I “safely removed” the hard drive and tried running iTunes
I assume you mean you 'ejected' the external drive that you had just put the prefs files for iTunes on. As you described moving those pref files, you did not actually remove them from the original drive. Moving files from one drive to another is always a "copy" operation. It does not remove anything from the original drive.
Secondly, even if you deleted those prefs while iTunes was still running, it will re-creat them when you eventually Quit it. However, it is possible that not all of them needed updating, in which case, they were probably not re-created. I don't know that for a fact, but it could explain why the app is now not working correctly.
I can still see finder and it shows that iTunes is running but is not.
In what part of Finder are you seeing this indication?
Do you mean the Dock?
Lastly, the basic steps for "forcing" an app to create 'clean' preference files is to:[list=1]
- Quit the app
- Find the (one) suspected .plist file
- Change its name (easiest way is to add "-old" to the name just before the ".plist" part, this will leave the old plist right next to the one you plan on creating)
- Restart the app
If you know where all the prefs files came from, you can try bringing them back from that disconnected drive. Of course, if they don't get replaced exactly, the app may or may not work.
First, confirm that iTunes has been Quit by using the Apple->Force Quit menu, click the iTunes listing, if present and click the "Quit" button. If "iTunes" is not listed, you have confirmed that it has Quit.
At this point, with the app's files in various states of repair, re-installing is probably the best and safest step.
The easiest way to do that is probably using a Time Machine backup. [list=1]
- Select iTunes in a finder window
- Click the Time Machine icon on your Menu Bar
- Select "Enter Time Machine"
- Select a date a few days prior to when it last worked properly
- Select iTunes in that window
- Click the Restore button.
- You should get a dialog asking if you want to Replace iTunes or keep both, I'd choose "Both"
You can now try opening iTunes again
