If you have accidentally deleted iTunes from your machine, or if this software isn’t performing as expected, you have come to the right webpage for help. In this Techspirited article, will tell you how to reinstall iTunes on your computer, using a simple procedure that won’t take more than half an hour to complete.
Apple iTunes is the software that you are required to use in order to put music and videos on your Apple iPhone and iPod. It is a media player and a music library, and there is no other way to sync music and videos to your Apple device without it.
Apple iTunes comes bundled with another application known as QuickTime, and this is the video player for the program. If you do not have iTunes and QuickTime on your laptop or desktop, you won’t be able to transfer files to iPhone or iPod.
All computer operating systems are compatible with iTunes, so you do not need to worry about that issue cropping up. Also, being a very small application, it will not take up much space on your computer’s hard disk.
Why Reinstall iTunes
Before you learn how to reinstall iTunes, you need to understand what kind of circumstances would lead you to do this. There are certain unavoidable situations and problems that could arise with iTunes or QuickTime and sometimes, the only way to fix them, is to reinstall the whole bundled package.
The following is a list of a few common circumstances that call for a re-installation:
- The version of iTunes that you installed was corrupted, so either iTunes or QuickTime did not work properly.
- The installation process was interrupted, so it is incomplete and the programs are not functioning anymore.
- You lost all the data on your machine due to a virus or some hardware problem, and now you need to reinstall iTunes again.
- Instead of updating iTunes to the latest version, you want to reinstall the application from scratch.
- You accidentally deleted iTunes from your machine.
- Your iPhone or iPod does not sync with the iTunes library when you ask it to, or iTunes does not recognize the iPhone or the iPod at all.
- QuickTime does not play videos when you want it to, and it lags a lot.
Reinstalling iTunes
If you are facing any one of these scenarios, then the best solution is to simply reinstall iTunes. This entire process can be completed in a matter of minutes. Moreover, if you go to the official iTunes website and download iTunes, you will get the latest version, and won’t have to worry about the file being corrupt either. So follow these steps in order to make iTunes and QuickTime on your system work properly again.
Note: The first thing that you need to do before proceeding with the re-installation, is to delete the old iTunes and all the files that are associated with it from your machine completely. If you don’t uninstall iTunes, you will have duplicate files in your system, and this could cause some problems in the future when you are using iTunes again.
For Windows
- Go to the Start menu.
- Click on Control Panel.
- Click on Add or Remove Programs.
- Select iTunes and QuickTime from the resultant list that opens.
- Click on Install/Uninstall to remove all traces of it from your machine.
- Now go to the official Apple website.
- Download and save the latest version of the free iTunes installer.
- Run the installer and change the settings of the new installation as per your preferences
For Mac
- Click on the Macintosh HD button.
- Double click on the Applications icon.
- Select iTunes and QuickTime from the resultant list.
- Drag them to the Trash Bin on your desktop, to delete the bundle and all related files.
- Now go to the official Apple website.
- Download and save the latest version of the free iTunes installer.
- Run the setup and change the settings of the new installation as per your preferences.
This is the most common question that many people have when they undertake this task. A lot of work goes into collecting music on an iTunes library, and restoring this collection, once the library is gone from the computer, can be quite a daunting task. The best suggestion we have, is to maintain a backup folder in your computer’s hard drive or on an external one, containing all the songs that are there in the library. Adding the songs back to the library from this folder is very simple process. The ways to do this are as follows.
For Internal Folder on Computer
- Go to Preferences when the iTunes application is running.
- Click on the Advanced tab.
- Check the box next to Copy Files to iTunes Media Folder When Adding to Library.
- Click on OK.
- The folder will be found within the My Music folder on your machine.
For Folder on External Hard Drive
- Click on the File tab when iTunes is open.
- Click on Library/Organize Library.
- Click on Consolidate Files and then click on OK.
- Connect the hard drive to the computer.
- Drag the iTunes folder from your machine to the hard drive.
Once this has been done, you can reinstall iTunes and then import the music from either of these folders back to the library with ease.
