This computer is not authorized to play

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Level 1

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This computer is not authorized to play

I recently did a clean install of windows. Before the install, I backed up all my music from itunes to an external hard drive. After the install I copied the music back. Now some of the songs won't play. I get:
"This computer is not authorized to play "(song)". Would you like to authorize it?"

Even after authorizing it will not play. how do i fix this?

homebuilt, Windows XP

Posted on Nov 8, 2009 11:14 AM

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Answer 1

Detlef61

Level 1

5 points

Nov 8, 2009 1:11 PM in response to chedderslam

Stupid question first?
How many authorizations did you use till now? As far as I know you´ve got 5 (per account?).
PC, notebook and iPod would be 3 already for example. And if you did forget to de-authorize iTunes on an old computer before giving it away or before doing a clean install you might have reached that limit?

In that case I think you could use an option in your iTunes account to de-authorize all of your "computers". And then authorize only the equipment you now use. As far as I know that option is only available once per year.

If that isn´t your problem I can only point you to this Apple page:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1389?viewlocale=en_US

Just in case you hadn´t found it already.

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Answer 2

chedderslam Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 8, 2009 2:23 PM in response to Detlef61

There are currently only two authorizations on the account. We are using an administrator password.

I have deleted the SC Info folder and restarted. Now when I try to authorize the song, I get:
"We could not complete your Itunes Store request. The network connection was reset."

I have tried several times.

I can access the store and I know I am online.

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Answer 3

Detlef61

Level 1

5 points

Nov 8, 2009 3:54 PM in response to chedderslam

Sorry to hear that.

I didn´t have your exact problem. I just needed to re-authorize my computer every single time I wanted to play any "protected" content! iTunes just didn´t want to remember that this was already an "activated" computer.
Searching for a solution I found that Apple support page I mentioned.

My OS is Windows 7 and I did delete that SC info folder too.
That didn´t help. So I looked at my Windows account.

Single user and using only a administrator account too.
But when I looked at my folder "account rights" (right click on the folder, choose security? Is that the right term in English?) for the iTunes folder I discovered that Windows 7 automatically restricted my access rights. There was one administrator account with my name and an additional user account with my name.

The user account with my name severely restricted my rights. And that seems to be the account normally used by Windows 7 (and Vista?). I had to manually give myself full access rights to the iTunes folder.
Once I did that my problem vanished.

Do you have full access rights to the Apple / iTunes folders? Even the hidden ones?

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Answer 4

Dec 24, 2009 2:43 PM in response to chedderslam

This issue seems that is still lingering. Here is an old thread (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1833228&start=0&tstart=0) that describes what has been going on for a while. I still have the same (or similar) issue where I can only play half of the songs purchased with the same account. As a consequence, I have not purchase one song from iTunes ever since. Currently there are over 100 songs that have this problem in the account.

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