the migration assistant from my PMG5. One or more of the programs were PPC OS9. After migration, I noticed the MBP ran very slowly and had strange Icons in the title space of the folders.
I continued on, loading bootcamp/XP, parallels, and lots of software. When my CAD began acting very slowly and crashing because of out of memory (in 2GB RAM), I new it was time to clean everything off and start over. The prospect is daunting.
In preparaton, I have made dmgs of my Mac HD and the Windows partition on an external drive. One thing I am afraid of is loosing all my emails.
Can anyone give me a cookbook way of going about this?
Thanks
Mini(CD2), Imac(CD2), G5 PM, MBP(C2D2.33, 2GB) Mac OS X (10.4.9)

-g
Thanks for the comments. Let me clarify some of my comments.
When my CAD crashes, it is only the program, not the Mac. It crashes because it uses up the memory during rendering and does not release it back, finally running out of memory (2GB). I don't know where this fault lies, I have told the CAD company.
When I first got the MBP, I used Migration Assistant to transfer all the files from my G5PM to the MBP. All this is detailed in another post by me. <Re: New MacBook Pro App Migration results in strange icons>
All of a sudden an icon came out of nowhere to reside in the headers of folders. I traced it to PS7 "PPC accelerator" in some library, which I deleted. Now there is a "?" in the folder header instead of the previous icon. I have since deleted PS 7 (I think), but the "?" is still there.
I should have started all over earlier, I just didn't notice it soon enough.
Now, the computer is very sluggish at times, taking 1-2minutes to boot. Sometimes taking 1 minute to load SeaMonkey (8 sec is the fastest time).
When I showed the machine to a Mac Tek, he recommended I wipe it clean and start over. I have no intention of reloading PS 7.
So, that brings me to this thread. How to do a full install the easiest way.
You said to back up my mail folders. I haven't seen a way to do that. SeaMonkey is my browser/email app.
Mini(CD2), Imac(CD2), G5 PM, MBP Mac OS X (10.4.9)
Mini(CD2), Imac(CD2), G5 PM Mac OS X (10.4.8)
Mini(CD2), Imac(CD2), G5 PM Mac OS X (10.4.8)

How do I do a clean install of iTunes ?

how do I do a clean install of iTunes ?
One of the guys at apple support suggested I do this after I upgraded itunes - now it shuts itself down after 2 seconds !!!
When is apple going to fix this ?

Is there something Apple needs to fix? While you and a handful of other people are having problems there are millions of others who do not come here and post simply because they are not having problems. Given the complexity of computers there is likely some small file that is not being installed properly or there is something else you have installed that is conflicting with other software, or your computer file management is having problems and something is not where it should be.
First, I would check if it is really a problem with the application. You do not provide details on what is happening so it is hard to help. Try starting itunes in Safe Mode:
iTunes Safe Mode - http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20090915214613484
iTunes: Troubleshooting issues with third-party iTunes plug-ins - http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3430 - hold down the Option and Command keys (on Mac OS X) or holding down the Shift and Control keys (on Windows) while opening iTunes
If that doesn't help (short-term), restart normally but hold down the option key and make a new, blank library. If itunes starts that way then you have a corrupt library file and it will need to be rebuilt (more information later if that is indeed the issue).
If you're determined to reinstall itunes, I don't know if this works with Lion since I believe they really tied itunes into the operating system rather than leaving it as an independent application, but try dragging the iTunes application in your Application folder to the trash, then empty the trash. Back up your computer before installing any new software. If the update does something you don't like this is the only way to revert.
Verify your hard drive with Disk Utility's First Aid. If it reports problems then that has to be dealt with before you do anything else.
Use Disk Utility to repair permissions.
Download the update from Apple. Some of us don't use Software Update to actually update, just so we know the installer file is safe and sound on our computers for use.
Install the update.
Repair permissions again.
Restart your computer.
There are also preferences files that could be the issue. Those are hidden from you in Lion and again, it's a separate post on how to deal with those.

How do I uninstall or reinstall itunes when the itunes.mls file is missing and won't do either without it?

How do I uninstall or reinstall itunes when the itunes.mls file is missing and won't do either without it? Have done a search for the file extension on PC and two external hard drives. Doesn't show up.

Download the Windows Installer CleanUp utility from the following page (use one of the links under the "DOWNLOAD LOCATIONS" thingy on the Major Geeks page):
http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4459
To install the utility, doubleclick the msicuu2.exe file you downloaded.
Now run the utility ("Start > All Programs > Windows Install Clean Up"). In the list of programs that appears in CleanUp, select any iTunes entries and click "Remove", as per the following screenshot:
Quit out of CleanUp, restart the PC and try another iTunes install. Does it go through properly this time?

Clean reinstall of Mac OS, retaining playlists in itunes.

Hi. As my imac (currently on 10.6.8) is gradually running slower I've decided to do a clean re-install of the OS back to 10.5.4. My itunes library is rather large and for this reason is kept on a separate backup 2tb hard disc. As I cannot fit even half of my library on my 160gb ipod I have made up a playlist to filter it down to something less than 160gb. I don't want to lose this playlist as it took a long time to make. I have read various discussions about exporting playlists but I'm not sure if this is what I should do as none of these discussions mention having all the music files on a separate backup disc. What should I do to retain my playlists after a clean reinstall? Many thanks. For info my itunes version is 11.1.2.

No. Actually, reinstalling should be the last alternative you try. Just having files on your computer does not slow it down. It's running too many concurrent applications that slows it down, among other things.
Things You Can Do To Resolve Slow Downs
If your computer seems to be running slower here are some things you can do:
Start with visits to:     OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney;
                                  The X Lab: The X-FAQs;
                                  The Safe Mac » Mac Performance Guide;
                                  The Safe Mac » The myth of the dirty Mac;
                                  Mac maintenance Quick Assist.
Boot into Safe Mode then repair your hard drive and permissions:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions Pre-Lion
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
Repair the Hard Drive - Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the Utilites Menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD disk icon and click on the arrow button below.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
Restart your computer normally and see if this has helped any. Next do some maintenance:
For situations Disk Utility cannot handle the best third-party utility is Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible.
Note: Alsoft ships DW on a bootable DVD that will startup Macs running Snow Leopard or earlier. It cannot start Macs that came with Lion or later pre-installed, however, DW will work on those models.
Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced since Tiger. These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard or later and should not be installed.
OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive.
Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection
An excellent link to read is Tom Reed's Mac Malware Guide.
Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware.
See these Apple articles:
          Mac OS X Snow Leopard and malware detection
          OS X Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
          OS X Mountain Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
          About file quarantine in OS X
If you require anti-virus protection I recommend using VirusBarrier Express 1.1.6 or Dr.Web Light both from the App Store. They're both free, and since they're from the App Store, they won't destabilize the system. (Thank you to Thomas Reed for these recommendations.)
Troubleshooting Applications
I recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX, Mavericks Cache Cleaner, or Cocktail that you can use for removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc. Corrupted cache, log, or temporary files can cause application or OS X crashes as well as kernel panics.
If you have Snow Leopard or Leopard, then for similar repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. Applejack does not work with Lion and later.
Basic Backup
For some people Time Machine will be more than adequate. Time Machine is part of OS X. There are two components:
1. A Time Machine preferences panel as part of System Preferences;
2. A Time Machine application located in the Applications folder. It is
    used to manage backups and to restore backups. Time Machine
    requires a backup drive that is at least twice the capacity of the
    drive being backed up.
Alternatively, get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Carbon Copy Cloner
2. Get Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. Synk Pro
6. Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files. For help with using Time Machine visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
Referenced software can be found at MacUpdate.
Additional Hints
Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity as free space.
Add more RAM. If your computer has less than 2 GBs of RAM and you are using OS X Leopard or later, then you can do with more RAM. Snow Leopard and Lion work much better with 4 GBs of RAM than their system minimums. The more concurrent applications you tend to use the more RAM you should have.
Always maintain at least 15 GBs or 10% of your hard drive's capacity as free space, whichever is greater. OS X is frequently accessing your hard drive, so providing adequate free space will keep things from slowing down.
Check for applications that may be hogging the CPU:
Pre-Mavericks
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
Mavericks and later
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the View menu. Click on the CPU tab in the toolbar. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
Often this problem occurs because of a corrupted cache or preferences file or an attempt to write to a corrupted log file.

How to backup with Time Machine for complete clean reinstall of OS

My iMac has been getting slower and slower as the months go by and with each new software update. It used to be a lot faster than this when it was new.
I'm thinking the best solution might be to do a complete clean reinstall of the OS. My question is, if I have Time Machine backing up of all the users Documents, Email, Address, Book, iTunes Library, and iPhoto Library files, can I just go ahead and blow away everything on the machine? That is, after reinstallation, can I just plug in the hard drive, turn on Time Machine and get all those data files back in the right place without difficulty?
Or am I better off meticulously and manually moving the appropriate files/directories to an external harddrive and then fitting them all back into place manually afterwards?
(NOTE: I used to have to do a clean re-installation of XP every year or so to keep the system nice and snappy -- it would invariably get slower and slower over time. Since I got my iMac (Tiger) I had never had this creeping slowness problem, why is it happening now with Leopard?)

slegge,
This might give you some ideas.
Using Time Machine to Restore You Entire System
Q: Can I restore my Mac from a Time Machine backup?
A: Yes, you have several options: (In all cases Mac OS 10.5 Leopard is required as previous OS X versions will not work with Time Machine backups.)
*Full Restore Via Migration Assistant & Time Machine*
You can use the installation DVDs that came with your Mac and reinstall Leopard (Mac OS 10.5). During the installation process you will be asked if you would like to Migrate data over from your Time Machine backups. The advantage here is that you start with fresh system software. The disadvantage is that you may lose many of the personal preferences/settings that had been established with the previous system. But this may be only a minor inconvenience to reestablish these. Depending on whether you choose to migrate your applications over as well, you may be required to reinstall any 3rd-party software or standalone Apple programs. Don’t forget to run Software Update once the initial installation is complete to bring your system up to date. Using Disk Utility at this point to repair any permissions issues is advised as well.
*Full Restore Via Time Machine Only*
Alternatively, you can use the installation DVDs to do a full system restore. Insert the installation DVD. When the welcome window appears, go to the Utilities menu and select “Restore System From Backup…” and choose the drive that your Time Machine backups are on. Then select the date of the backup you would like to restore from. This will completely erase your internal drive and restore your system to a relatively same condition it was in on the date of the backup you choose. (See this article for a list of files that TM does not restore, http://shiftedbits.org/2007/10/31/time-machine-exclusions/) The advantage here is that you retain many of the personal preferences/settings that had been established with the previous system. Additionally, no further installation of 3rd-party software is required. The disadvantage is that BECAUSE you retain many of the personal preferences, settings, and system files that had been present with the previous system, you run the risk of reintroducing problems you experienced with the previous installation, including any issues that necessitated the OS reinstall in the first place. Using Disk Utility at this point to repair any permissions issues is advised as well.
*Full Backup After Restore*
Bear in mind that in all cases Time Machine will perform a full backup after a full restore. This is normal. Time Machine will resume incremental backups after the full backup has completed. To view previous backups, Control-click or right-click the Time Machine icon in your Dock or Option-click the Time Machine menu extra and Choose "Browse Other Time Machine Disks," then select your previous backup volume. You will enter Time Machine and be able to browse your previous back ups and restore files. (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1338)
Hope this helps.
Cheers!

How do I change the authorized computer to sync to my iPad? Lost all my data and am trying to reinstall my iTunes libraries.

How do I change the authorized computer to sync to my iPad? I lost all of my data when my PC crashed and am trying to reinstall my iTunes libraries in the same PC that has been reformatted to its original factory state.

If you followed the instructions in the link that Diavonex referred you to, that should have transferred all of the iPad content into your iTunes library. I have no idea what to mean by the iPad sees another PC. Where? How do you know that? How are your determining that the iPad sees another PC? iTunes does the "seeing" - not the iPad.
Then you say "if I share" - do you mean if you use Home Sharing? The iPad and computer do not have to be connected in order for Home Sharing to work. The devices must be on the same WiFi network. You cannot transfer music from the computer to the iPad using Home Sharing.
I still don't understand what you are saying,

How to reinstall my iTunes 10 music after doing system reinstall on Window 7 64 bit and then downloading iTunes 11.

What is the best way to reintroduce the backed up iTunes folder that contains my music collected in iTunes 10 after doing a clean reinstall of Windows 7 and thereafter installing iTunes 11. Howl will iTunes 11 recognize my songs collected in iTunes 10? Do I simply copy then paste all the iTunes music folder content into the new iTunes 11 music folder? I thank you for your response.

I spent some time on the phone this morning with Apple. Here's a link they sent me: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1923
It's more than just uninstalling Itunes; there are 5 other apps that have to be uninstalled and in specific order. This particular Knowledge Base article applies to Windows Vista or Windows 7. For other Windows versions you'd have to look up the article for Windows XP.
Hope this helps.

How wipe hard drive clean without a disk and reinstall OS?

Running a 15" Mid 2010, OS 10.8.3; after migrating Profile to new MacBook want to wipe hard drive clean & reinstall Mountain Lion 10.8.3 in order to give to daughter as a "new" computer. All I can find in archived discussions is how to do it w/ a disk.

Yes I would.
The iLife Apps, "i" Photo, Movie and Garageband (And "i" DVD and WEB if you Mac came with Snow Leopard originally), are not included with the Operating system. They are separate applications that you need to either download from the Mac App Store, from your Purchases area once you have logged into the MAS with the Apple ID you used to register that Mac with, or from the second System Reinstall Disc, the Applications disc, that came with your Mac if it originally came with Snow Leopard.
So I read you are running a Mid 2010 MBP. In that case you would need to use the second Original System Disc to reinstall the iLife Applications.
That may be a problem for you as the iLife apps that came with that system are 3 years old and may not want to install on Mt Lion 10.8.3.
If you run into problems installing them from that second system disc you may have to start off by first reinstalling Snow Leopard and then the iLife Apps and Then Upgrade to Mt Lion. Making sure after installing Snow Leopard and the iLife Apps you update everything through Software Update before you do the Mt Lion upgrade.
Sorry about the hassle but blame Apple for that.
Hopefully you have the Original system discs but if you don't then you can order a replacement set from Apple for a small charge.
Good Luck & Best Wishes.

My ITunes had frozen on my Mac Laptop, so I uninstalled it. I went to the Apple website and reinstalled, after reinstalling, the ITunes I cannot find out how to open it. How would I open it?

My iTunes had frozen so I uninstalled it. I then proceeded to reinstall it. After I got the "Installation complete" message I closed the download, but iTunes was nowhere to be found. I reinstalled it again and again but iTunes would never appear and I was incapable of opening it. Where/how might I be able to open iTunes?

As with anything on the Mac click on the search icon (magnifying glass far right next to the clock) and write iTunes then hover over the result for a second and the "Path:" will show up for you to follow.

How do I erase and reinstall itunes on my pc. I was told by the store personnel to do this because I have had some synch glitches, but am not sure what to delete

How do I delete and reinstall itunes on my pc? I was told to do this by the apple store personnel because I have some synch glitches with my ipod/ipad, but don't know what to delete.

HT1923 Apple Support Article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1923?viewlocale=en_US

My old computer crashed and deleted my iTunes media file with all my playlist. However, my iPod has the playlist I lost on the computer. How can I replace (reverse synch?) my iPod media information back onto my (now reinstalled) virgin iTunes media folder

My old computer crashed and deleted my iTunes media file with all my playlist.However, my iPod has the playlist I lost on the computer. How can I replace (reverse synch?) my iPod media information back onto my (now reinstalled) virgin iTunes media folder?

Yes it's possible to sync music back from a iPod back into iTunes that (I assume) wasn't purchased on the iTunes Store.
Apple allows iTunes Store purchases on devices to be reversed back into iTunes, just not cd rips and stuff like that. For that it's a one way trip to the device from iTunes.
I likely can't suggest such software here, but if you visit iLounge you can ask what is the latest software that works for your platform.
Really it only takes a mere few minutes to backup your iTunes Library and stick in a few cd/dvd's or a external drive. iTunes even has a menu command for it to make it oh so simple. Please use it and backup all your data.
Hard drives fail, computers burn up, thieves steal, stuff gets forgotten. Plan for something happening because it will.
Good Luck

How to do a clean reinstall of iTunes?

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