Downgrade Mac OS X iTunes 7.6 to 7.5, Really

This guide is for Mac OS X users only….

So you want to jailbreak your iPod touch to firmware 1.1.3 but you can’t because you cannot use iTunes 7.6 to jailbreak it. Fret not, just downgrade your iTunes from version 7.6 back to good ‘ol version 7.5 with the following simple steps.

Feb 10 Update: It’s possible to jailbreak in Mac OS X’s iTunes 7.6, but you might still want to downgrade your Mac’s iTunes 7.6 to 7.5 for other reasons, such as avoiding the annoying nagging screen of January Software Upgrade. So here’s how to do it:

1. Download a copy of iTunes 7.5 from here. Do not proceed any further until you have a copy!
2. Download and install “Pacifist” in your OS X. Do not proceed any further until you have installed Pacifist.
3. Look inside ~/Music/iTunes/. You’ll find there’s a folder by the name of “Previous iTunes Libraries”, and within it a file by the name “iTunes Library XXXX-XX-XX” (XXXX-XX-XX is the numeric date you upgraded iTunes to 7.6. Mine’s 2008-01-18, ie, I upgraded to 7.6 on that faithful day.)

    

   “~/” mean Home. Therefore, “~/Music” means the Music folder under your Home folder.

4. Launch iTunes 7.6, and create a new Smart Playlist with the following criterias (it looks like this):

    

   Date Added: is after: XX/XX/XX

   Replace the Xs with the date you upgraded iTunes, minus one day. For my case, I upgraded on Jan 18, 2008, so I fill in the date as 1/17/08.

5. Name the Smart Playlist “New Since 7.6”.
6. Select and right-click on the “New Since 7.6” Playlist, and choose “Export Song List …” from the popup menu. When prompted, save it on your Desktop in “XML” format. If you have playlists you created after upgrading to iTunes 7.6, export all of them too.
7. Quit iTunes.
8. Move the entire /~Music/iTunes/ folder to your Desktop.
9. Delete the following seven files:
   • /Applications/iTunes.app
   • ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist
   • ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.plist
   • ~/Library/Preferences/com.iTunesHelper.plist
   • ~/Library/Cache/QCCompositionRepository-com.apple.iTunes.cache (if it exists)
   • /Library/Receipts/iTunesAccess.pkg
   • /Library/Receipts/iTunesX.pkg
10. Empty your trash.
11. Shut down your Mac, and then start it up in SAFE MODE.
12. Mount the iTunes 7.5 .dmg file.
13. Right-click on iTunes.mpkg and select “Open with… Pacifist” from the popup menu.
14. Select “Authorise To Run Tasks as Root” from the the “Authorization” menu, and key in your password.
15. Select and highlight “Contents of iTunes.mpkg” in Pacifist, and click on the Install button. You must get this slide down menu after that.
16. Let Pacifist install everything. Whenever Pacifist complaints that something already exists and prompt you to “Update, Replace, Leave Alone, Stop Installation”, always select “Replace“.
17. Reboot your Mac normally after Pacifist is done.
18. Launch iTunes once, and quit. You’ll notice your library is empty. Sob sob.
19. Look inside the “Previous iTunes Libraries” folder that’s on your Desktop again, and rename that file “iTunes Library XXXX-XX-XX” to “iTunes Library”. After that, move it into /~Music/iTunes/ overriding the existing copy.
20. Move the “iTunes Music” folder from your Desktop into /~Music/iTunes/
21. Launch iTunes. Your old library is back! Everything, playlists, song rating etc is intact, except it’s only up-to-date as of XXXX-XX-XX.
22. Now you want to import the “New Since 7.6.xml” file (and any other playlists) that you exported earlier.
23. Wham bang, thank you m’am; even your new songs and videos after you upgraded to 7.6 are back!

 

Your iTunes downgrading is complete and everything’s intact. You can proceed to jailbreak your iPod touch using the Official Dev Team method, with a GUI developed by Conceited Software.

A special thank you to Johnathan who pointed out to me I could use AppZapper to find out the necessary iTunes 7.6’s files to trash.

Checklist

Don’t be a wise guy and just install iTunes 7.5 by double clicking on the iTunes.mpkg file. It won’t work. Your iPod touch will never show up in the downgraded iTunes if you do that!

If you want to use AppZapper to uninstall iTunes, just make sure you only tick those seven files listed.

Do yourself a favour and launch Software Update now. You’ll see that iTunes 7.6 is available! Yiaks! Now highlight it, and select “Ignore Update…” from the “Update” menu. This will stop Software Update from notifying anyone sharing your Mac about it. Otherwise, that person might think you don’t know about the “latest” version and update it for you to surprise you. Worse, yourself accidentally click the Install button and you end up hitting your head against the wall, again. “Ignore Update…” now. 🙂