Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Level 1

15 points

Repeated authorization of computer when connecting iPod

First of all, I am using a first generation iPod touch running on 2.2.1 and using iTunes 8.2.

The problem that I am having is as follows:

Every time I connect my iPod touch to my computer, it will open iTunes and it seems as if it were going to sync. It goes though the backing up process and then it stops and this message comes up:

*"This computer is no longer authorized for applications that are installed on the iPod. Would you like to authorize this computer for items purchased from the iTunes Store?"*
*+Sub-note: "If you do not authorize this computer, 50 applications, including "AIM", and their data will be deleted from this iPod."+*

So, every time I click on Authorize and sign in, it comes up with a window saying:
*"This computer is already authorized"*
*+Sub-note: "Including this one, you have authorized one computer out of your available 5"+*

I click OK and it goes through the process of syncing my iPod.

However, even without disconnecting my iPod, I can close iTunes and reopen it to see that the exact same thing happens again (iTunes prompting me to authorize the computer).

This is getting really old and I cannot find a solution to my problem. I have checked the following:
- I have never purchased anything or downloaded anything on more than 1 account
- I have deleted the SC Info folder
- I have tried de-authorizing and re-authorizing

Any other ideas on how to fix this problem would be awesome!
Thanks!

Message was edited by: walexm311

Message was edited by: walexm311

macbook, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Jun 9, 2009 1:24 PM

37 replies

Mar 26, 2010 3:08 PM in response to walexm311

I was receiving a similar message to this one:
"If you do not authorize this computer, 50 applications, including "AIM", and their data will be deleted from this iPod."
except that mine named a different program.

I just deleted the specific program from my iPhone that the message said would be deleted (i.e., if I had received the above message, I would have deleted "AIM") and now the re-authorization problem is gone.

BTW, the problem started for me when I upgraded from Vista to Windows 7, and I also upgraded to iTunes 9.0.3.15 and upgraded to iPhone 3.1.3 before deleting the program. I'm not sure if the iTunes or iPhone software updates had anything to do with getting rid of this problem, but I am sure that the problem started immediately after the Windows 7 upgrade.

I really hope this helps someone!!!

Tim Semic

Level 1

135 points

May 27, 2010 9:42 PM in response to walexm311

Yep, me too. If I figure anything out I will post back. Possibly a Snow Leopard upgrade is a factor, or a recent app download, wrong side of the bed, etc.

walexm311 Author

Level 1

15 points

Jul 14, 2010 2:40 PM in response to walexm311

Still haven't been able to figure this one out after all of this time... I can authorize the computer and leave iTunes open all of the time and it will sync fine. However, when I close iTunes and reopen it and sync it with my iPhone, then I have iTunes asking me to authorize my computer again. The only solution that I have had for this problem is to just keep iTunes open all of the time, but I really wish I didn't have to do this! It seems as if there are a lot of people with this problem, but no one can figure it out.

alicemet

Level 1

0 points

Oct 12, 2010 12:44 PM in response to walexm311

Allow me to include my voice to hopefully add to the fray, and ultimately influence Apple.

I have personally experienced this problem; every time I upgrade a mac (ie: get a new mac, restore from Time Machine backup). I always do the time machine backup, then de-authorize the computer (so it doesn't use up my available 5), then restore onto the new mac, and authorize it.

More times than not, I have this problem. I can't use my iTunes account on my new computer, and I can't sync any of my devices.

Last time I went into my iTunes account history and printed out every transaction - which is a real pain because the iTunes interface is really slow and times out frequently. But obviously my computer is authorized if I'm allowed to view all of the history! There are several steps to open each transaction and print it out and close it and move to the next. For some reason Apple doesn't see fit to give you any definitive list of all the purchases you have made. You have to hunt for them. After compiling that list, I deauthorize the computer.

Then I completely remove iTunes. Then, reinstall it, create a new library, authorize the computer, and go download all my apps. Oh, by the way - for music you have to keep backups since you cannot redownload it.

While going through this process, if I mistakenly try to install an application that I believe to have already purchased, but am mistaken, then I've just purchased something else. Congratulations to me - the new owner of some app that is probably similar to something I already have anyway, so have no use for. There is no real way to tell if I've already bought an app until buying it again, and letting the iTunes store tell me I've already paid for it. Wouldn't it be nice to know that before trying to shell out more money?

Then I wipe the iDevice, and set it up from scratch from the newly created iTunes library. Transfer all of the apps back onto the device, and cross my fingers.

If I ever try to restore the device from a previous backup, or restore iTunes from a previous backup, this problem will always exist. The only way I've found to get around it is to completely remove iTunes and completely wipe the device, then re-download all of the content, and then sync that newly downloaded content back onto the device. Then enjoy recreating all of my settings and online profiles for every application I've ever used.

I'd love to find a better way. Honestly, Apple gets less of my money because it's such an onerous task to spend several days reconfiguring a new computer. It's not worth the upgrade to waste that much of my life to this nonsense.

hksdecay

Level 1

0 points

Oct 17, 2010 9:08 PM in response to walexm311

Hey Guys I found the fix.

1. Click iTunes Store in the menu on iTunes.
2. If you're not signed in to the store, click the Account button, then enter your account name and password.
3. Click the Account button again, enter your password, and then click View Account.
4. In the Account Information window, click Deauthorize All.
P.S. You can only do this once per year so make sure you are doing it on the right computer and know what other computers you want to sync your device to if you decide to do so.

If this has helped you please donate, I had this problem as well for about 10 months and spent alot of time (including failed attempts with apple customer service ) to find the fix.
Thanks.

hksdecay

Level 1

0 points

Oct 18, 2010 7:13 PM in response to walexm311

Heres the Donation Button

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=s-xclick&hosted_buttonid=TVQWFSSCH3HGG

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="hosted buttonid" value="TVQWFSSCH3HGG">
<input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en US/i/btn/btn_donateCCLG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!">

</form>

Nov 1, 2010 7:41 AM in response to hksdecay

On the Apple Account information page, there is no "De-authorize All" button. Any other suggestions?

Jan 30, 2011 6:35 PM in response to hksdecay

Here's the problem with that. On my account page, it shows I have three computers authorized so the "deauthorize all" button doesn't show up. This is really a frustrating problem.

Feb 9, 2011 8:30 PM in response to Narragansett55

Hi all,

Using this info has worked for me:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1389

Turning off user account controls, restart, turning it on, restart, authorize!
Bingo!

Good Luck
Q

tinackm

Level 1

0 points

Feb 27, 2011 1:08 PM in response to walexm311

I had the same problem all of you described and neither of the support solutions nor anything you suggested seemed to work for me either. This was really getting old and it was only out of pure frustration and despair that I was still playing around with Itunes. You've probably all tried this before because now that it worked for me it kind of seems like the first thing you would do, but in case you haven't, you might want to simply deactivate the computer you're currently getting the error message with and reactive it, while you've signed out of the itunes account in question. Solved the problem for me.

jonklsn

Level 1

0 points

Mar 23, 2011 11:21 PM in response to walexm311

Ok so I'm having this same issue, tried everything in the support article including all the extra steps everyone has tried with no luck. Then I find out that logging in without my email domain finally worked. So for example, I authorized my computer for "YourEmail@EmailHost.com", and had the problem, so the second time i just logging in as "YourEmail" and i left off the "@EmailHost.com" part, used the same password and it worked. Now don't ask my how or why its this way, but apparently apple treats them as two completely separate accounts even though I only setup the one using my full email address. Whats odd is that the message that comes up when you authorize a computer that tells you the number of authorized computers differs for both accounts as well, so they are technically two separate apple accounts. So I have no idea why I have two accounts now or how I managed to create the second one, I'm just happy its working finally.

Apr 2, 2011 2:45 PM in response to walexm311

I don't know if this will help anyone, but it helped me.

I have 4 apple accounts and purchase apps on all of them. The message appeared so what I did was I went to the store tab and I signed out. I then synced my iPod and the message appeared once more. I just signed in and voila, it synced, no problem.

Hope this helps.

May 7, 2011 5:59 AM in response to walexm311

I think I have may have solved this for my case having suffered the same issue of this annoying problem of trying to restore from Time Machine and getting stuck in the iPhone authorisation loop.

Perhaps it will work for you too:

1. I was using the wrong account - I checked a purchase by selecting it and going to 'Get Info' under the file menu. Realised I was logging in using the wrong email address - though it never said it was a invalid account and password. Though this in itself didn't fix the overall issue.

2. I was at my 5 limit so I deauthorised all computers

3. Trashed the SC Info file as described here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1389

4. Selected 'Authorise this computer' from the Store menu in iTunes

5. Hooked up the iPhone and the athorisation is now progressing as normal.

Maybe it will work for you too.

Sep 3, 2011 8:54 AM in response to walexm311

I only began to receive this message today, and it took me a while to figure what is going on in my case. We have three computers authorized and two iPhones. One of my computers is going downhill so I'd bought a new one and transferred the iTunes file to he new computer. I deauthorized the old computer and authorized the new. (I sync my contacts and calendar to my laptop and my husband syncs his contacts and calendar to his laptop and then I sync the music on his laptop as well).

Then today, I downloaded some music (on his laptop) and started getting the authorization messages. But wow! Apple still allowed me to spend the money!!! The ultimate frustration came when I began to sync my iPhone (and the new music on it). THAT'S when I got the messages about their deleting some of my apps because the computer isn't authorized. Huh? That computer was ALWAYS authorized.

So, thinking about what had occurred, I went into the old computer and deauthorized it AGAIN, and then went into the new laptop and reauthorized it AGAIN and all was well. In the meantime, I'd phoned Apple and was on hold. While on hold, I tried it again and it worked fine.

When the Apple guy came on the line I told him what I'd been dealing with and he said that it is common that the deauthorize doesn't work the first time. Umm.....wish they had put something in the software to verify that it worked and save us all days and days of work!

I don't know if this situation is similar to anyone else's but I thought I'd put it here just in case.

Nov 15, 2011 8:26 AM in response to walexm311

Add me to the list of people with this problem.

I have followed all of Apple's suggestions for fixing this problem (changing user control in Windows 7, deleting SC folder, even deauthorizing and re-authorizing the machine), and I still get this error about the "apps" when I first try to sync. I get the error everytime i have re-started iTunes and plug-in my iPhone for the first time.

Following someone else's luck, I am downloading iTunes to do a re-install. If this doesn't fix it, we'll have to wait for an iTunes update I guess.

Apple's servers are having some trouble too - I have received 2 emails from Apple informing me that a purchase was made using my apple ID from a computer they did not recognize (I made the purchases, so I'm not worried), but this shows that Apple is having some serious issues with their iTunes Store / Apple IDs.

I'll let you guys know if I discover anything new.

Cheers,

Rodolfo

Repeated authorization of computer when connecting iPod