LimeWire crashed my iTunes last night and it has stayed crashed. Not cool at all. I cannot Quit iTunes. When I launch iTunes I get the multi-chromatic swirly pointer indicating the program is very, very busy. So am I, dangit.

I'm running LimeWire 4.0.8. I was running iTunes 4.6 before LimeWire trashed it. I use OSX 10.3.5 on an 867MHz PowerBook.

I was about to buy PRO when the iTunes bombed.

Thanks for any help recovering my iTunes.

Doc

And thank you for providing the info.
Now, I suppose that you have since rebooted your laptop, am I right?

__________________
iMac G4 OSX 10.3.9
RAM 256MB
LW 4.10.5 Basic
ADSL anything from 3 to 8Mbps/around 1024kbps

"Raise your can of Beer on high
And seal your fate forever
Our best years have passed us by
The Golden Age Of Leather"
-Blue Öyster Cult-

Force quit iTunes in that case. That's the great thing about OSX & its ram management, it will close off that part of ram so it doesn't affect other apps. You can simply re-open iTunes. (After you've forced-quit an app that ram will also free up.) As murasame was suggesting, if you get the chance, restart the comp (in safe mode & repair permissions) might clear up some issues. Safe Mode & Repair Permissions (click me.) Disk Utiltiy can repair permissions. What happened to you may have been just a one off event, else a permissions issue, else directory issues.

I have rebooted laptop multiple times. iTunes will launch per usual, then immediately locks up into color-swilry-busy mode. Force quit shuts down the program, yet the iTunes icon remains when I splat-Tab between programs. I shut down iTunes [association/cooperation whatever it's called in LimeWire] but iTunes still refuses to work. I will try the reboot in Safe Mode & Repair Permissions and try to reset things.

Makes me wonder about downloading PRO. (Also having grief from another third-party app I downloaded for a fee and doesn't work. Maybe I should stop trying to "think outside the box" with third-party developers?)

Thanks for the help so far. Will advise of progress, if any.

Started in safe mode from full power down. Repaired permissions. Restarted. Still no iTunes. This is pitiful.

Not sure how to fix this. Not sure how to scrub LimeWire from my system so I can use iTunes again. LimeWire is FAR less important to me than iTunes. And there are other sources of p2p.

The instrux on Safe Mode and Repairing Permissions were succinct and more helpful than I hoped for. Can I get similarly direct instrux on purging my Mac of the stain of LimeWire?

Thanks again!

Sounds like iTunes itself might be corrupted for some reason. Might be wise to reinstall it. IF you have any 3rd party utilities such as norton utilities 8, TechTool Pro 4 or DiskWarrior it would be well worth checking both your directories & your files. Too often of macos the directories become corrupted perhaps due to moving large quantities of files. This is not necessarily due to any app's fault.

However if you feel strongly about removing LW, then all you need to do for osx is to move the main folder to the trash. You could also trash the prefs file (do a search for Limewire.) Somehow I get the impression that LW is purely the scapegoat here b/c of a coincidental situation involving LW.

If this happened to me I wouldn't be convinced unless it happened multiple times & 1st I'd seek a solution, if none found then I'd take the same route. I've been using macs over 10 yrs & prefer to problem solve rather than to allow myself to get emotional about a situation. I've never heard of this situation happening to anyone else. Which is why I suspect it's more something to do with a problem with your HDD directories/files/etc. The closest I could think of a similar behaviour with other apps is the 1st suggestion of repairs, & reinstalling.

You're perceptive about the emotional content. I'm protective of my newest Mac (had it almost a year now) and trying to keep it running smoothly. This is my 4th Mac, my first being the original 128k!

I am also picky about "coincidences," especially when I've downloaded a program of somewhat unknown origin and something from an OEM suddenly stops working. I've been using iTunes since I got this Mac (never before, though) and while using LimeWire iTunes locks up and STAYS locked up.

I like LimeWire. If I can get both to work, that's groovy, but if it's a choice between one or the other, obviously iTunes has to win.

And, without exaggeration, I work over 70 hours a week right now, and the time to research and experiment with fixing the situation is frustrating.

I am following advice on this forum, and I'm really impressed with the quality of the advice. My frustration with LimeWire should not be projected onto the people her who have been more helpful than I usually expect online.

I will reinstall iTunes (and re-download the upgrade) and spend that time in the hopes that I can continue with LimeWire. But if this doesn't work and I nuke LW it is not an issue of "quitting." It is an issue of time-management and priorities.

I will also post results here in case it helps someone else.

Rather dwnld the LW 4.0.8 version, why not dwnld the beta 4.1.5. It has a no. of improvements. I very happily use 4.1.5. If you're a pro user you can dwnld the pro version of 4.1.5 from your dwnld page (the link's at the bottom of that page.) Otherwise the general 4.1.5 version can be found here: http://www.limewire.com/english/content/beta.shtml It has often been a case that one version of LW suits a person's system better than another.

Reinstall the suggested newest versions of both (incl. 4.1.5 & iTunes 4.6) If the problems persists, then take murasame's advice.

For me, although iTunes & LW apps are on the same partition (OSX), I have LW's dwnld folder on a different partition. You'd find more iTunes options in the beta 4.1.5 than 4.0.8! If LW's media player is ticked (in LW's Preferences), it might be worth disabling it so iTunes has total control over the mp3's/m4a's (make sure iTunes is fully abled in LW's Prefs.) And dare I suggest it, knowing your lack of time, but deauthorise areas of work b/w LW & iTunes (manually change folder permisions using CMD+I.) iTunes itself has a deAuthorise comp. function under Advanced on menu bar.

Don't know if murasame's target has anything to do with iMovie, but be wary of it. It has forever been an unstable app. Yes it can affect other processes. I don't even bother with it any more (I use Apple's FCP & DSP. And was on both their forums.)

I don't suppose you also bought the iLife pack?
You could, as LOTR says, reinstall only iTunes.

__________________
iMac G4 OSX 10.3.9
RAM 256MB
LW 4.10.5 Basic
ADSL anything from 3 to 8Mbps/around 1024kbps

"Raise your can of Beer on high
And seal your fate forever
Our best years have passed us by
The Golden Age Of Leather"
-Blue Öyster Cult-

For some reason my iTunes as resumed function. Perhaps I did not do a full power-down after repairing permissions, but merely restarted.

I will consider the LW beta, and if things continue smoothly from here I fully plan to buy PRO.

Thanks again for the pleasantly surprising help from both of you.