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iTunes is taking over 5 minutes to open. I have a high performance windows 11 computer with an SSD, 32 GB of RAM and an i9 Intel processor. Why does it take so long for iTunes to open?

Lately, iTunes is taking an extremely long time to open on my fully updated Windows 11 PC. It takes over 5 minutes to open. All other programs on my computer open with 30 seconds. iTunes never used to behave this way. Is anyone else noticing this?

Windows, Windows 10

Posted on Oct 23, 2022 8:33 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 24, 2022 2:41 PM

None of this stuff worked, so I just uninstalled iTunes and reinstalled it, and now it is working fine. Next time, mayber "Reinstall" ought to be added to the list of remedies and fixes.

6 replies

Oct 24, 2022 1:38 PM in response to bulldog50

Here is a longer laundry list of things that have helped some people, sometimes.


If iTunes is apparently installed correctly try the following in turn until iTunes opens/closes/reopens/connects to the store normally:


  • Remove any SD card that might be in a card reader.
  • Exit the BTTray.exe Bluetooth utility if installed.
  • Locate the shortcut for iTunes, right-click on it, and select Run as administrator. Doing this once may fix certain launch issues. Some users were finding that with the 12.6.1.25 build, for example, they had to use this method every time and modified the shortcut accordingly.
  • Try holding ctrl+shift as you launch iTunes so it opens in safe-mode. Again doing this once may sometimes help.
  • Try disconnecting your computer from the Internet before running iTunes.
  • Delete the iTunes shortcuts from the start menu, desktop, task bar, or similar, then repair iTunes from the programs and features control panel.
  • Try Fix unexpected quits or launch issues in iTunes for Windows - Apple Support (archive version) and test the behaviour in a different user profile or with a different library. If the problem only exists in your profile it may be possible to delete some of the iTunes preference files which it would seem that iTunes may be choking on. We can go into details later if the issue is limited to your own profile.
  • Temporarily disable any non-Microsoft anti-virus and see if that has any impact on the behaviour.
  • See the second box in Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates for detailed tear down and rebuild advice. Disable any non-Microsoft anti-virus software when reinstalling and run the installer as the administrator.
  • If you installed iTunes from the Microsoft Store you may find the traditional iTunesSetup.exe installer works better for you, or vice versa.
  • Or see the iTunes installers section of the troubleshooting tip and reinstall the last version that worked correctly for you.


tt2

Oct 24, 2022 1:27 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks, but safe mode did not speed up anything. As far a anti-virus, that seems to be a catch all response when things don't work correctly. I have been using Malwarebytes for the last 10 years, and it has not affected any programs running on my PC. I don't think it does real time file scanning anyway, just a scan once a day. I have absolutely no other program on my computer that takes over 5 minutes to open, in fact none take longer than 30 seconds, even Photoshop. I even moved my library from an external drive to an internal drive that came with my computer, thinking that might speed things up, but no joy. It must have been Apple that did something to the program. iTunes does eventually open, but I cannot, for the life of me, figure out while it takes so long. The only change I made vis-a-vis Apple was joining Apple Music.

iTunes is taking over 5 minutes to open. I have a high performance windows 11 computer with an SSD, 32 GB of RAM and an i9 Intel processor. Why does it take so long for iTunes to open?

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