When you purchase a song on iTunes, you are authorized to play back that song (in the purchased AAC format, anyway) on no more than 5 computers. Once you've authorized playback on 5 computers, your only choice is to skirt the DRM by doing the burn/rip dance or de-authorize your previously authorized computers. But what if you don't have access to those computers anymore to de-auth them? Well once a year (officially speaking), you can ask Apple (via iTunes support email or from your account page in the iTunes Store) to de-authorize all of your systems and start from scratch, giving you 5 free auth slots back. In many cases, even if you've used your "once a year" allotment, emailing iTunes support will get you another reset anyway, but it's not a guarantee. This is a much more common issue in school or work environments where users regularly get moved to new and/or different computers for a variety of reasons and the last thing on their mind when that happens is de-authorizing their iTunes purchases on their old system. And trust me, it's the last thing on the IT department's mind as well.On your Mac, the iTunes authorization info itself is stored in an invisible folder located in /Users/Shared/SC Info/ . It seems the key to unlimited auth and de-auths is to remove then restore that folder. If you have a need to do this regularly, Firblitz has whipped up an app to make it easier. iTude is an AppleScript application that backups us the SC Info folder while you de-authorize iTunes and then restores it, which theoretically means you don't waste an authorization slot for that computer.
I haven't personally tried this out, since I really don't have a need for it, and the author himself warns that you should use it at your own risk, but if you have a need for it, it's there for the taking - until Apple rolls out the next iTunes update, which will probably break it :)
[via digg]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-11-2006 @ 1:19PM
Peter May said...
You can deauthorise all your machines at any time by going to your account information through the iTunes store. Did it myself this very morning!
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12-11-2006 @ 1:21PM
Laurie said...
@ Peter May -- yes, you can, but as I (and Apple) mention, you can only "officially" do that 1x per year.
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12-11-2006 @ 1:28PM
Jeff Gates said...
I believe I only have authorized two computers yet a popup window is now coming up when I buy an iTunes song that says I've reached my limit of 5. What's up with that?
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12-11-2006 @ 2:37PM
Matthew said...
Peter, I believe this is true once you've actually authorized five machines. Fewer, and you have to contact Apple directly (which I recently did when one of my Macs required a new logic board, resulting in one Mac displacing two authorizations).
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12-11-2006 @ 3:02PM
Timm said...
Where do you do this on the account page? I have a machine authorized somewhere that I would love to delete.
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12-11-2006 @ 3:24PM
Michael Clark said...
The option only appears in your account when you have five machines authorized. There is no need to delete a machine until you hit five and need #6.
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12-11-2006 @ 4:31PM
JR said...
This makes sence to me now. A while back I had 5 machines registered and did the deauthorization in itunes but what suprised me was that every single machine could still play the music even though itunes said that no machines were registered. I thought It was a glitch but It worked with multiple itunes accounts. Itunes must not know have known how to change this file.
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12-11-2006 @ 7:07PM
andrew s said...
"I haven't personally tried this out"
Um, why *don't* you try it out before you recommend that all your readers download it? This site writes articles about far too many untested beta programs, with the general caveat that "if it works, it will be really cool." Why don't you try actually testing something before you post about it to the world....
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12-11-2006 @ 8:23PM
Laurie said...
@ andrew - If I/we only wrote about things we had personal experience with this site would be empty. For that matter, if we only posted about things we personally cared about this site would be empty. We're not a software review site. If we're reviewing a piece of software, we say so. I didn't and am not planning to review the above-mentioned software as I have no use for it at all. The majority of things we post about are general FYI-style posts. If you're not interested, that's cool - but you don't represent most of our readers any more than I do. Nowhere in my post do I /recommend/ that anyone do anything. I made the info available. What you or other readers choose to do with it is up to you. If this were strictly a software review site, I could understand your where you were coming from, but you're expectations are simply unrealistic in this respect.
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12-12-2006 @ 6:18AM
bryan said...
the last thing you guys posted about without trying it out first screwed up a load of peoples address books.
I thought you would have learned a lesson by now?
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12-12-2006 @ 10:06AM
Steve F said...
That happened to me last year. I would buy a song and it would be auth to 5 comps before I listened to it once. I contacted apple and they told me that problem is another reason why apple created the deauth option in itunes. If you deauth everything and then reauth your songs you should be set. I was never told why this happened. Anyone have some insight??
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