ahh! how to de-authorize decommissioned computers in iTunes??

[Kaido]

I've been doing a lot of upgrading recently, including reinstalling Windows. I bought a song on iTunes today, which, when I played, said I had already authorized 5 computers and I had to de-authorize one to get this one to work. Fine...but...nearly all of them have had Windows reinstalled. The only one that hasn't isn't connected to the network at the moment. How do I de-authorize all my computers since all of them have been wiped already? I want to re-authorize them, but the authorizations are tied to the original installations and not the new ones. What a headache...

 

[notfred]

Go to this page on Apple's site, scroll to the bottom, and fill out the form. They'll deathorize all the computers on your account, and then you can just reauthorize the ones you want to use. I've had to do this twice before, only takes them a day or so to deauthorize everything.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: notfred
Go to this page on Apple's site, scroll to the bottom, and fill out the form. They'll deathorize all the computers on your account, and then you can just reauthorize the ones you want to use. I've had to do this twice before, only takes them a day or so to deauthorize everything.

Excellent, they did it. Thanks!

 

[kamper]

Wow (now that you've got your solution I can politely nef ) Buying music online sucks. I will be using cds for some time to come

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: kamper
Wow (now that you've got your solution I can politely nef ) Buying music online sucks. I will be using cds for some time to come

It's convenient, but the draconian rules placed on usage suck. However, until people stop pirating entirely (not likely) or until the RIAA ceases to exist/comes to their senses (again, not likely), legal online music solutions will continue to be less than ideal. The main problem I have with them involves the ephemerality of data on computers. While we all should keep a stringent backup routine, most people don't. Simply put, computers aren't always the safest repository for data. While you could have a physical CD stolen/lost, I'm willing to bet that the chances of that happening are much less than losing iTunes data. Considering it's a digital medium, it would make sense for you to be able to redownload a song that you have purchased already (the only cost being extra bandwidth), but that simply isn't the case right now. This makes me very wary of non-subscription based, buy it and you own it online music stores. Add the fact that the file quality is less than CDs at a very similar price, and they are not handling this whole situation properly IMO.