iTunes 5 Not Ready for Prime Time…

So I got home tonight and wanted to checkout the news from Apple today. I saw the ads for the new iPod Neo and the iTunes phone. I also saw that there was a new iTunes 5. I went to Software Updates and upgraded my iTunes, I’ve done this in the past without problems. Well it totally messed up my iTunes Library along with my Podcast subscriptions. Popped on over to the Apple Forums and of course a lot of people are having this problem. Well I made the decision to revert back to iTunes 4.9. It took a little but to track down an iTunes 4.9 installer. Got it downloaded removed iTunes 5, along with all my iTunes receipts, and restored my iTunes Library file. After installing 4.9 everything is back to normal.

So for people that need it here’s the iTunes 4.9 download and the steps I used to restore my Library. (Mac Only)

1. Download the iTunes 4.9 installer.
2. Run “Activity Monitor” found in /Applications/Utilities/, quite the iTunes Helper process.
3. Remove iTunes 5 from your Applications folder.
4. Move all the iTunes* files from /Library/Receipts/ to a backup folder.
5. Move all iTunes Library files to a backup folder. (this is not your music file organized folders, just the XML and “iTunes Library” files.
6. Keep a copy of the “iTunes Library (Damaged)” file in your iTunes folder. Rename it to “iTunes Library”.
7. Run the downloaded iTunes 4.9 installer. Follow on-screen instructions.
8. Run iTunes 4.9, and you should have your Library restored.

Hope this helps people.