I too have this problem of iTunes randomly crashing very frequently on Windows 10, which only exhibited when I upgraded from iTunes 12.1 to 12.3. When I go back to 12.1 it all works fine again, but sadly I have iPhone 6S's now and HAVE to have iTunes 12.3 for these to sync. So I really need a fix if anyone has one?
Although of course my login is an administrator user ID, I have also tried running iTunes by right clicking on 'Run as Administrator' and the program seems to last slightly longer, but does still crash. The crashes do not happen on any particularly re-producible event.
Anyone able to help please??
For many, iTunes on Windows has felt more like a punishment from Apple for not using a Mac than a piece of software you actually want to use. For a company at the forefront of design, iTunes has always been the ugly duckling.
Except it hasn't ever grown into a beautiful swan.
Now on version 12.6, what's the current state of iTunes on Windows? Is it still something you should actively avoid or has Apple worked some magic and made it a great piece of software.
Let's attack it from both angles.
The biggest case for using iTunes on Windows at all was always that you owned an iPod, and later and iPhone or iPad. The iPod began its life as a Mac-exclusive product but had Apple not put iTunes, the essential companion software on Windows, it's unlikely that it would have seen the immense success it did.
While there are benefits to using iTunes for certain things with a modern day iOS product, it's no longer the requirement it once was. It is, however, an essential piece of software if you buy any content from Apple's digital store.
The only way to get at music and video you buy from the iTunes Store on your PC is through the iTunes desktop app. You can download your music, for example, and listen to it in other apps such as the built in Groove Music player on Windows 10. But you'll still need iTunes to get that far.
Beyond content you've bought, if you're a subscriber to Apple Music on any of your mobile devices, or you want to listen to Beats 1 (which isn't a bad radio station as it happens), again, you'll need the iTunes desktop app on your PC.
It's mostly an ecosystem play. If your content all comes from Apple, then you're going to need iTunes.
The case against using iTunes on Windows
In simple terms, the opposite to the points above. If you're not invested in Apple's content you don't really need to worry yourself with using iTunes on your PC. There are better apps out there for ripping your own CDs, likewise the Groove Music app built into Windows 10 is nicer to use.
Even if you only want to get at music you've previously bought, the Groove app is cleaner and less of a chore to use, and will play all your iTunes music as well. And honestly, iOS is so well supported, even by Microsoft, that you don't need Fallout new vegas all legion quests. to get your content from Apple to enjoy it on an iPhone or iPad.
Unless there's a specific reason you have to go into iTunes to get something, it's a download you don't really need to make.
I'm going to use it, so what's it like?
The running joke for some time is that iTunes is just a complete dumpster fire. The truth isn't so simple or brutal, but there are still areas that will frustrate. For example, music you've previously purchased and can access through the cloud doesn't just show up. Instead, you have to go into the Store tab and access your purchases.
Why? Microsoft doesn't do that with Groove, it's just an unnecessary complication. And the iTunes user interface is fairly cluttered, too, away from the more modern stylings of the Apple Music areas.
iTunes isn't the most user-friendly application you'll come across, either. There are plenty of features inside, but nothing is particularly obvious and most is buried inside menus. Most jarring when it comes to design, though, is that Apple Music and your own iTunes library look completely different. There's not much cohesion going on. Compared to Groove, where everything follows the same design language, all the time.
It can also be something of a resource hog. I fired up Task Manager several times while using iTunes and it was using over 20% of the CPU — to play music!
It's not all bad, though. The mini-player is actually nicely done, looking more akin to something you'd find in iOS than the dated look you'll find over the of iTunes. And despite different parts looking completely different, the Apple Music area is nicely done. It looks fresh, modern, and above all it's fairly intuitive to use.
What would be best all round would be if Apple split out Apple Music into a standalone app, like when Beats Music was the thing. Apple Music is a great service and it's nice to use, but it's dragged down by the rest of the iTunes experience a little.
The bottom line
iTunes isn't as bad as it once was, but it's still hard to recommend someone actually use it. If you give Apple your money in exchange for content, then you'll have to use it and for the most part be okay with that. So long as you can look past the obvious flaws.
But if you just want an app to listen to your own music and rip your CD collection, there are better ways. One of them is built right in to Windows 10.
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Hi Mark,
Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.
I regret the fact that you are not satisfied and contended with the new Windows 10 OS.
Following are the steps to assist you in how to Roll Back to your previous OS.
1. Click on the Start icon
2. Click on Settings, and then click on Update and Security.
3. On the left pane you will find Recovery option, you will find the option Go Back to Earlier Build and the click on Get Started.
Your system will restore back to your previous OS.
2. Click on Settings, and then click on Update and Security.
3. On the left pane you will find Recovery option, you will find the option Go Back to Earlier Build and the click on Get Started.
Your system will restore back to your previous OS.
Note:
1. If you have upgraded from a Windows 8.1 OS to Windows 10, but your original OS in your computer is either a Windows 7 or 8. The system will roll back to the original OS
2. If you want to roll back your system to the previous OS,31 days after installing Windows 10 you will not be able to perform the roll back.
3. If you perform a Clean install while loading Windows 10, the option to roll back will not be possible.
1. If you have upgraded from a Windows 8.1 OS to Windows 10, but your original OS in your computer is either a Windows 7 or 8. The system will roll back to the original OS
2. If you want to roll back your system to the previous OS,31 days after installing Windows 10 you will not be able to perform the roll back.
3. If you perform a Clean install while loading Windows 10, the option to roll back will not be possible.
Refer to the steps under the section'Go back to your previous version of Windows' from this article.
Note:
If you go back to Windows 8.1, some apps that came with Windows, like Mail and People, might not work anymore. To fix them, reinstall them from the Store.
Your reply is very important for us to ensure a proper resolution. Please get back to us with the above information in
order to assist you accordingly.
Thanks.
I haven't used iTunes in a long while, preferring to use a much more lightweight program such as VLC to play my music as I no longer have an iDevice and therefore no need for the sync and backup features of iTunes.
However I recently noticed that some of the songs I purchased from the iTunes store a long time ago (2010-ish I think) are in m4p format (all DRM'd up) and therefore cannot be played outside of iTunes. So I reinstalled iTunes to the latest version (12.4.1.6) onto my PC (running Windows 10) on which I had not previously had iTunes installed.
iTunes seems to have installed correctly and I was able to authorize the PC to play the old protected songs and I can play them just fine. What I can't seem to do no matter how I try is get iTunes to burn any playlist to disk. I've tried a playlist with protected songs, one without protected songs, even a playlist with just one unprotected song. Every time iTunes just crashes and windows does it's usual fruitless search for solutions.
I just so happened to have Visual Studio installed on my PC so I clicked debug in the hopes that maybe I could make sense of the error but lacking much experience with C++ all I could tell was that it was trying to access a memory location of 0xFFFFFFF(not sure how many F's) which leads me to suspect it's some kind of null pointer or something, but it doesn't say where in the code it comes from so isn't much help to me.
Googling lead me to several things which were clearly for older versions of iTunes and finally to an apple support article purportedly for iTunes 12 that said confirm the burning settings which it told me I would find in preferences under the Advanced tab. But I guess their instructions are out of date because there are no burning options under the Advanced tab that I can find, nor could I find them under any other tab.
Finally having inserted a blank CD to one of my burners (my PC has 2) iTunes prompted me to burn a disk, but it still crashes just the same.
I'm at a loss as to what to try in order to listen to my old music short of using iTunes to play it. I also figure that perhaps it's a bug in iTunes and waiting for a new release may resolve it, but if there is any way around it I would prefer not to wait.
karelItunes Freezing Windows 10
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2 Answers
In short - It turns out that a virtual CDROM drive that I have on my system causes iTunes to crash. Disabling the virtual CDROM drive in the device manager was sufficient to allow iTunes to work.
For those interested in more detail, the virtual CDROM drive on my system is there because I built my pc using what is really meant to be a server motherboard. It is an Asus Z9PE-D16 which includes a remote management interface which supports attaching a remote cdrom drive. It seems that in part, this remote cdrom drive is emulated using hardware built into the remote management interface which means that the drive appears in the device manager even when it's not in use.
Although it doesn't show up in 'My Computer' unless a disk is attached I had previously seen MakeMKV enumerate it as one of the disk drives and then log an error when it could not be accessed. Clearly MakeMKV has better error handling than iTunes.
m3zm3z24711 gold badge44 silver badges1414 bronze badges
Anecdotally, I just solved my issue here. I had Daemon tools installed which may have had something to do with the disk drive messing up. Uninstalling it fixed this problem but it may not be the most fitting solution for you.
Jason HJason H
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