ITunes won't open

[topcattim]

I'm running ITunes 12108.5.48031.0 on Windows 10 Feature update v 2004.
ITunes has today just stopped working. It won't open at all, whether I click on the shortcut icon in the taskbar or try to run from the Start menu. I've force closed it (even though it wasn't open) in Task Manager, have checked for most recent ITunes version, cleared the Windows Store cache using wsreset, tried repairing ITunes using settings>apps and features>ITunes>repair, run the Windows Store apps troubleshooter (but not yet Reset it). Nothing worked.
Is there anything else I can or should do? If I reset it, will I have to re-enter all my playlists, and teach it how to find my music directories again?
Thanks

 

[topcattim]

Extraordinary. After literally an hour of trying to sort this out, Itunes suddenly opened, without me doing anything further. I'm hoping it has now remembered how to do this more quickly!

 

[cjmnews]

Next time a backup of the iTunes Library (usually named iTunes Library.itl, located in C:\Users\<login>\Music\iTunes) would ensure a reset does not remove your library.

Also, I recommend NOT using the Windows Store version of iTunes. Usually a Windows Store version of software is less functional than the real version. iTunes does not seem to have this issue, but I still don't trust an app that meets the Windows Store requirements to be fully functional.

The page for download is here: https://www.apple.com/itunes/
Scroll past the Microsoft Store logo, and click on MacOS or Windows links.

In Windows, most people should use the 64-bit version: https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/win64
The few people still running 32-bit Windows should use the 32-bit version: https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/win32

For Mac, older systems can get iTunes 12.8: https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/macos
Newer systems are upgraded to Catalina, which has the Music app built in.

 

[topcattim]

Great advice, thanks, I've backed up that itl library.
It opened quicker today, about 10 minutes. Something must have happened to make it work so slowly though. All the other applications are working fine, it's just ITunes that is running slow. I wonder if anyone knows what I can do to help it boot up quicker?

 

[cjmnews]

There isn't really a way to make it open faster. iTunes is a bloated piece of software and even with the elimination of Apps, and Books, it is still too big and unwieldy.

You can try to optimize your drive. If you have a Hard Drive (not SSD) you can run the Windows derangementer a few times (another bad piece of software that only does a partial job). If you have an SSD and Hard Drive in the system, you could move the installation from the Hard Drive to the SSD (uninstall, reinstall to a custom path on the SSD). If the iTunes library and files are on a SAN, bringing them local will speed up loading too. Low RAM (2G, 4G) is a primary issue with slow computers, adding more (if possible) is recommended. You can shut down non-essential services in the operating system. There are websites that show which ones are not needed (local web server, dial up, fax, etc.) and that could help overall system performance. As systems age, they get burdened with junk. sometimes a reinstallation of the operating system will clean that up. Backups required for this as you might lose files if not done right.

 

[topcattim]

There isn't really a way to make it open faster. iTunes is a bloated piece of software and even with the elimination of Apps, and Books, it is still too big and unwieldy.

You can try to optimize your drive. If you have a Hard Drive (not SSD) you can run the Windows derangementer a few times (another bad piece of software that only does a partial job). If you have an SSD and Hard Drive in the system, you could move the installation from the Hard Drive to the SSD (uninstall, reinstall to a custom path on the SSD). If the iTunes library and files are on a SAN, bringing them local will speed up loading too. Low RAM (2G, 4G) is a primary issue with slow computers, adding more (if possible) is recommended. You can shut down non-essential services in the operating system. There are websites that show which ones are not needed (local web server, dial up, fax, etc.) and that could help overall system performance. As systems age, they get burdened with junk. sometimes a reinstallation of the operating system will clean that up. Backups required for this as you might lose files if not done right.

Thanks. I'll make a note of all of those and see if whatever has suddenly happened to slow it down can suddenly, er, un-happen. If not, then I'll have a go at those suggestions. Much appreciated.

 

[topcattim]

Just an update, in case anyone comes looking here. iTunes just ground slower and slower (so that it was often taking, literally, 4 hours before it opened, even though other apps were opening ok). I figured something had become seriously corrupted so I've done a complete factory reset of the PC, and so far, fingers crossed, all running well.

 

[cjmnews]

Sounds like a bigger issue than we were initially discussing.

Hopefully the Windows reset is enough, and there isn't an underlying issue with your drive.

 

[topcattim]

Sounds like a bigger issue than we were initially discussing.

Hopefully the Windows reset is enough, and there isn't an underlying issue with your drive.

I'm wondering if you can help me think this through further. All worked perfectly on the first couple of days after the factory reset, but now iTunes is back to opening very slowly (just now, literally 90 minutes). When it's open, it's a bit sluggish for the first 5 minutes, but then works ok. iTunes seems to be the only thing that has problems, so I'm wondering if there is somehow some kind of corrupt file somewhere in my database. Is there anything I can do to flush this out, short of uninstalling iTunes and then starting again without any of my .itl, itdb and .plist files? I'd hope that I don't have to re-index nearly 15000 songs...might take me a while!

 

[cjmnews]

Uninstall does nothing to your *.itl or itdb files. The .plist files are not used by iTunes, those would be used by some other music application.

It is unlikely that your *.itl file is corrupt becaise iTunes is opens. I would look at your Event Viewer (In Control Panel, Administrative Tools) for errors and see if there are hard drive errors being logged.

In the event log there will be errors like "bad block" or "Disk 11 None" or "driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk3\DR3" where the numbers could be different.

Assuming you find no hard drive errors in your Event Viewer, then a rebuild can be done.

Export the library

This will export a database of what is in your library and playlists. In iTunes, choose File -> Library -> Export Library.... name it something you can remember and save it somewhere different where you can find it like your Desktop.

Delete the existing database

Quit out of iTunes, then navigate to Music\iTunes (C:\Users\<login>\Music\iTunes) and delete any of the following files: “iTunes Library”, “iTunes Library.itl”, “iTunes Library.xml”, “iTunes Music Library.xml”, “iTunes Library Genius.itdb”. You probably won't have all of these files, using different names the handle the majority of cases.

Tell iTunes where your media files are

Start up iTunes again, it will be completely empty. Click File -> Add to Library..., Navigate to Music\iTunes then choose the “iTunes Media” or “iTunes Music” folder. This will take a while to import everything back into your library. This is assuming all your music was in the iTunes folder.

Import the playlists

Click File -> Library -> Import Playlist... and select the database file that you created in the “Export the library” step .

Impacts:

• Some smart playlists may be duplicated.
• Might make some problems worse
• Loses Star Ratings, Loves, Play Count, Last Played
• Resets Date Added

 

[topcattim]

ah yes, I've looked in event viewer and am getting lots of critical errors to do with 10110 anda 10116 DriverFrameworks-Usermode. Looks like something more serious (and I do get some unexpected failures to respond from other apps), so I'll have to see what I can do about that. Thanks for trying to help, looks like I need to fix that before I set to iTunes!

 

[cjmnews]

Microsoft has a process of elimination to try and figure out which device is causing the issue: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows If you can isolate the device after doing that, you may be able to uninstall the driver and install a new one to possibly resolve it.