Filed under: iTS, iTunes, Mac 101
iTunes 101: Deauthorize all computers at once
If you have reached your 5-computer limit, then launch iTunes, click iTunes Store, and then click your iTunes user name in the top-right corner of the store window. Once you login, you should see a page with all of your account information on it. In the middle of the page, you should see how many computers are currrently authorized. When you reach your 5-computer limit, a new button will appear here called "Deauthorize All." When you click this button, and confirm, your computer limit will start over at zero.
You will then need to re-authorize the computers that you want to keep. From iTunes, go to Store > Authorize Computer.
Update: As many have noted in the comments, this deauthorize all button can only be used one time per year. So, if you only have one or two computers to deauthorize, it might be best to do it manually. You can learn more about iTunes de-authorization on this Apple support note.
Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Eric said 8:06AM on 11-12-2008
This is good information but Its old also.
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Victor Agreda Jr said 3:43PM on 11-12-2008
All of our 101 tips are old news if you've been using Macs for a while. Physics is old news to Stephen Hawking, and yet they still teach the subject -- go figure.
Andrew said 8:07AM on 11-12-2008
You might want to add that you can only do this once per year
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Sam said 8:43AM on 11-12-2008
If you need to de-authorize again within a year you can use the Apple support form and explain your reasoning, they're usually quite friendly about it.
totoro said 11:57AM on 11-12-2008
Yeah, is that once a year thing still in effect?
Andrew said 12:47PM on 11-12-2008
It is according to the Apple support page on this - I had to look it up the other day!
John said 8:15AM on 11-12-2008
What do you do if you are only at 2 and one of the machines you had sold 2 years ago (before you knew about deauthorizing)? I would love to be able to reset it now as I will never hit the 5 machine limit.
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Joshua said 8:25AM on 11-12-2008
Yes, inquiring minds want to know.
Jesse David Hollington said 8:34AM on 11-12-2008
Well, if you haven't hit the limit, there's really no need to reset it, right? :-)
If you have an authorization being taken up by a computer that you no longer have, it's not really causing any problems if you still have more authorizations left.
When you *do* hit the limit, you can always do a deauthorize all right away.... The process only takes a few seconds, so there's no need to do it before you hit the limit.
mex said 9:12AM on 11-12-2008
I don't see the matter, simply de-authorize ALL the authorized machines, it works also with less than 5 authorized machines ;)
Shawn said 10:28AM on 11-12-2008
If you (or they) formatted the computer before buying (or after selling) it, you should have no reason to worry. I keep forgetting to deauthorize my computer before I do a format and reinstall of Windows, so I have had to use this a few times.
Jon said 11:30AM on 11-12-2008
I'd definitely advise doing this before you get rid of a machine. My laptop was stolen at the airport and what with losing my data and trying to make a claim, deauthorizing wasn't at the forefront of my mind as you can imagine.
About a month later, I noticed strange purchases on my account by someone who clearly had no taste in music whatsoever. So I deauthorized all my machines and then reauthorized the ones I had. Then I got locked out of my iTunes account because this other guy had tried to guess my password too many times. In the end, I had to sign up for a new account and put in a claim with my bank, which turned out to be a major headache.
So always deauthorize your machine when you get rid of it, especially if it's stolen.
Tom said 8:47AM on 11-12-2008
Holy crap that's exactly what I needed! Thanks guys.
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mik said 8:30AM on 11-12-2008
You could setup virtual windows machines with itunes or go to one or two friends and setup an account there.
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Keir said 9:00AM on 11-12-2008
I'll just point out another handy tip.
If you've authorized a computer, and then reinstalled OS X / Windows but forgot to deauthorize your computer before the reinstall, you can still deauthorize it through iTunes as if you hadn't reinstalled.
I managed to deauthorize one machine 3 times just by repeatedly going to deauthorize in the store menu three times.
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Maria said 9:05AM on 11-12-2008
Great tip. Wish I could (1) do this with Adobe software and (2) do it before I reached the 5 computer limit on iTunes.
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Le Big Mac said 9:31AM on 11-12-2008
What Mex said -- just deauthorize whatever you have (if you want). You can do it once a year regardless, so it doesn't harm anything to use it now.
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cromer said 10:13AM on 11-12-2008
So why does Apple put a limit on how many times you deauthorize all your computers? Why should they care?
Joshua said 10:16AM on 11-12-2008
This is a great tip I had such a problem with reinstalling old systems and not being able to de-authorize them. Thanks so much
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barrett said 10:07AM on 11-12-2008
Or you could just not buy DRM'd music. I use iTunes, but I've never bought from the iTunes store. Imagine apple decides its just done with the music business or they become the victim of some bad business decisions five years hence. You'd have to burn all your tunes to disk and re-rip them. Forget that.
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