How To Remove iTunes for macOS / OS X / Mac OS X

Article ID = 59
Article Title = How To Remove iTunes for macOS / OS X / Mac OS X
Article Author(s) = Graham Needham (BH)
Article Created On = 14th October 2011
Article Last Updated = 1st July 2015
Article URL = https://www.macstrategy.com/article.php?59

Article Brief Description:
Instructions for deleting/removing iTunes for macOS

NOTE: These instructions are for macOS / OS X / Mac OS X. If you need to remove iTunes for Windows see these Apple articles:

How To Remove iTunes for macOS / OS X / Mac OS X

It is highly recommended that you backup your computer before proceeding with these instructions
Go to Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor
If it is not already selected, select "All Processes" from the pop-up menu in the top right of the Activity Monitor window
Click on the "Process Name" heading to sort the processes in alphabetical order
Locate the "iTunes Helper" process in the list and click on it once to select it
Click the red "Quit Process" icon in the top left of the Activity Monitor window
Quit the Activity Monitor application in the normal way (go to Activity Monitor menu in the top left of your screen/menu bar > Quit Activity Monitor)
Go to Apple menu > System Preferences > System > Accounts (or Users & Groups in Lion) > select your account on the left > click "Login Items" on the right and delete "iTunesHelper" from the list (you may need to authenticate as an administrator at this point)
Restart your Mac (Apple menu > Restart…)
Go to Macintosh HD > Applications and delete "iTunes"
Go to Macintosh HD > Library > Receipts and delete all files that begin with the word "iTunes"†
If you are running Mac OS X 10.6 or later:
- In the Finder go to the Go menu > Go to Folder…
- Enter "/private/var/db/receipts/"
- Delete all items starting with "com.apple.pkg.iTunes"†† (you may need to authenticate as an administrator at this point)
Go to Macintosh HD > Users > your home directory > Library > Caches and delete "com.apple.iTunes" along with any other files that have with "iTunes" in the filename
Go to Macintosh HD > Users > your home directory > Library > Preferences and delete all files that being with "com.apple.iTunes"†††
Go to Macintosh HD > Users > your home directory > Library > Preferences > ByHost and delete all files that being with "com.apple.iTunes"
Remove the "Apple Mobile Device Service" using Apple's instructions
Restart your Mac
Empty the Trash
You can now continue with your troubleshooting steps (such as downloading and/or reinstalling iTunes)

† - Items usually in Macintosh HD > Library > Receipts

iTunesAccess
iTunesX

†† - Items usually in private > var > db > receipts

com.apple.pkg.iTunesAccess.bom
com.apple.pkg.iTunesAccess.plist
com.apple.pkg.iTunesLibrary.bom
com.apple.pkg.iTunesLibrary.plist
com.apple.pkg.iTunesX.bom
com.apple.pkg.iTunesX.plist

††† - Items usually in Macintosh HD > Users > your home directory > Library > Preferences

com.apple.iTunes.eq
com.apple.iTunes.Gracenote
com.apple.iTunes
com.apple.iTunes.plist
com.apple.iTunesHelper
com.apple.iTunesHelper.plist
com.apple.mobile.iTunes.store
com.apple.mobile.iTunes.store.plist
com.apple.iTunes.eq
com.apple.iTunes.eq

Article Keywords: Mac OS X OSX 106 107 108 109 1010 1011 macOS 1012 1013 1014 Snow Leopard Lion Mountain Lion Mavericks Yosemite El Capitan Sierra High Sierra Mojave iTunes delete remove removal

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