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Can't authorize songs under old Apple ID

I've run a search for this problem and found lots of other people having the same issue but I haven't seen a solution yet. I recently upgraded my eMac to OSX 10.5.6 and I'm now running the latest version of iTunes as well. However, the songs I purchased under a previous Apple ID won't play on my computer or transfer to my iPod or iPhone. It tells me to authorize the computer but since my old Apple ID doesn't exist anymore I can't authorize it for that ID. It's already been authorized for the current Apple ID. There's over 100 songs that are affected, and that's a lot of money. Is there any way I can get those songs back? Do I need to create a new account? If so, how will it recognize the new account belongs to those songs?

Thanks in advance.

eMac, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Nov 5, 2009 12:54 PM

Reply
84 replies

Dec 11, 2009 11:37 AM in response to jovanm

I've emailed apple 3 times and got the polite "someone will get back to you in 24 hours" But surprise surprise nobody does!
NOTHING WORKS!!!
I've got around 24 albums I cant play as all I get is the "the specified apple id doesn't exist"
Cant log in, cant change password... Not that I need to as I already knew the password to this account!
THe weird thing is though that one of the 3 macs we have in the house plays SOME of the albums....
SOMEBODY HELP!!!
I've tried ALL the things suggested!!
Is Apple taking a leaf out of Microsoft's book here and just ignoring the people complaining AND the problem?
3 emails and not one reply!
does ANYBODY have a solution here PLEASE!!!
Its clear from this thread and a multitude of others this isnt an isolated problem!
<Edited by Host>

May 27, 2017 12:22 AM in response to ech2002

I've been experiencing the same problem. Here's my situation:


  • The music played fine last year, even a few months ago, but sometime very recently the "old email" problem started.
  • Music that I purchased more recently was not affected, whereas the older music I bought had the authorization issue.
  • I also updated my AppleID email a few years ago.


My guess is that something in the DRM encoding might have been changed recently, or perhaps it's bugged. I'm not an expert at it, and I'm not pointing a blaming finger at anyone. I'm just simply giving suggestions to the techie people out there who can tackle this issue from the programming side of things. Since I never had this issue before, what changed in the updates to make the old email come back?


My Solution

One thing I did try is this: on one of the songs, when the authorization prompt came up, I entered my new email and password. For whatever reason, the prompt came up twice for that one song, but after entering the current email and password a second time, the authorization went through under the current AppleID, and now I can play the song. I have yet to try that on the rest of the songs, but I got it to work on one of them. What I don't like about that is that I might have to enter the new information for every affected song, but at least it works.


** Edit: Apparently others have tried this too. I didn't read through all six pages of comments until after I posted my own.

Jan 8, 2017 1:05 PM in response to ech2002

Similar problem.

• My old earthlink email doesn't exist!

• Fortunately the old account with old email still exists (even though the email itself is inactive)

• Because of this, I not verify the account at appleid.apple.com

• Furthermore, I was unable to authorize my new iMac for songs purchased with this account, because the old account is at the 5-device limit (authorized for old computers that are long gone).

• I purchased over 100 songs using the old account.

• Fortunately, I remember the password.


So Here's what worked for me:

• Log into a Mac using a Guest Account. (This creates a blank-slate for iTunes, with no user yet associated)

• Open iTunes and sign in with old email/pass.

• In iTunes, Deauthorize all computers.

• Log out of the Guest Account on the Mac.

• Log in using normal user account and fire up iTunes

• Attempt to play a song that was purchased using the old account.

• Authorize the song using old account creds.

• After the steps above, all songs purchased using the old account were playable

Mar 15, 2017 4:09 PM in response to ech2002

I'm trying to move an itunes library from an old mac to a windows 10 PC. Some of the songs were purchased under a 'legacy' id that is not an email address and hasn't been used in 12 years. We don't know the password so we can't authorize the songs on the Windows PC. Called Apple and they say we must tell them the credit card number associated with that ID which of course we don't remember. Without that, they cannot reset the password and cannot do anything for us. I tried to authorize using the current email appleID but even though it accepted it, it still won't play and wants the old one. Any other ideas??

Nov 5, 2009 6:22 PM in response to Diane Wordsmith

OK I just tried again to play one of those songs, and the authorization window pops up. It automatically fills in the Apple ID with that old email address. If I click the Forgot Password option it says, "The Apple ID specified does not exist." I tried to re-enter it three times (I can only guess about what it was back then) and got bumped to the same Forgot Password screen, that again tells me the Apple ID doesn't exist.

I checked the Get Info screen, and it does have that old account listed. There has got to be a way to transfer these songs over right??

Nov 5, 2009 7:55 PM in response to ech2002

It automatically fills in the Apple ID with that old email address.

That info is embedded in the downloaded song file and will not change.
At the iForgot page, click on *Forgot your AppleID?* underneath the Continue button.

Even though they were purchased with the email address you used to have, you will need to enter the iTunes/AppleID that the accoont has now.
You can (and really should) continue to use the same iTunes account instead of creating a new one.
Just update the info for the account if anything changes.

Nov 5, 2009 8:12 PM in response to Chris CA

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried that but it only reset the password for my current account. When I searched for the previous Apple ID (which is really a former email address) I got this message: "We were unable to find your Apple ID with the information you provided. Please make sure the name you enter here matches your account information exactly." So it appears that Apple ID no longer exists.

The songs in question played fine until I upgraded to OS X 10.5.8 a couple months ago. I could play both those purchased under my old Apple ID and the ones I have under my current ID without any problems. Oh, and to clarify, when I get the authorization prompt, I do enter my current Apple ID and password, but that doesn't authorize those songs that were purchased under my old ID. It keeps defaulting back to the defunct account.

Nov 14, 2009 2:57 PM in response to ech2002

I, like you, have 4 albums of songs previously purchased from the ITunes Store that I cannot play anymore. You described every detail of the problem just exactly as is shows up for me. It involves a no longer active Apple ID that I cannot authorize because it no longer exists. I anxiously await any possible solution that you find! I've tried every way possible to fix this and have gotten nowhere.

Nov 15, 2009 10:37 AM in response to salmonberry

So here is the solution. You have to log into your old account and sign in. Obviously as your password is no longer valid, you have to reset it. There is no way to have it emailed to you, since you email is no longer attached to anything, so you have to answer the security question. Once you do that, you will be able to just "sign in" under the old account even though its not valid and authorize the computer. Hope that helps. It worked for me.

Can't authorize songs under old Apple ID

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