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I don't want to disable Apple software update, I just want to prevent myself from accidentally overwriting my iTunes 10 with a working Party Shuffle/iTunes DJ with the new iTunes 11. I have iTunes 11 at work, where it doesn't really matter what I've got installed because I can't play music during the day, and I've tried to come up with some combination of smart playlists that effectively duplicates iTunes DJ... but it doesn't work. The tools aren't there.

So, how do I do it, how do I selectively block updates for iTunes 11?

Edit/Update: All the helpful answers here are no longer useful.

Don't do it. Later versions of OSX ship with a newer iTunes and rolling back to iTunes 10 breaks some aspects of Software Update. I ended up having to reinstall and use Migration Assistant to restore from Time Machine to get a fully working system again.

Update: With Catalina they replaced iTunes with Music which is a whole new ball of problems. This question does not apply to Music.

2022/2023 update: I now have an older Macbook Pro that's no longer upgradeable rolled back to a sufficiently old version of OSX dedicated to running a good version of iTunes.

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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The methods differ based on whether you are using OS X Mountain Lion, or an earlier edition.

For OS X Mountain Lion (where updates are now merged with the Mac App Store):

For the software update you would like to hide - make sure the full description of the update is shown - click "More..." if needed to show the full description

Right click on the update window. Select "Hide update"

This will hide the update and it will not show in the App Store Updates Window or counted on the dock icon. [...]

[emphasis above is mine]

For OS X Lion and earlier:

How to ignore an update
[Mac OS X 10.3, Mac OS X 10.4, Mac OS X 10.5, Mac OS X 10.6, OS X Lion]

  1. Choose Software Update from the Apple menu.
  2. Click Show Details when prompted.
  3. Click to select the name of the update you wish to ignore.
  4. Choose Ignore Update… from the Update menu. A confirmation dialog appears that states, "Are you sure you want to remove the update (name of update) from the list? You will no longer be notified of new versions of this update. To see this update again, choose Software Update > Reset Ignored Updates."
  5. Click OK.
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  • I just tested OK this answer for Mavericks and Yosemite. I hided annoying updates for iTune 12.x.x
    – ePi272314
    Commented Dec 17, 2016 at 21:35
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You can do it with softwareupdate command in terminal. Type

sudo softwareupdate -l

in terminal and Press Enter for getting application updates. You will see a result like this:

Finding available software
Software Update found the following new or updated software:
   * iTunesX-12.3.2
    iTunes (12.3.2), 241328K [recommended]

For example if you want to ignore iTunes update run this code on terminal.

sudo softwareupdate --ignore "iTunesX"

Then you never see this on AppStore updates.

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If you're using Lion or earlier, you can just block updates from Software Update. After Mountain Lion, I don't think you can...

Keep a backup of your iTunes by copying the .app to somewhere safe - that way, you can easily restore to the backup. (Also consider backing up your Music Library and ~/Library/iTunes)

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  • 1
    The latter advice is actually dangerous: in later versions of OS X that ship with iTunes 11 or later rolling back to iTunes 10 breaks some aspects of Software Update.
    – Resuna
    Commented Mar 8, 2019 at 15:27

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