Apple's Special Version of iTunes That Still Has an App Store Currently Incompatible With macOS Mojave

Haven't pulled the trigger yet but will be watching to see if Apple try and ruin all of this capability in an update to Mojave.

 

I disables SIP, ran the script,uninstalled iTunes 12.9 and successfully installed iTunes 12.6.5.3. I removed the file "iTunes Library.itl" (due to a cannot be read because it was it was created by a newer version of iTunes). I can't get iTunes to recognize any of my devices in order to sync. Anyone else having sync issues or any advise? Thanks.

 

OS 10.14.1 breaks it again. Apple seems determined to spike this option. I'm going to try to redo the procedure to restore.

 

Carried out the Mojave 10.14.1 upgrade without thinking about the iTunes issue this evening. Sure enough, App Store was gone from iTunes once the install completed.

Good news though - bogdanw's script still works if you remember to disable SIP.

 

You can get your iTunes Library.itl from the Previous iTunes Libraries folder. Just rename "iTunes Library 2018-10-31.itl" to iTunes Library.itl and copy it in the iTunes folder

No need to run the script after every update, just save the iTunes.pkg created and install it again.

 

For the less software talented, could you please be more specific with the steps involved? I just tried to run the iTunes.pkg that I saved, and got a warning that it would damage my computer. It seems we'll need a specific procedure going forward as any update will break things again.

Thanks.

 

I had the same warning sfoguy and sure enough the package did break things - it prevented iTunes from launching at all. The problem was caused by SIP - you must to disable that before going through the installation process.

Once that is done, the install completes successfully and you can copy a pre-upgrade version of the iTunes Library.itl from file your Time Machine backup

 

On the computers where I had force installed iTunes 12.6.5 into Mojave 10.14, I had a problem where I signed an iPhone out of my iCloud account, and those two computers got signed out of iCloud and every Apple service. (iMessage, App Store, iTunes Music, etc.) Only the computers running Mojave and iTunes 12.6.5 had that problem.
Until I reinstalled macOS 10.14, I was not able to get any sign-in to work.

 

Here are the steps I took:

1. Enter Recovery Mode
(Reboot Mac, holding down Command + R keys after hearing start up chime or seeing screen go dark and begin to lighten)
2. Disable SIP
(A guide to disable/enable: http://osxdaily.com/2015/10/05/disable-rootless-system-integrity-protection-mac-os-x/)
3. Run iTunes.pkg saved from previous work. This installs the correct version of iTunes
4. Restore iTune Library.itl from prior TimeMachine backup, made just before OS update
Enter TimeMachine > Macintosh HD > Users > Home > Music > iTunes > iTunes Library.itl > Restore
5. Enable SIP

All this was done with a wired keyboard and mouse as the wireless ones won't work in Recovery Mode in my experience.

Hope this helps. Thanks again to bogdanw for figuring this out.

 

Anyone dealing with wifi data caps recognizes the costly problems of updating apps on each IOS device. Would not be an issue if "bug fixes" by a developer simply changed that part of an apps software affected by the change. But no, not uncommon to see +100 MB downloads per app for unending "bug fixes" etc. Add that number for many apps times the number of IOS devices and that's a ridiculous amount of costly data.

And then there's the time consumption required for multiple downloads of the same app. Much simpler to download it once (via iTunes or some other organized way Apple has yet to devise) and then sync to the various devices. Why is that so hard for Apple to comprehend? Apple is really good at making amazing products. And equally obtuse when it comes to recognizing some very basic and essential user needs. Unfortunately the Tim Cook era of IOS/OS user simplification and dumbing-down lives on.

 

End of November and still no update from Apple. I now use iMazing but would rather use iTunes.

 

I keep 12.6.3 to arrange IOS apps in an iTunes window on Mac. I can see all my app pages and folders at once. I am amazed that newer versions have done away with that! It might well delay my upgrading to mojave. (still on [not high] sierra).

 

+1 - this is the single reason I'm blocked on upgrading to Mojave. Shame.

 

Almost the end of the year and no update. Is that it for App Store on iTunes?

 

Yep! I want to say Fck Apple - they've lost touch with their users needs. I love so much about most their product's integration, but it's little things like this that pss me off.

We have over a dozen iDevices in the household and Xfinity places a 1TB cap on our internet data, so we would use up half the data cap on app updates alone if not for iTunes 12.6.5.3 > We've downloaded 47GB of app updates in iTunes just in the past 4 weeks (about 43GB for the calendar month of December). Averaging that to 45GB/mo x 11 iOS devices = 495GB/month of 1000GB used up by APPLE!

In the past year we've already exceeded the data cap three times (video security system on the cloud, watching Apple TV, online Gaming, and occasional wifi updates on our primary devices). Xfinity is now charging us extra $ each month we exceed 1TB. So imagine how much more it would cost if we also had to download every update 11 times each. Right now we do OTA updates on 3-4 of our 11 IOS devices, and the rest of the devices are updated via iTunes, but updating via iTunes is too slow for our primary devices).

 

I have tested and can confirm that bogdanw's fix still works on Mojave 10.14.3

 

You should turn on content caching and use the built in updates. You should save data as the updates will get downloaded once, but they'll also be smaller than using the full updates from iTunes, because the built in app update doesn't pull the whole app every time.
See these links for more information about content caching: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204675
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/manage-content-caching-on-mac-mchl3b6c3720/mac

 

The Apple support page for custom ringtones seems to suggest that iTunes 12.6 has a limited life. It talks about corporate services for managing iOS device content as an alternative to iTunes.

 

Thanks, but I have less than 90GB free space on the internal drive, and would need to find a way to cache things on the 8TB external drive where I keep my iTunes Library, or on my 20TB backup NAS. So...

EDIT - just found out that I was looking at the settings without mounting the iTunes volume or the NAS, and when you have more than one volume mounted you can choose which one to use for the cache. Since I don't normally leave the NAS mounted, I'll probably make some room on the iTunes volume by moving redundant data and gopro videos to another volume...

 

Yes, the script still works but each security update or small upgrade reinstalls iTunes 12.9.

--- Post Merged, Feb 3, 2019 ---

Tinkerers, beware. If, like me, your iTunes library was a cobbled mess over the years (with several "previous iTunes libraries" folders and files), all of this is going to be a little trickier. You may lose your most recent stuff and have to consider this an opportunity to rebuild your library with a clean file.

Also, make sure to close iTunes before you install Mojave 10.14 or it will automatically overwrite your iTunes library and preferences with new files compatible with 12.9. Even if you have the option unchecked when you normally restart, it will try to open the same windows you had open before you installed.

This is a real quandary. Keep the OS out of date or keep iTunes out of date and just pray that bogdanw's genius fix still works? I've always considered local backups and app management a key advantage of iOS. I have never lost content on my phones (especially compared to my Android-using friends), and I have several apps that I downgraded because the new versions wrecked or subtracted some of my favorite functionality.

--- Post Merged, Feb 3, 2019 ---

I didn't see anything like that but that's pretty concerning. There's no way I'm willing to only use pre-curated tones.

 

I thought the latest version of iTunes didnt have the App Store, but I just stumbled on this

 

I can't figure out the steps to even find that page

 

I'll bet that if you tried to use that "store" page, it would only partially function, if it all.

With the stores, iTunes is really only displaying specialized web pages that are rendered by the WebKit framework in the OS. 12.7+ probably doesn't know how to handle those links even if it's able to display them.

Sadly the ship has sailed on iTunes. I'm planning on a new machine when Apple gets off its butt and refreshes the iMac, and am budgeting for a substitute like iMazing as part of the purchase.

For now, 12.6.5 works on this El Cap machine, even though it is slightly buggy, and lacks the icon resource for the XS so it's not a fully polished experience. But it does function for the important things, and successfully restored my old phone running 10.3.3 to a new XS, with the exception of the 32-bit apps.

 

Just type https://AppStore.com/<name of a known developer> then when the iTunes page appears, click PowerSearch (top left).

--- Post Merged, Feb 5, 2019 ---

Its great to read all about the iOS apps on a large Mac screen. Also it appears you can buy iOS apps from there. Haven't done much testing yet. Just thought I would let people know as it might be of help.

 

It automagically opens the developer in iTunes 12.9.2.5 from Mojave, and no PowerSearch.