iTunes plays an important role as a music player and media library manager on the Mac. If you use an iPhone or an iPad, it's also indispensable as a mobile device management tool. The same goes for its equivalent apps—Finder, Music, Podcasts, Books, and TV—starting macOS Catalina and later.
To get to the best possible experience out of iTunes or its replacements, however, you must keep them up to date. Below, we'll show you what you need to do to update iTunes on the Mac.
Update iTunes on macOS High Sierra and Earlier
If you use a Mac that runs macOS High Sierra or older, you can update iTunes to its latest version using the Mac App Store or via iTunes itself.
Update iTunes Using Mac App Store
- Open the Mac App Store.
- Select the Updates tab.
- Select Update next to any pending iTunes updates.
Update iTunes Using iTunes
- Open iTunes.
- Select iTunes on the menu bar.
- Select Check for Updates.
Update iTunes on macOS Mojave
In macOS Mojave, you must update the operating system to get to the latest version of iTunes.
- Open the Apple menu and select System Preferences.
- Select Software Update.
- Select Update Now.
Update iTunes Equivalents on macOS Catalina and Later
If you use a Mac with macOS Catalina or newer installed, you won't find iTunes anymore. Apple has separated out its core functionalities and made them available across five separate apps instead.
- Finder: handles iPhone backups.
- Music: plays and manages music.
- Podcasts: plays podcasts.
- Books: plays audiobooks.
- TV: plays TV shows.
These apps come baked into macOS, so you must update the system software to use their most recent iterations.
- Open the Apple menu and select System Preferences.
- Select Software Update.
- Select Update Now to update your Mac.
Success: iTunes Is Now Up to Date
Apple does not release regular updates to iTunes anymore, so you don't have to look for them frequently. But it's still a good idea to go through the motions if you have any trouble dealing with iTunes. That does not apply to macOS Catalina and later, where it's always a good idea to keep the operating system itself up to date.