iTunes Headaches

[TomAJohnson]

I downloaded and installed iTunes and immediately found a great song (That Will Never Do by Roomful of Blues) I had not been able to find elsewhere. So far, so good. Then I discovered that the file format (.m4p) will not play in anything but iTunes. To get over this hurdle, I hunted until I finally found the Gates of Hell website, at which I found the tools to convert my new tune into an mp3.

At that point, the iTunes program itself began to malfunction and would not longer access the iTunes music store. I tried to uninstall it, but (sadly) elected the "repair" option. That option hung. I got out and went back to simply uninstall it, but the uninstall won't work because it thinks the "repair" option is underway and says to wait until that's done before proceeding. No can do.

Then I deleted the entire directory c:\program files\iTunes. The iTunes entry still shows up under the Add/Remove software in Settings and it cannot be removed (remember, the "repair" is still in progress).

I downloaded RegClean and ran it, but am still in the same fix.

Ideally, I would like to get iTunes totally cleaned out, so (glutton for punishment) I could reinstall it--they do have a great selection of music. But, I at least want to get it out of my system first.

Help!!

Tom

[hobey19]

what i would do is restart your computer to flush whatever was running (ie repair is no longer running). reinstall itunes (redownload if necessary). i myself have not seen any good conversions tools, altho i am sure that they are out there. the best method i have found is to simply burn the songs and then rip them back into your library in the mp3 format with your ripper of choice. if you wanted to, you could even use an RW and erase it when you are finished, but with the prices of media the way it is, i wouldn't bother

if i see some good conversion tools, i will be sure to post them. also, are you sure it is m4p and not aac (or are they the same). i have never downloaded from itunes, but i know they used aac as their format.

craig

[ZeratulsAvenger]

An easier way is to burn it to an audio CD and then import it... that's what I have done, just waited till I get a good 10-15 songs then burn em. I guess I use iTunes though and an iPod so I have no confilict in reality... anyways, have you tried to reinstall it? And have you restarted since you did the repair? If not I would restart then try and to uninstall it once again.

EDIT: Well... I guess that's what I get for taking some time to watch That 70's Show... Oh well :rolleyes:

[Angelus]

All you would need is a directshow mp4 filter that you could probably use in winamp or any other program that you like to play music on. If that doesn't work and you still wanna convert it, there was a program that was released (Harmony I think) that protects your FAIR USE RIGHTS and removes the DRM thats on the mp4 files. This should allow you to convert, copy and do whatever you want to the files. It is not recommened to convert from one lossy format to another though, cause audio quality will take a severe hit.

[TomAJohnson]

Thanks to both of you. I rebooted (cold boot) and the "repair" process vanished and I was able to uninstall completely. I have rebooted again (warm boot) after the uninstall and the iTunes no longer appears in the Add/Remove Programs.

A couple of notes. I am not altogether sure of the file type (AAC or not), but I do know that the file name extension of iTunes downloads is m4p. The web site http://www.gates-of-hell.com/Tutorials/m4p%20to%20mp3.asp provides a way to convert them to mp3's (in two steps: m4p to m4a and then m4a to mp3). It took me about fifteen minutes to set up the conversion process, but it works like a charm.

[ZeratulsAvenger]

I guess I am no stickler when it comes to audio then, since all of mine sounds fine to me. Guess everyones different.