Oops, I broke iTunes...

I thought I'd broken iTunes last night.

The Apple Software Updater stated that there was a new version available so I let it download and install it. Part way through the process it came up with an error, during the QuickTime portion, regarding not having enough privileges to install. So, I cancelled the install, got it to retry another 2 times with no luck and then told it to just download and I would do a manual install. Still popped up with the same error.

By this time iTunes was unusable, so, I went to Apple's website and downloaded the full package from there. Still no luck. Next, I decided to try a different route and install QuickTime first and then iTunes. Still no luck. So, I decided to change the default install location and managed to get QuickTime installed. Next, iTunes. Still, no luck, kept on coming up with the error regarding privileges.

I then decided to admit defeat and try to reinstall the old version of iTunes. Still no luck. Right, restore point. Nope, Windows refused to roll back. Further delving and I finally figured out what was going wrong.

I've previously had problems with the PC sharing files properly over the network and had tried all sorts of things to solve it. One of which was to disable Simple File Sharing and use NTFS security settings. Looking at the security settings for different drives and folders I had managed to change some of the settings so that nobody other than the Administrator had rights to certain folders. So, when the installer tried to install it came across the problem that not even the System had rights to write to a directory. Restoring the security settings solved that problem.

I started the iTunes installer for about the 15th time and it installed QuickTime fine but then kept on coming up with an error concerning the iTunes.msi file. Pointing it to the file didn't work. Reading the error closely I realised it was referring to the version of iTunes that I had previously had installed. I pointed the installer at the old iTunes.msi and everything was fine from then on.

As a nice added bonus I've finally got file sharing working correctly all across the network, including Dad's PC and my laptop under Ubuntu. I can even browse the network using my phone.

Moral of the story is that even when you think you know what you're doing, you probably don't!