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-208 ERROR preventing me from listening to purchases!

ITunes 6 now asks me to authorise each song (purchases made over the last 12 months) and then I re-enter username and password and then I am told I have a new authorisation. (1/5)

Then I get a -208 error, unknown error occurred. Please try again later.

NO!!!

I've had this problem for over 24 hours and what makes me REALLY REALLY MAD is that I've paid for hundreds of singles and albums and recently videos and just because of Apple's Bugs - I'm not allowed to listen to my purchased AND DOWNLOADED SONGS!

The songs downloaded should NOT DEPEND ON HOW THE SERVER IS WORKING!!!

My machine is the only one authorised and now apparently I need to authorise my machine just to sample songs aswell.

Maybe Apple you should be a little less hasty trying to RUSH releases (version 6 - how rushed is that!) and make sure the software works.

But most importantly -

IT IS WRONG AND IMMORAL TO PREVENT YOUR CUSTOMERS FROM BEING ABLE TO LISTEN TO MUSIC THEY HAVE PURCHASED AS AND WHEN YOU CHOOSE TO PULL THE SERVER DOWN OR DO MAINTENANCE.

THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE - START CARING ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMERS.

Angry!

Posted on Oct 15, 2005 6:20 AM

Reply
21 replies

Oct 15, 2005 8:19 AM in response to toastieking

I have the same problem here in Sweden.
The problem is quite recent though. The first few days with iTunes 6.0 I had no problem. But after rebooting windows I could no longer listen to any bought music, or preview music in the iTunes store.

All i get is a "You must authorize this computer to listen to song 'x'", where x is nothing when trying to preview songs, and the songs name when trying to play purchased songs. Even after having authorized my computer, and double checked with my iTunes profile, I still get that same dialog everytime i try to play purchased music or when trying to preview music.

When I use earlier versions of iTunes and iTunes 6.0 for mac store preview works. When using iTunes 6.0 for Mac, i can play my purchased music. When using older versions for windows and trying to play music, i get an error requesting me to upgrade to 6.0.

I have not used JHymn or simmilar software. I did however install Ubuntu Linux 5.10 on another harddisk and prepared the computer for dualboot with GRUB. The windows installation was untouched.

Everytime i try to authorize with iTunes 6.0 on windows it ends up with a apparently valid authorization on my iTunes profile but with a "Error -208" error message.

Specs:
iTunes 6.0.0.18 (latest)
Windows XP Pro SP2
No outstanding updates on Automatic Updates available.

Is this simmilar to any of your problems?

Oct 15, 2005 8:40 AM in response to toastieking

That is exactly everyone's symptoms. I am running Windows XP SP2 with iTunes 6 and when I upgraded, iTunes wanted me to authorize and I started getting the error above. Interestingly I have Windows 2000 Professional SP4 at work that I upgraded the day iTunes 6 came out and had zero problems. Later that night when Apple started having problems with connectivity to their store and I had upgraded my Windows XP machine at home I got the error.

It seems that network congestion/problems with the music store is causing this problem. It is definitely not an iTunes 6 problem that I can find.

Jeremy

Oct 15, 2005 8:48 AM in response to toastieking

The mac and windows computer i have used for testing this are both connected to the same switch and connected in turn to the same ISP. The mac with iTunes 6.0 works, the windows computer with iTunes 6.0 doesn't work.

I have a great deal of difficulty to believe then that this is related to capacityproblems in iTMS.

I am trying to install iTunes 6.0 on another windows machine here now to see if it works better.

Oct 15, 2005 8:54 AM in response to toastieking

Please let us know your results. I have uninstalled and reinstalled it a bunch of times with the same results. My machine at work was still playing music on Friday. My guess is that when we authorized during the "network congestion" problems we got a partial download of an updated encyrption key or decryption key for our music, which is causing this issue. I have sent Apple a support email about this issue, I have not gotten a response yet.

Jeremy

Oct 15, 2005 9:03 AM in response to toastieking

The second windows computer i tested it on, on the same network, seems to have no problem previewing music from the iTunes store.

Purchased music also plays without a problem.

Now to find some way to duplicate the conditions on that computer on my main computer.

The computer I now tested iTunes 6.0 on was also a Windows XP Pro SP2 installation with all the latest upgrades available.

Oct 15, 2005 9:24 AM in response to toastieking

After having checked my other computer for what files had been altered or created this last day (during thich i had successfully authorized it for playback in preview and for purchased music) i found the file "SC Info.sidb" under "X:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\SC Info". This appears to hold your authorization keys or some other magic stuff. By deleting this files parent folder, iTunes was forced into asking me to authorize this computer again for playback, with the difference this time that there were some other options on the authorization dialog, just like there should be when for the first time authorizing a computer to play protected iTunes content. When I then entered my information as always and was expecting to see the same -208 error, i was instead greeted with sweet opera that I had been longing to listen to.

A minute or so later, I found this article on the net:
http://nslog.com/archives/2003/05/02/authorizingitunes_scinfo.php

It describes the same problem, but for users of macs, but the same principle applies to windows machines. The only thing fifferent is the paths to the key database. "I:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\SC Info"

Try the same procedure and hopefully your iTunes copy should work again. Just remember to make sure all iTunes related processes are shut down first before trying this. It might not matter, but that is what I did.

Oct 20, 2005 2:17 AM in response to toastieking

I have the same problem: what was your solution? Somebody in this thread wrote about 'deleting some folder' or whatsoever ...??

I fully agree with you. Though I havn't (yet) bought hundred of tracks, but 4 albums and I can't listen them! That's VERY VERY ANNOYING.

Apple should really fix it, otherwise it's no wonder, people look out for 'crack' solutions and illegal ways ...

Regards
Eric J. Lorup

-208 ERROR preventing me from listening to purchases!

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