How to install iTunes on a Chromebook in 2023?

Due to fact that students in US are made to use Chromebooks in the classrooms, it makes it a bit difficult to create an ecosystem with the most preferred mobile device used by them which is the iPhone. It is a fact that Google and Apple both the two are competitors and gives no common base to create any ecosystem. Although, it might seem a bit difficult and awkward to think about iTunes on Chromebook successfully.

Our team did some research on the topic and guess what! We just found a way to run iTunes on Chromebook.

Disclaimer; “Our team does not hold any responsibility to any damage caused to bootloader, grub or the shell of the Chromebook or any data lost during the process”.

Installing iTunes on Chromebook | 2023

To get started with iTunes on Chromebook, we will be using the Wine app which is widely used to run Windows apps on the Linux based operating systems. As we all know that Chrome OS is also Linux based operating system.  Just follow the steps given below to complete the process of installing iTunes on Chromebook.

1. Before we even begin, a user has to enable Linux followed by setting up the Wine on the device.
2. The next step is to download the iTunes application for the device i.e. Chromebook. Also, keep in mind that the 64-bit version does not work properly as it gives sudden crashes while running and a tinted pitch-black screen. So, download the 32-bit version of iTunes by clicking here.
3. The version is not old and is version is 12.9.3 which was released in August, 2019. One may now change the file name to something easy to distinguish between such as
4. After that, cut and move the file to Linux Files.
5. Now that you have done that, open the terminal window and try executing the code given below.
6. Also, make sure the username is same as in the Chromebook credentials.

WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=/home/yourusername/.wine32 winecfg

7. Click finish and restart the Chromebook.

How to create shortcuts on iTunes?

After installing, sometimes the shortcut does not work and rises with an error. It is because iTunes had an incorrect file path. Just follow the steps.

• Navigate to file explorer.
• Move to three dot menu and enable show hidden files.
• Now, navigate to. local>Share>Applications>Wine>Program files>iTunes.
• Right click and select open with text.
• Now, find the line named as Exec= and paste the following code.

env WINEPREFIX="/home/yourusername/.wine32" wine "/home/yourusername/.wine32/drive_c/Program Files/iTunes/iTunes.exe

• After doing that, save and close the file explorer.

Conclusion

So, after using iTunes for a while on our Chromebook. Our team was able to find some bugs and overall experience was not that good and did not perform well. Even the iTunes app was not able to pick up iPhone while connected through the USB.

One can still try it on their device if wanted to have hands on it. However, do not expect performance from it.

Still, have any queries? Don’t worry, comment down below.