Q: "Accessing iTunes Store" message stuck...

onestepaway nailed it. I clicked on the store tab in my itunes, then selected "authorize this computer" from the drop-down and haven't seen that annoying *** "accessing the itunes store" message since. I searched for several artists/songs of various name length and it never reared its ugly head.

Yep, authorization seems to have worked for me too. Weird as, don't really understand the connection.

Authorization worked for me as well. Why did I have to reauthorize my same computer though? At least it is working now.

The same problem happens to me. Disabling iTunes store and re-authorizing did not work. The messages remains stuck until I force quit the application.

This has been happening since the previous upgrade and this morning's upgrade to 10.2.1.

On both my windoze and mac boxes: deauthorizing and then reauthorizing the computer solved all the problems.

Thank you onestepaway. I've been trying to sort this problem for three days now, and was about to choke-slam my laptop until I saw your post. Totally fixed my problem, although it now says I have authorised 2 computers out of my 5 authorisations limit. Should have deauthorised first, I suppose, but I doubt it'll matter. Thanks again.

Absolute pain in the ***.

Stuck here as well. Little Snitch shows no network activity when asking to auth/deauth the account.

Phoning Apple support is no use, they just ask me for cash to fix their own bloody problem with their own bloody system.

Tried the auth/deauth but it doesn't seem to do anything, though it now appears to have signed me out.

Wonder what the problem could be? Apple, get your *** in gear and sort this out.

I have the exact same problem. VERY frustrating. Am running an iMac 10,1 with 10.6.7.

i have this problem to.
I can just log into the U.S. store, but when I try to log in Dutch shop is this not possible.
i'm running on Mac Os x 10.6.7

+Sorry, for my bad English.+

Same problem, every time I type a letter in the search box, the "Accessing Itunes" bar comes up for a minute. Authorizing the computer fixed it, however, it used up another one of my computer authorizations, and you only get 5... so Apple, can you please fix this? And give me my authorization back?

This worked for me too.

Likewise, the de-authorize and re-authorize eliminated the infuriating constant popup.

Likewise, the de-authorize didn't actually work, so now iTunes thinks I have 3 machines authorized.

Likewise, I want my authorization back.

Re-authorizing my computer worked for me as well, but now I only have one authorization left and am about to get a new computer. Won't that take two just to get itunes up and running? Apple, we need you to step in here!

I disable "Ping" by Preferences--> Parental ---> Disable --> check Ping. Then the problem solved.

I had this problem. Opened iTunes and clicked on Store on top left of screen. From the drop down clicked Authorise this computer and followed instructions. Worked for me and not a problem since. Try it out and good luck.