Comments on: iTunes: Deauthorizing All Computers Only Once Per Year?

By: Mitchell Oke

Mitchell Oke — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 21:14:39 +0000

AH your quite right. The other two authorisations must be my MacBook Pro (I reloaded it a month ago) and my Dell D400 laptop.

doogald, I thought of that, but if you wanted to share songs with friends to burn CDs they could authorise, burn, then deauthorise themselves.

By: doogald

doogald — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:23:41 +0000

I’ll bet that if you call support and explain the situation that they will either de-authorize all computers for you, or will let your account do so.

My guess for the reason that they do not allow it is to prevent you from authorizing some friend’s computers, having them burn the songs to am audio CD, and then do the same for some more friends.

But, yes, I had an issue where I am at my limit but the fifth computer is an old laptop that I wiped long ago, so I have had to do the deauthorize all before

Oh, and, yes, the restriction is 5 computers. iPods do not count in that list, nor do Apple TVs. It is possible that you have multiple authorizations from one computer; Apple says that if you deauthorize the computer in iTunes and then are able to do it again, then you had multiple authorizations on that computer. Keep doing that until it tells you that the computer was not authorized and then you can reauthorize it.

Some support docs: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304975
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93014
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300160
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1206

By: JDTagish

JDTagish — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:20:57 +0000

I could be WAY wrong, but I think that you can authorize 5 computers and use the library on an unlimited number of devices, which would mean that your touch wouldn’t count in your authorization limit. Not sure where the Apple TV fits into there, but I think it counts as a computer too. I don’t have one, so I wouldn’t know.

I currently have iTunes set up on 3 laptops and 1 desktop, but sync to 3 different iPods as well, which should have put me over the device limit, but it doesn’t, since devices didn’t “count” but computers did.

By: Mitchell Oke

Mitchell Oke — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 12:08:26 +0000

myFairTunes FTW!

I use that so I can play my music on my car PC (uses WinAmp not iTunes).

By: Joel Mclaughlin

Joel Mclaughlin — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 12:07:00 +0000

One more reason I don’t like iTMS. iTunes as a program works great. iTMS has too many restrictions for me. PLUS I can’t play their music anywhere. I have switched to CD’s and AmazonMP3.

By: TrvlngDrew

TrvlngDrew — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 07:22:34 +0000

Thanks Khyourt! I did see the reset just wish I could do them all, they are all out of date!

By: khouryrt

khouryrt — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 06:58:18 +0000

TrvlngDrew
On mobipocket, once you reach the 4 ebooks limit, the “delete” icon is gone, but every 30 days (not 60) as I have come to notice, it will reappear again, letting you delete a device and add another one instead.
Now if you don’t want to wait 30 days, you can reset your account (they say it takes a week, my experience says 2-3 days). Once your account is reset, not all devices are deleted, but you are given the chance to delete one device like previous.
This means that in most instances, you can add a new device every 2-3 days. I don’t know if after a certain amount of account resetting, it won’t work anymore.
Fact is that I need my medical ebooks to be with me, and every 3-4 weeks I have a new device to trial, so I have lived it more than once now

By: TrvlngDrew

TrvlngDrew — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 06:14:42 +0000

Heck didn’t know I could even do that! Have the same issue with Mobipocket ebooks.. But at least there I can deauthorise a machine every 60 days or so..

By: Mitchell Oke

Mitchell Oke — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 04:39:55 +0000

I reckon they have like a committee.

“Hmm, is there anything else we can do to lock them in, and make the experience that little bit harder…”

By: Chris Magnusson

Chris Magnusson — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 04:38:02 +0000

“Why on earth are we restricted to deauthorizing all devices only once a year?”

That’s part of the Draconian Restriction Measures.