I’ve been experimenting with a beta release of Apple iTunes on my Mac system and decided I didn’t really want to use it after all. When I went back to my regular iTunes app, however, I hit an error and don’t know how to proceed. It said “The file iTunes Library.itl cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes.” How do I fix it?
I think this is where I say “don’t use beta software unless you know how to fix the problems that might crop up” but since I do the same — which is how I hit this error myself — it’d be a bit bogus. Further, the solution is pretty easy once you know how to do it, and it’s a nice demonstration of how well iTunes takes care of things for us to avoid us getting into trouble.
You will need to rename some files and poke around a bit on your system, but it’s not too bad. The basic problem is that each version of iTunes embeds its own version number into the data files it uses (.itl = iTunes library) to ensure that if anything’s been tweaked or expanded that your music and video library don’t get messed up.
To start out, here’s the error message I bet you’re seeing:
Scary and if you’re running beta software, trying to download the latest version of iTunes accomplishes nothing. Now what? First things first: quit iTunes.
Now, to fix it, you need to move an older version of the “iTunes Library.itl” file into the main iTunes folder, extracting it from a backup folder. First step is to go to your own iTunes Library (your home directory –> Music –> iTunes), where you’ll find this:
Click once on the “iTunes Library.itl” file and then click your cursor into the filename under the icon. Add “.old” as a suffix:
In that same directory should be a folder called “Previous iTunes Libraries”. Open it and look inside:
The most recent copy of your iTunes Library is the one with the “.itl” suffix. That’s what we want. Duplicate it (select it and choose File –> Duplicate), then drag the duplicate up to the “iTunes” folder one level above.
You can also drag the original and leave the copy behind, of course.
Either way, you’ll end up with a new file that has a name like this:
Almost done. Again, click on the filename, then click *into* the filename just once, so you can change it’s name. Remove the date stamp so that it just reads “iTunes Library.itl”, then relaunch iTunes.
Yay! We’re good and it works great now. You should be all set too.
Thank you so much sir for your easy to follow solution. I am surprised I did not try to download the file from iTunes. I appreciate it greatly!
regards, marcus
Can’t thank you enough. Really thought Big Business’ footprint was squeezing more life out of me.
It works. Thanks a lot.
Hi there,
I have been experiencing some problems with my iTunes. When clicking the desktop icon a message popped up that said ‘error’ new iTunes library. Im not sure why this was happening and I was unable to access iTunes at all. I then went into the control panel and tried to ‘repair’ the programme but now when I click on the iTunes icon it reads ‘iTunes cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes’ still cant access iTunes and am at a complete loss as what to do. I’m running iTunes on windows 7 on my laptop.
many thanks,
Matt Austin
Thanks a lot…thanks…
You are a boss. Worked like a miracle. I am so glad to have the old iTunes back.
This worked perfectly and now have ITunes successfully downloaded and working. Thanks for the info.
Hi Dave. I’ve followed these steps, but the only itunes library i had in the “previous itunes…” folder was the itunes11 library. So, same error message. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
JE
Apple your itunes 11 sucks who and what invinted this complete false input of a update…thank you dave for helping me go back in time to the way life music and videos should be seen itunes 10.6 ….thanks man!!! your steps are great
THX A LOT 🙂
THE BEST. i had an issue with my iPhone after updating to iTunes 11 (garbage) and then after my restore point i had issues with iTunes launching. My iPhone was not getting any support from my PC. this is the best fix!!
I had issues with the latest version of iTunes 11.0.1 and didn’t even like it to begin with. So, thanks to you I was able to find the last version of iTunes 10 and then with this little backup file swap and rename you alluded to above, I was able to get iTunes back on to my PC and get iTunes up and running. THANK YOU DAVE TAYLOR!!
HELP! My Mac went all blue and gray, so I reinstalled the Operating system that it came with and finally got my MAC back–but, for some reason, iTunes were gone, so I tried redownloading itunes–then I found this site, so I went through the steps, only, in my itunes file there are no other files, except for one weird looking thing that says iTunes plug ins–what gives? I have my music on my IPAD,my Ipod, and some on my iphone, but I don’t know how to get the music back onto my Mac, any ideas?
Thanks.
I followed all the steps here. But I still get the message about having to download the newer version of iTunes….Any help is appreciated, as all my playlists and ratings are gone.
Thank you this works very well
Hello, I followed all your directions but now all my music and movies are missing from my itunes library. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
massssivvve!! I was going nuts with the windows to MAC itunes transfer
Never had a problem until today… i though it was a problem of pc-mac compatibility but in fact the itl was corrupted
thanks
When I click on a song I want to hear it says “The song _____ could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?” I haven’t got a clue what or where to look. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
When I followed the above steps to retrieve my music, I find that I don’t have any files in my “previous Itunes library” file. Is there anything else I can do? anyplace else to look for those files? Please tell me I haven’t lost it all…
brilliant thanks! sorted 🙂
Thank you so much for the easy to follow instructions! Works perfectly!
Was having this problem for over a week now. Thanks so much for helping out! I finally fixed it!
Just thank you so much!!
Thank you so much for the very easy directions. I am so happy my library works again!
not helpful if you don’t have a mac.
Thanks a million. It works perfectly.
Thank you SO much for these straight forward, easy to follow instructions! I was freaking out when I couldn’t open up my itunes this afternoon.
hi. Thanks for this fix. It worked right away as you instructions indicated. However, the next day I got the same error message and had to run the instructions again. Any thoughts?
Thanks….just fixed my itunes issue following your instructions!!!
This saved my sanity. Thanks!
Sorry you’re having such problems, MJ. Last case scenario: Quit iTunes. Pull the “iTunes Media” folder back onto your desktop. Start up iTunes again. Now drag the iTunes Media folder directly onto the iTunes app. Then it’ll copy each and every file, processing it as it goes. Once it’s done, make sure everything copied properly, all the music works, etc, then drag the “iTunes Media” folder off your desktop and into the trash. Restart, make sure it *still* has all the music and other media in iTunes and working properly, then empty the trash. Good luck!
Hi, And sorry for bothering you again but i tried the advice you gave and it seems i have lost or miplaced most of my music i had on itunes. My next and , it seems my only option is to step back my computer by approx one week. This wont do any harm to any work as i use another P/C. All i need to know is how to do this on my Mac? Best regards Michael.
Well, the sort of radical way to do this, M. J., is to open up your “iTunes” folder, then drag the “iTunes Media” folder onto your desktop. Now delete the “iTunes” folder completely (all your content is safely on the Desktop, no worries) then launch iTunes. It should start from scratch, creating any folders and subfolders it needs, any new data files required, etc. It’ll be empty.
Now quit ITunes and drag “iTunes Media” back, replacing the empty folder that iTunes just created.
Relaunch and it should be able to find everything!
Further to my earlier question, i tried to find ”itunes library itl” file on my mac and cannot find it.how do i fix this problem, help please
I have a problem with itunes. when i try to access my music files i get this message, ”The file ‘itunes Library’ cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of itunes” my question is, how do i get the old version of my itunes, with all my music, back on my Mac or how do i get my music to transfer to the new version of itunes.
hi. I just wanted to express how extremely grateful I am to you for your straight forward instruction to solve this problem!
I could not believe it when my itunes would not open earlier & once I re installed it NOTHING was present (including my playlist for my ipod.) It’s safe to say I felt sick & could’ve almost burst into tears. But after hours of searching & many failed attempts to solve this I came across your page & everything now, is back to normal!
I AM SO SO GRATEFUL – THANK YOU!