Reinstalling iTunes. How to completely remove iTunes from your computer. Removal using Windows

This rarely happens, but it does happen when for some reason you need to uninstall iTunes. For example, installing more old version, reinstallation or complete removal programs from a computer. Uninstalling the program itself is not enough, since iTunes along with itself installs additional components necessary for its operation. In this article we will tell you how to properly remove iTunes and all related programs. However this instruction you may never need it.

The iTunes media combiner serves as a link between your computer and Apple devices: synchronization, update software, backups, etc., so we will consider the options:

Your media library (music, movies, programs) stored in iTunes and backups iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch You will find:

macOS
/Users/ Username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media
/Users/ Username/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

Windows
C:\Users\ Username\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media
C:\Users\ Username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

How to Uninstall iTunes on macOS (OS X) Computers

Step 1 Quit iTunes and go to the Applications folder, it is located in the Finder side menu

Step 2 You won’t be able to delete iTunes like other programs by dragging it to the trash. You will receive the error: “The “iTunes” object cannot be modified or deleted because it is required for macOS (OS X) to work.” Therefore, select the program and press the keyboard shortcuts ⌘Cmd+I. A program properties window will appear in front of you, click the button in the lower right corner of the window and enter the password account. Now in the field " Sharing and access rights" for all users, set the rights Read and write, then move the program to the trash ⌘Cmd + Delete

For OS X El Capitan and macOS Sierra, you can skip these steps and simply press ⌘Cmd + ⌥Option (Alt) + Delete - this will delete the program past the trash can, you only need to enter the user password

Step 3 Open the program " System Settings", it is also located in the Applications folder and select Now select your user, click Login Items and remove "iTunesHelper" from startup. Select the program and click on the button -

Step 5 Restart your computer

Uninstall iTunes on macOS using Terminal

For latest versions On macOS, the method described above will not work. Therefore, here you will need to use the “Terminal” program, with its help you can remove iTunes on both new and old versions of the operating system.

Step 1 Launch the Terminal program, it can also be found in the Applications folder, or press the keyboard shortcuts ^Ctrl + Space and use Spotlight search

Step 2 In a terminal window, enter the following command to completely remove iTunes from your computer:

sudo rm -rf /Applications/iTunes.app

Step 3 After this, you will be required to enter the account (administrator) password. It is worth noting that when entering a password in the “Terminal”, from a security point of view, its characters are not displayed

Important! If you have macOS installed High Sierra, Mojave or higher, then before this you need to disable System Integrity Protection or SIP (System Integrity Protection) for the method to work. For other versions of macOS (OS X) you do not need to do this!

How to Uninstall iTunes on Windows Computers

iTunes on Windows computers additionally installs several more software components; they are necessary for its full operation. The removal of all these programs must be carried out strictly in the following order:

iTunes
Apple Software Update
Apple Mobile Device Support
Bonjour
Apple Software Support (32-bit)
Apple Software Support (64-bit)

At times, iTunes may install both versions of Apple Application Support at once. Therefore, if you have both x86 and x64 versions installed, uninstall them both.

Step 1 Open the utility Programs and components. To do this, use the Win + R key combination to open the “Run” window and enter appwiz.cpl

In Windows 10, you can still use the “Applications and Features” component (Anniversary Update (1607) - Settings → System; Creators Update (1703) and higher - Settings → Applications)

Step 2 Among installed programs Find programs associated with iTunes and, one by one, according to the list, remove them. Use the Uninstall button located at the top or call the program uninstaller by double-clicking the left mouse button on it

Step 3 After uninstalling iTunes and its components, you must remove all traces of programs (files and folders that may have remained after uninstallation)

iTunes
C:\Program Files\iTunes
C:\Program Files(x86)\iTunes
C:\ProgramData\Apple Computer\iTunes
C:\Users\ Username\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\iTunes
C:\Users\ Username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes
C:\Users\ Username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\Preferences

Apple Software Update
C:\Users\ Username\AppData\Local\Apple Software Update

Apple Mobile Device Support
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support

Bonjuor
C:\Program Files\Bonjour
C:\Program Files(x86)\Bonjour

Apple Application Support
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Apple Application Support

You will not necessarily find all of these folders, or they will be empty, since their contents will be deleted when the program is uninstalled. To display hidden files and folders, in the Explorer window, select “View” → “Show or hide” and select the checkbox When all operations are completed, restart the computer

You can also use the program to completely remove iTunes in Windows Revo Uninstaller, there is both paid and free version program, you can download it from here. Revo Uninstaller is interesting because it not only uninstalls the program, but also deletes residual files and cleans the system registry of the mentioned program.

Now you have the opportunity to install absolutely any iTunes version. All versions of the program for macOS and Windows are available on this and this site. You can always download the latest version from the Apple website.

Pay attention! If in the future you want to install a version of iTunes lower than what you had, then delete iTunes file Library.itl, which is located in the folder: /Users/ Username/Music/iTunes/ . Otherwise, when you start the program, you will receive the corresponding error:

All owners mobile devices from Apple occasionally encounter problems when using . Not rare this program does not work correctly and produces various errors. To solve this problem, it is often recommended to completely remove iTunes from your computer and reinstall it from scratch.

But, completely removing iTunes is not such an easy task. The fact is that other Apple programs are installed along with iTunes and you need to remove them all separately. Now we will tell you how to completely remove iTunes computer under operating room control Windows systems 7 or Windows 10.

Step No. 1. Shut down the iTunes and Apple processes.

To ensure that nothing interferes with the removal of iTunes, it is advisable to start this procedure by completing the processes. To do this, you need to open the Task Manager (for example, by pressing CTRL-SHIFT-ESC) and go to the Processes tab (if you have Windows 7) or the Details tab (if you have Windows 10).

Next you need to study the list of running processes and complete everything related to the iTunes program or Apple products. Most likely, you will find processes such as AppleMobileDeviceHelper.exe, AppleMobileDeviceService.exe, iTunesHelper.exe, iPodService. Feel free to complete all these processes. To do this you need to click right click mouse over the process and select “Finish” or “Cancel”.

More detailed information You can read about the processes that belong to Apple software.

Step No. 2. Uninstall iTunes through the Windows Control Panel.

Once the process is complete, you can begin uninstalling iTunes. To do this, you need to open the Windows Control Panel. If you have Windows 7, then you can use Start to do this.

In Windows 10, everything is no longer so simple. Here you will need to press the combination Windows-R keys and execute the "control" command.

After opening the Control Panel, you need to go to the “Uninstall programs” section.

As a result, you should see a list of all installed programs. To quickly find all Apple programs, use the search bar in the upper right corner of the window. Enter the query “Apple” and the system will show programs that relate to this company. Most likely, you will have 5 or 6 programs installed, these are: Apple Mobile Device Support, Apple Software Update, iTunes, Bonjour and Apple Program Support (or Apple Application Support).

In order to completely remove iTunes from your computer, you need to remove all these programs. This is done very simply, right-click on the program, select the “Uninstall” option and follow the installer’s instructions.

After completing the removal of one program, we move on to the next and so on until everything is deleted.

Step No. 3. Delete the files remaining after iTunes.

In order to completely remove iTunes from your computer, you need to additionally clean the folders from files that might remain there. To do this, manually open the following folders and check if there are any files there.

C:\Program Files\Bonjour
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Apple Application Support
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\CoreFP
C:\Program Files\iTunes\
C:\Program Files\iPod\
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Apple\
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Apple Inc\
C:\Users\Username\Music\iTunes (folder with the iTunes library, if you want to keep the contents of the library, you do not need to delete this folder)

If we manage to find something, feel free to delete it. Once completed, restart your computer and you are done, you have completely removed iTunes from your computer.

iTunes can rightfully be called, which is installed on everyone Mac computers out of the box, as well as on all Windows computers if their owners have at least one iOS device. But while this program can be easily removed on Windows, it is much more difficult to pull off the same trick on OS X.

Simply dragging iTunes to the trash and deleting the application this way will not work. First you need to open the “Programs” section, find iTunes there and select “Properties”. After that, look for the padlock icon and enter the administrator password to make the necessary changes.

Did you do it? Great. All that remains is to close the “Properties” window, and then simply drag the application to the trash. All that remains is to empty the trash.

If after some time you want to install iTunes on your Mac again, just open your Mac, go to Updates and download iTunes again. By the way, deleting iTunes in this way does not affect the user’s music files and his libraries.

Unfortunately, although iTunes is considered one of the most universal tools for synchronizing Apple devices with computer systems, in Windows (and any modification) quite often one can observe the occurrence of conflicts. The program may not work correctly or not work at all. In the simplest case, it needs to be reinstalled or updated. But first, the application must be uninstalled. This is where the problem arises of how to completely remove iTunes from your computer. It would seem that everything is simple, but no. It is necessary to take into account several points, without knowledge of which it will be impossible to completely remove the application.

How to completely remove iTunes from your computer: what should you pay attention to before deleting?

Before proceeding with uninstallation, you need to clearly understand that during installation, the distribution package contained several additional utilities that were installed into the system automatically without user intervention.

Based on this, it is not difficult to guess that the matter will not be limited to just deleting the main application (iTunes). Moreover, the problem with Windows computer, has a flip side to the coin. The fact is that even after uninstalling all installed components, the system remains unnecessary files and folders that are just regular computer junk. This is connected both with the iTunes uninstaller itself and with a similar Windows service(they simply don't remove residual objects).

How to remove iTunes from your computer? Windows 7: standard procedure

So, armed with knowledge, you can begin uninstallation. At the first stage, the problem of how to completely remove iTunes from a computer comes down to a completely standard procedure.

First, you should use the programs and components section located in the “Control Panel”, where in the list of installed applications, in addition to the iTunes program, you need to additionally find Bonjour, Restore, Mobile Device Support (developed by Apple Inc.), Application Support (Apple) and Apple Software Update. There is also a Quick Time media platform. You can leave it as this support may be useful in the future.

In principle, all programs in the list will be located next to each other. If this is not the case, you can sort installed applications by publisher or by installation date. Next, you just need to remove all components using a standard tool.

Residual objects

The next step is to remove the remaining debris. First of all, you should pay attention to the Program Files directory. In it you need to delete the Bonjour, iPod and iTunes directories with all their contents.

Next, in the same directory, go to the CommonFiles folder, find the Apple folder in it and delete the CoreFP, Apple Application Support and Mobile Device Support directories. You can try to initially delete the entire Apple folder, but this usually has no effect. In addition, in addition to the specified directories, it may contain other elements used by the Windows system and not related to iTunes in any way.

There is one more element - the so-called media library - a folder in which user multimedia files are located. The question of deleting it remains solely with the user (usually the directory is located in the “Music” directory of the corresponding account that is currently active.

Additional uninstallation tools

Finally, you can solve the problem of how to completely remove iTunes from your computer using a simpler method using special uninstaller utilities that work much better than the system’s own tool or a similar built-in Apple tool ( iObit Uninstaller, Revo Uninstaller, etc.).

Such programs are good because they allow multiple selection of elements to be deleted, and automatically find and delete residual files, folders and system registry entries. In some cases, you don't even need to check all related iTunes applications. It is enough to start uninstalling the application you are looking for, and all the others will be “picked up” automatically. In both cases, upon completion of the removal, you need to perform a complete restart of the system.

There are nuances that you probably don’t know about.

Unfortunately, no third-party software, for example, or, can fully replace iTunes (only iTunes can be used in and modes), so you have to put up with the quality of its work.

Sometimes it is necessary to remove iTunes from your computer and install it again or update it, for example, if there is a problem software glitch, after which the program does not start or works with errors.

The sequence of removing iTunes and its components from a Windows computer

As you may have noticed, at the same time as iTunes, other components are automatically installed in Windows, such as: Apple Software Update, Apple Mobile Device Support, Bonjour and Apple Application Support. They are required to update Apple software. iPhone connections, iPad and iPod Touch and their synchronization.

Remove iTunes and all its components in the Panel Windows Controls in the "Programs and Features" menu in the following order:

iTunes;
Apple Software Update;
Apple Mobile Device Support;
Bonjour;
Apple Application Support (32-bit);
Apple Application Support (64-bit).

On some systems, iTunes may install two versions of Apple Application Support. This is expected behavior. If you have two versions installed, be sure to uninstall both.

How to remove iTunes from a Windows computer?

If you do this using the operating system, 3 steps may be required:

Manually end iTunes processes.
Remove the program and its components.
Clear the registry.

1. Terminate iTunes processes on Windows

Depending on what Apple software is running on your computer, there may be different iTunes processes running on Windows. Background processes, Apple server addresses and ports through which iTunes connects to them are available on the service page Apple support via the link.

I will not duplicate them completely; I will only list the main ones that may need to be completed manually.

AppleMobileDeviceHelper.exe - Monitors control commands to enable communication between iTunes and devices.
AppleMobileDeviceService.exe - Recognizes iPhone and iPod touch in iTunes.
iTunesHelper.exe - Monitors control commands to establish communication between iTunes and devices (such as iPhones).

These processes work in background even if iTunes itself is not running.

To complete them:

Complete other iTunes-related processes in the same way.

2. Removing iTunes and its components

That's not all: While Apple promises that "in most cases, uninstalling iTunes and its related components from Control Panel will remove all supporting files associated with those programs," but service folders and some files after uninstalling Apple software still remain. They must be removed manually. To do this:

3. Cleaning the registry of iTunes entries and its components

It's easy to remove iTunes and all its components along with the recordings Windows registry using uninstallers. My favorites are the free and paid Uninstall Tool. The latter automatically deletes information about programs in the registry, so there is no need to search for them manually after uninstalling the program.

After 2 years of daily use MacBook Pro I only once needed to delete iTunes in OS X. And that was because I configured the virtual Windows machine V . As a result, I created a common different versions programs in OS X and Windows. After which an error began to occur upon startup. I had to uninstall iTunes on Mac.

How to remove iTunes on Mac?

The first thing you should know is that it is not that simple. The fact is that iTunes is part of OS X (the program is preinstalled in operating system) and is protected from deletion in the usual way (by moving it to the trash and then emptying it).

All attempts to remove iTunes from the Applications folder in OS X fail with the message: "The 'iTunes' object cannot be modified or deleted because it is required by OS X." And the uninstaller does not “see” the program at all.

And still, there are 2 ways to remove iTunes on a Mac computer in OS X:

Complex - using the terminal.
Simple - with changing access rights in the properties of the object and then deleting it through the trash.

Which method to choose is up to you. I will describe both, starting with simple ones.

1. How to remove iTunes in OS X - the easy way.

The same can be done using the command in system program Terminal.

2. How to uninstall iTunes in OS X - the hard way.

Conclusion

Despite the apparent complexity of the process, you are unlikely to encounter Windows errors when uninstalling iTunes through Programs and Features, you will not have to manually end iTunes processes and clean the registry first. And on Mac computers it’s completely simple, either through the terminal or with changing access rights. The main thing is to fill your hand.

If you still own an iPhone or iPad, after uninstalling from Apple's official website (it's free) and install. This will avoid a lot of iTunes errors.

Do you have any questions, comments or additions? Write in the comments, we will certainly help (if it is in our power).