I recently received an e-mail from a user who had installed a newer version of iTunes, but then went back to the previous version. When they started the previous version they received an error on the screen related to the “ITunes Library.itl” file. This error prevented iTunes from launching.
I did some research into the issue and managed to find an easy solution to the problem. After describing the steps to correct the problem, the user informed me that iTunes was once again working. In this post I’ll describe the solution.
Restoring Your ITunes Library File
If you decide to revert back to a previous version of iTunes, you may receive the following error:
ITunes Library.itl cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes.
This error prevents iTunes from launching. The library file was modified to work with the newer iTunes version, so it is no longer compatible with the previous version. The good news, however, is that Apple does backup the iTunes library file into a subdirectory that you can use to revert back to the previous version.
To recover a previous version of the iTunes Library.itl file, use the following steps:
- Open up your My DocumentsMy Music folder.
- We will first backup the current version. Rename iTunes Library.itl to something like iTunes Library.itl.bak.
- Go into the My DocumentsMy MusicPrevious iTunes Libraries folder.
- You may see several files that start with iTunes Library and have a date included in the name. Copy the newest file in the folder.
- Go back to the My DocumentsMy Music and paste the file from the previous step.
- Rename the new copied file to iTunes Library.itl.
Your library should now be restored to the previous version of iTunes, and you should no longer receive the message.
Related Posts
iTunes Issue: Windows Keeps Configuring iTunes When Starting
If you liked reading this post, consider following Technically Easy through the following:
on March 29, 2009 at 2:46 pm
I was getting the error about my itunes library being created with a newer version and iTunes app wouldn’t launch fully.
What I found was that the link from the dock was pointing to an older version of the application (8.02) and a newer version has been downloaded into the applications file, but the link from the dock wasn’t hitting the same version somehow. So I deleted the link from the dock, then made a new link from the icon in the application foler…voila, it all works. I now see the iTunes as version 8.1 and it’s recognizing my library.
on April 28, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I don’t understand ” the link from the dock ” Could you explain it step by step to a person who does not know too much about these things.
I have been unable to use itunes for several weeks now and would be very thankful for your help.Thanks a lot.
A Godin
on July 10, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Hi Doug,
I have an iPod 60GB bought in 2006 which came with a iPod and iTunes CD. Few months ago, the hard disk went dead and it was replaced with a similar iPod 60GB with a new SN by paying $149AUD. I download iTunes 8 and it works, but it does not installed iPod for Windows 2006-06-28, whereas the original v6 did. iTunes 2008 or V8 works but it does not have the option for transfering files (manual or automatic). After I reinstall version 6, iTunes could not read the iTunes Library.itl. I copied from the previous foulder and rename the old version with the ‘iTunes Library.itl. It still does not work. I could not used my iPod with the old version.
I will appreciate if you could give me some tips to overcome this error.
Thank you in advance
Ming
on April 7, 2009 at 8:37 pm
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
on April 30, 2009 at 5:32 am
worked a charm, lovely.
thank you so much!
on April 30, 2009 at 8:22 am
No problem.
on June 6, 2009 at 4:13 am
youre a genius , thank u!
on June 9, 2009 at 6:50 pm
thank g for u. totally works.
itunes 8.2 upgrade sucks!
on June 11, 2009 at 4:46 pm
thanks yours was the best answer on the internet
on June 13, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Thanks a lot man! U made my day!
on July 1, 2009 at 3:16 pm
thanks! worked for me
on July 3, 2009 at 12:56 am
Thanks dear. It worked for me as well…..Keep Rocking. If you have any other tips for the Itunes, please send it to me.
Thanks
Amit.
on July 4, 2009 at 9:16 am
Thank you so much; I was quite lost as to what to do. This has been a real success, and I thank you for placing these instructions online. I use itunes for my business, and was thinking I’d have to call in an expensive techy. Thanks again.
on July 31, 2009 at 11:32 am
I did added the old itunes library to itunes, but now i get:
The iTunes application could not be opened. A required iTunes component is not installed. Please repair or reinstall QuickTime. (-42404).
I repaired Quicktime, but still get the same error message. Thoughts?
on August 17, 2009 at 1:54 am
when i open my documents/my music/itunes i am not shown a file named itunes library.itl. the only files show to me are itunes music library, itunes library genius,itunes library, itunes library extras, and a folder named itunes music with no files in it. where is the file itunes library.itl
on October 1, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Itunes library is the library.itl
on August 30, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Thanks! Worked really well. Two features iTunes 8 got rid of are importing using a MP3 encoder and “Convert Selection to MP3″. iTunes 8 does suck!
Good advice!
on October 17, 2009 at 12:11 pm
hi there, this worked for me many thanks. only thing now is there is no music in itunes! nothing completly blank. can you help me get my music back?
thanks
on October 19, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Leon,
I had the same problem. Whenever I started itunes it was creating a new itunes library instead of using the one I had created by naming it itunes library.itl. I fixed it by naming the library I wanted it to use “itunes library” and left it .itl off. Worked like a charm! Just to be clear, find the newest version of your itunes library in “previous itunes libraries” as listed above and copy and paste it to the main screen. Then instead of renaming it “itunes library.itl” just name it “itunes library”. Make sure noting else has the “itunes library” name. Hope it works for you!
on November 3, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Hi,
Version 9 of iTUNES won’t let me use YamIpod, a great little application that lets you transfer your music from your iPod to your PC.
Yes, there are other applications that do that, but they are not free, or don’t work well.
I think the best solution is to go back to iTUNES version 8.0.
Thanks for the information.
on November 8, 2009 at 1:36 am
Hi,
My iTunes has the same problem but when i open the “previous itunes libraries” it’s empty ,there’s no file in there to copy n paste to the main screen
I store all my mp3 song in the folder in diskG:/ ,but there’s one same folder music in diskC:/ has the same itunes’s folder too
Im tired of whenever i start itunes,i have to add the music folder once again
on November 10, 2009 at 12:18 am
i have a little bit of a different problem…earlier today i attempted to create a new folder and put a file that was in my general library into it. it copied it fine. i closed itunes. later, opened it again, and it said -cannot start without previous library picked..gave me a few options..i picked the one with the most recent date, which was a bit ago..and now all my most recently uploaded music is not there..i went into previous libraries though my music etc, and there is nothing that resembles what my library looked like prior to this going nuts…
on November 14, 2009 at 11:05 pm
An even worse (and different problem) is that I have just installed the latest upgrade (Itunes version 9xxx) and it has completely removed my playlists and library. I can get the library back by renaming the .itl file as above but the playlists have gone. I had several and had spent a considerable amount of time compiling them. Now 6 months work is down the drain. Any ideas as to how to restore old playlists????
on November 16, 2009 at 5:30 am
Hi John, the same has happened to me. I have completely lost all of my playlists. I found a version of a library … not sure if it the most recent as i no longer have my playlists and because my music is Middle Eastern (I am a belly dancer) it is difficult for me to know if i have got it all back. Plus without all of my playlists i now don’t know which songs go with which choreography dvds etc… and I have a heck of a lot of them that i have collected over the past 6 years. I cannot find my back up cds. I know i did them but they seem to have been misplaced. I have had to move things around to stop baby from getting cds and maybe hid them then, but i really can’t recall where. So now i am stuck in the same boat as you without my play lists. If anyone works out how to get them back please let me know. rakssharqi@bigpond.com
on November 17, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Anne Marie
Yes its very frustrating. However I assume you realise that you would still have your music files on your computer in their original directories. The only reason I mention this is because in your email you sound as though you might think you have lost everything.
But, even though the files are still there, the playlists that are the important part of knowing how you have compiled everything. I can sympathise with you as I am in a similar position in that my playlists involved approximately 75 hours of music in different categories for a radio program I present each week. I have spent 6 months compiling them into categories (pop, romantic etc) and even have them in a play order. Now I have to start again.
This time around I am creating a column (in the column browser) called ‘Grouping’ and I am placing the playlist name in that column against each song. This means that if it should happen again then at least I will can sort that column into the playlist names and place each group into a new playlist. This way I will always know what playlist a particular song belongs to.When I get it finished I won’t be using iTunes again for this sort of thing. If I find a good mp3 management program I will let you know.
on November 18, 2009 at 12:22 am
Thanks John, yes i found a load of songs in folders on my computer but don’t know if that is everything as i had thousands of songs before and my only real way of knowing if they were all there is seeing them in my playlists again. Like you i rely on those playlists for my job. Yes in looking for a solution to this problem i have found that many other people are in the same position, so if you do find a good mp3 program yes please let me know.
its a nightmare really and i haven’t gotten around to starting to put playlists back in. I would have to look at all of my dvds and hear the music from each one and then go through the music on the computer and try to recognise which songs in arabic go with which choreographies. Obviously music i have listened to a lot in more recent times i have found quickly as i know their names and know what to type in to search for them. But other songs i will have to recognise the music when i hear it to know which playlist to allocate.
on November 24, 2009 at 8:32 am
Hey.
I have windows vista (32) and there is no Previous iTunes Libraries folder…
but the error is the same.
would be great, if you could help me
on December 10, 2009 at 12:26 am
i didn’t have the folder either. i just renamed the file like step number two and mine worked
on November 28, 2009 at 12:35 pm
STILL NOT WORKING!
on December 29, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Thank-you thank-you thank-you!! You just helped me recover thousands of songs from years of downloading that were accidentally deleted on my computer…you’re a lifesaver!
on January 1, 2010 at 7:04 am
The approach worked without major problems. Naturally, newly added files and folders were lost and had to be added again, followed by consolidation. By knowing the date of the iTunes Library.itl file, and comparing with dates of the iTunes sound/music files and folders, this was a straightforward task. – Many thanks
on January 7, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Thank youuu SO MUCH
on January 10, 2010 at 1:52 am
what if ur on Windows XP and ur files only appear as “iTunes Library” – how do you make this file change work? I was able to open iTunes after trying this, but my “Music” section was empty…don’t want to import 1200 songs one by one
on January 14, 2010 at 2:06 am
Got the library to open. Thank you! But my library of music didn’t carry over or playlists.
The music is still there but how do I get it back into the library?
How do I prevent the error from happening again?
Can I put all the music on my ipod back into iTunes with the different playlists?
on April 2, 2010 at 2:42 am
works great with the newest itunes version. i’m on win 7 x64. thanks a lot
on April 11, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Excellent!!!
Worked for me. Windows XP.
THANK YOU.
Eli
on April 14, 2010 at 10:23 pm
Thank you sooooo much. It worked great.
on May 6, 2010 at 7:06 pm
God bless you. You were so helpful. Thank you so much.
on May 13, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Omg this is so helpful but…. When i got to my documents all that shows is dowloaded music , and ichat. PLease help me step by step.
on June 12, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Thank you very very. It worked for me. I should have seen this article ..
on June 18, 2010 at 11:59 am
When I went into iTunes, it asked me if I wanted to download the 9.2 newer version of iTunes. I accepted and when the newer version came, all my music was gone. I exited out of iTunes and tried to get the older version back but when I try and go into iTunes, nothing happens. It won’t let me go into it. Do you know what’s wrong with it? Any help I can get would be much appreciated!
on June 19, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Leane, the exact same thing happened to me. I downloaded the new version of itunes and then i went into it and the it said itunes.itl cannont be found. I ended up having to re-install itunes and i used a previous itunes library but now i try to sync my ipod and it freezes. Have you had any luck? or any help from anyone would be great!!!
on June 25, 2010 at 5:27 am
This has made my life a misery in the last three days. Try the following sight for information.
http://appletoolbox.com/2010/06/itunes-9-2-sync-problems-wont-sync-slow-fixes/
I’m currently trying to go back iTunes 9.1.1
on June 25, 2010 at 5:39 am
Sorry folks, the link was for an Apple site (which was fine for me but maybe not for you). However reverting to the old iTunes and reinstating an iTunes library does appear to have got me back to where a working iTunes and iPod system.
on June 29, 2010 at 11:32 pm
Thanks so much. It’s so amazing. Problem solved just by few clicks.Cool!
on July 7, 2010 at 11:17 am
oh thank you so much. i’m having these problem for like days. thank u so much. this helps me a lot..
on July 7, 2010 at 4:02 pm
I was really getting worked up for a minute. You really rock for posting this. Thank you!
on July 13, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Doesn’t this cause your current library to be lost? I tried this step for step, adn yes itunes opens, but all of my songs and library disappeared.
on July 13, 2010 at 3:11 pm
It probably would cause your current library to be lost. The steps outlined in this post were used to correct the problem of opening a newer version of your library with an older version of the iTunes application.
on July 13, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Ahh I see. Oh well. I redid the steps and most of my library was salvaged. I just have to readd 1000 songs…. yarg.
I initially had itunes 9, but my classic wasn’t working with it.. so I uninstalled that and reinstalled itunes 8.
on July 15, 2010 at 2:27 pm
You’ll be in my prayers for this………….!BLESS YOU!
on July 15, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Thanks.
on August 1, 2010 at 9:33 pm
Hello,
My iTunes library was created with a later version of iTunes (8.?), but I would like to use version 7.6. I followed the instructions and they didn’t work for me. I would greatly appreciate some help with this.
Thanks,
Thomas
on September 10, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Uninstalled V10 and reinstalled V9.2.1. V10 messed up my album files. Renamed current .itl file as .itl.old. Copied previous .itl file to same directory as current .itl location. Renamed copied file to itunes library.itl. Worked fine. Got itunes 9.2.1 to open properly. All albums came out as they were before I inadvertantly upgraded to V10.
Thanks.
on September 12, 2010 at 11:30 am
Glad it worked for you.
on September 22, 2010 at 8:26 am
Hello; I’ve followed your instructions, and iTunes now opens, but is empty of content. Can you explain in simple terms to an idiot like me how to restore my library to iTunes?
David
on November 30, 2010 at 7:13 pm
I’d like to revert from 10 to 7.5 without losing my ratings and playcounts. There’s probably no way, is there?
on December 3, 2010 at 9:10 pm
thank you very much i messed up my library this saved me from hours and hours and hours of rebuilding it!
on December 28, 2010 at 4:40 pm
Thanks!
on February 2, 2011 at 2:54 pm
I have followed every step and I still cannot open my itunes the same message is comming up, can you suggest anything else please I am so done with itunes I have a very very large libary going back replacing my vinal records with a lot of old school music, so if anyone can help please let me know
on April 22, 2011 at 3:59 am
Just tried this fix, worked perfectly and my itunes is now up and running again! Thanks very much!
on April 29, 2011 at 3:53 am
Worked for me………Thanks!!!
on May 18, 2011 at 5:09 am
I did this and I get itunes to work but my library has nothing…. what do i do to fix this issue?????
on June 5, 2011 at 4:33 pm
If you guys have the 10th version, updated it, and reinstalled the 10th, just delete the iTunes folders(itunes and playlist) and install it again, it will work perfectly.
on June 6, 2011 at 8:05 am
Thanks for the advice, Roy.
on June 30, 2011 at 5:44 am
I followed the steps and after some confusion I eventually got iTunes to at least load again back to the version I wanted. However, there’s NOTHING in my library and I can’t seem to figure out how to correct that. How would I go about getting the songs that were in my library before my initial gaffe (stupid me for messing around and downloading the newest version because it was awful after years of declining it) now that I’ve got the version I want again?
Thanks for the help!
on July 2, 2011 at 10:47 am
This worked perfectly! Coodos man!
on July 8, 2011 at 8:06 am
worked!
on July 28, 2011 at 8:22 pm
lost everything on itunes/iphone OS update, pictures, notes, files, contacts. the only thing i have now is apps and music. Called apple they want $29 for phone support and online support is free with no answers to my problems. need help
on August 1, 2011 at 4:49 pm
Thank you, you saved me a lot of time!
on August 12, 2011 at 7:00 am
Thanks a lot Bro..
Worked perfectly !!!
on September 26, 2011 at 10:54 am
THANK YOU!
on October 18, 2011 at 5:28 am
Thanks for this post and comments. This is a life saver.
renaming the .itl file didnt work for me.The error kept coming back. But as someone had posted a few pages back
> rename the existing “Itunes Library” to “itunes library.bak” – not the .itl file, chose the file w/o extention.
> copy the latest “itunes Library -date-” file into the itunes folder
>remove the date on a file rename. have no extention.
start older veriosn of itunes – it should work. i does for me.
IMHO Those fed up with using itunes to manage music on ipod/iphone/ipad should try out MediaMonkey. Works like a charm. Except that those guys take a while to make MM compatible with the upgrades in itunes/IOS. As is MMBeta4 can handle Itunes 10.5, but not IOS5 yet.
on October 18, 2011 at 8:17 am
Thanks for an alternative solution, Kazaan.
on October 25, 2011 at 1:48 am
hey there, i went into my music, but there’s no file named “itunes libarry itl. ”
but i still get the message saying the same thing. please help!!
on October 30, 2011 at 1:35 pm
Thanks – you are a star. I had exactly the same on mine, ie updated to 10.5 and everything sounded like a dalek. Thought was quicktime at first so re-installed that and tested quicktime working fine, winamp playing fine therefore must be itunes. Reinstalled – no different. Installed earlier version and wouldnt pick up the library. Found your info and all works great now. Been at this all day !!!!! Thanks a lot, from Richard !!!
on December 29, 2011 at 11:15 am
Thank you!!!
on January 7, 2012 at 1:12 pm
thanks, I’ve now followed your guide and reinstalled 10.4 and have finally managed to get ITunes working again.
David
on March 3, 2012 at 12:39 pm
holy crap! for some reason today i managed to delete my library off my ipad.. so i went to save it and reoad form my itunes..but i guess i hadnt been on my itunes on laptop since early january.. so i had updated some stuff since then and it had to reimport library etc.. fancy stuff i dont get.. anyways… i accidentally pressed abort when my library was importing onto my laptop. anyways.. as soon as i aborted import i found my whole music library still there but my playlists all had been wiped clean!!! i totally freaked out and googled for help.. first post i found was this one and it saaaved my whole library.. and day!!!! as most people, my playlists go back to 2006 and are very well organized how i like, and with thousands of songs and videos.. that is a necessity.. so thats years of worked i had managed to wipe clean soo quickly and carelessly.. without itunes even offering “are you sure you want to abort?”
doing this EASY procedure you posted here on 1 of my previously saved libraries from dec saved my itunes and a lot of hours of trying to rectify the situation on my own! so glad i found this and thank you soo much.. i only have to reimport stuff from the past month.. instead of redoing dozens of playlists – including my ipod playlist.. which, if anyone knows… can take hours to sift through and choose from thousands of songs!!!
on May 12, 2012 at 9:17 am
Hello my friends:
You can get the old itunes libraries on this local path:
C:\Documents and Settings\\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\Previous iTunes Libraries\
But, before you replace the iTunes Library.itl file… review the previous, because on the first line appears the itunes version number.
I recommend to use Total Commander and press F3 (Viewer) on every C:\Documents and Settings\\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\Previous iTunes Libraries\ file. Before replacing.
Twitter: djsongohan