Daily Tip: How to downgrade from iTunes 10.5 beta on a Windows PC

Having second thoughts about iTunes 10.5 beat and wondering how to downgrade back to 10.3 on Windows? If you decided to take the plunge and try out the beta of iOS 5, you must also have upgraded your iTunes software to 10.5 beta. We have already covered how to downgrade your iPhone from iOS 5 to iOS 4.3.3 but what if you want to downgrade iTunes too? Well below is a guide to help you do just that.

A word of warning; before you start. This worked for me and should work for you too however there is always an element of risk, especially if you have a lot of content stored in iTunes. If you still want to go ahead and try it, read on after the break!

• Download the latest full build of iTunes here

• While that’s downloading, take an optional step to ensure your media is safe. Locate your iTunes folder which should be in C:\My Documents\My Music or C:\Users(your username)\Music in Windows 7. Copy the folder to another location just in case.
• Open Control Panel, Programs and Features and uninstall the following entries:-

1. Apple Application Support
2. Apple Mobile Device Support
3. Apple Software Update
4. iTunes

• Once all of them have been uninstalled, install and run CC Cleaner which will remove any registry entries associated with uninstalled programs. You can download it from here.

• Now reboot your Windows PC

• Once you are logged back in, go back to the location of your iTunes folder (Not the backup you made earlier) and find the file named iTunes Library.itl and rename it to iTunes Library.itl.old

• Open the folder Previous iTunes Libraries and find the file with the latest date prior to upgrading to iTunes 10.5 beta. In my case it was iTunes Library 2011-06-10.itl

• Copy the file and paste it into the root of the iTunes folder. When it has finished copying, rename it to iTunes Library.itl

• Install the downloaded version of iTunes from step 1

• That’s it, you should be done!

Now when fire up iTunes, you should have all of your media visible. If not, don’t panic! You can import all you media back in again by locating it in your iTunes folder. Hopefully this worked for you as well as it did for me. When you are happy that everything is working, you can delete the backup you made of the iTunes folder.