How to Install iTunes on Chromebook

Chromebooks have taken over the classrooms in the US lately. The students might likely be using an iPhone as their primary device alongside the Chromebook. As a result, ecosystems’ incompatibility becomes a barrier between the two since they’re the bi-products of two different companies, Google and Apple. So, how about running iTunes on your Chromebook? Yes, it is possible to run iTunes on Chromebook undoubtedly. In this article, we’ll be going through the entire process of how to install iTunes on Chromebooks. Additionally, we’ll let you know how things perform in the end to foresee things before installing it on your Chromebook.

Install iTunes on Chromebook (2020)

In this guide, we’ll explain how to get iTunes working on your Chromebook. TL;DR, we’ll be using a Linux container to install the Windows version of iTunes on your Chromebook. For this purpose, we’ll use the Wine app to get the iTunes app running. In the end, we’ll also guide you with the process of creating a shortcut on your home screen.

1. Before we get things started, you need to enable Linux on your Chromebook. To do that, you need to head over to the Settings app on your Chromebook and look for the option that says “Linux (Beta),” and click the “Turn on” option next to it.
It will install Linux on your Chromebook, and a terminal window will open up. Alternatively, you can look for a Terminal icon in the app drawer and open it.

2. After launching the Terminal window, you’ll need to execute some codes. Don’t worry about it; it is easy to do. Now you need to get updates for the system packages and their dependencies. To do so, type the following command in the Terminal.

sudo apt-get update

3. Once the text says, Done after a few lines, you’ll need to install Wine. To do that, you will need to execute this command.

sudo apt-get install Wine

4. Now that you got Wine installed on your Chromebook, you need to enable support for 32-bit applications. You need to execute the following commands, one-by-one, to do so.

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

sudo apt update

sudo apt-get install wine32

5. Wine should be set up by now entirely on your Chromebook. Now it’s time to download the iTunes for Windows (32-bit) setup. All you need to do is click on the Download link below, and you’ll be good to go.

6. Once downloaded, it’s time to move the iTunes Setup to the Linux files directory, as shown below. Afterwards, you shall rename the file to something easy like “iTunesSetup.exe” for remembering.

7. Once done with the above step, it’s time to install iTunes on your Chromebook. To install iTunes, you need to execute the following command, but replace “username” with the name of your Chromebook. The username that you choose while enabling Linux (Beta) in the first step. Also, replace “iTunesSetup.exe” with the name of your file.

WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=/home/username/.wine32/ wine iTunesSetup.exe

8. Once you press enter, an installation window will open up. Just click Next, and go through the setup. Once the installation finishes, you are good to go.

That’s it! You’ve successfully installed iTunes on your Chromebook. All you need to do is launch iTunes from the Applications menu quickly.

Although you might face an error that says, “Path Not Found.” If that’s the case, keep reading along.

Create Shortcut for iTunes on Chromebook

1. Open File Manager on your Chromebook and open the Linux file directory. On the top right, click on the three dots menu (⋮), and select “Show Hidden Files” from the menu.

2. Navigate to the following path:
.local → share → applications → Wine → Program Files → iTunes.

3. You’ll find an “iTunes.desktop” file. Right-click on it and select “Open with Text Editor.”

4. Once the Text Editor opens, you’ll find a line that starts with Exec=. You need to add the following code next to that. Make sure to replace “username” with the name of your Chromebook, as described in previous steps.

env WINEPREFIX="/home/your-user-name/.wine32" wine "/home/username/.wine32/drive_c/Program Files/iTunes/iTunes.exe"

5. Save the file using Ctrl+S and close the text app.

6. Finally, open iTunes from your App Drawer, and iTunes should open up flawlessly. Furthermore, you can pin the app to your Chrome Shelf to access it immediately.

Trying out iTunes on Chromebook

We manage to install iTunes on the Chromebook as well. But the question is, how does iTunes run on a Chromebook? Our time spent with iTunes on Chromebook wasn’t pleasant in the first place. However, we saw it coming since we are running iTunes on a Windows container, which runs on a Linux container. Whether you have a high or low-end Chromebook, the results are supposed to be the same. The performance wouldn’t be as good as expected, as a result. Linux on Chromebook gained the ability to detect USB recently. Notwithstanding, iTunes was unable to recognize the iPhone on our Chromebook. It may be for the reason that Apple doesn’t support Linux connectivity for Apple devices.

You might also face some crashes while signing into your Apple account on iTunes. So no access to your media or library. In the end, the result is iTunes on Chromebook isn’t as good as it sounds. It’s better to look for some other options. We’ll post a dedicated article regarding iTunes alternatives for Chromebook.

Conclusion – iTunes for Chromebook

That’s how you can install iTunes on Chromebook. We know that this process isn’t simple, yet you can give it a try. Once you install Wine, you can access a wide range of Windows apps on Chromebook. iTunes might not work as expected, but you should give it a chance, and things might run well for you.

If you face any trouble in the process, make sure to leave a comment below. We will try our best to address it. If we find a better iTunes build for Chromebook, we’ll update the guide for you. If you have any further recommendations to improve this guide, you can leave them in the comments as well.
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