iTunes 10.5.1 password irritation

With all due respect, the culprit behind this issue is already known, and has nothing to do with Location Services.

The issue is that iTunes is storing a cookie in Safari's (or should I say, WebKit's) respository in ~/Library/Cookies, and balking when the cookie doesn't exist (such as when Safari is reset) or has the wrong value.

Now, iTunes could easily store this marker in another location, as it already does for the machine's authorization key, but it doesn't, and it also ignores its own preference to disable Automatic Downloads, and asks for the password anyway, no matter the setting.

It's easily, and completely reproducable by manipulating the Cookies.plist file.

Log in to your iTunes account a few times, or make a few purchases, to reach some as yet undetermined threshhold (I'm too lazy to try), and the nagging dialog goes away.

With such a state settled, quit iTunes, and temporarily move the Cookies.plist file to the desktop or another location.

Launch iTunes, and get nagged. Twice.

Quit iTunes, then restore the temporarily displaced Cookies.plist file to its rightful home, overwriting the newly generated file. (Note that that file only contains a single cookie for the apple.com domain.)

Launch iTunes. No nagging. No problem.

IMO, and Apple obviously disagrees, that it's poor form to have one application affect another's applications settings, or behavior.

Fine, if they want to keep all the cookies in a monolithic file, since the iTMS is, afterall, really a highly-customized website that the iTunes app relies on the WebKit framework to render.

However, the question then becomes why iTunes still prompts for the password for a feature that the user has explicitly disabled? This makes no sense, on either a logical, or technical level, and is the root flaw that should easily be correctable.

For various reasons, many users choose not to be logged into their iTunes accounts, and are asked to enter their passwords only when performing a transaction, or a task that involves sensitive information.

Why then, another standard when it comes to Automatic Downloads? And for every user, whether the feature is enabled or not?

It is clearly an inconsistent, and flawed behavior, that Apple apparently chooses to ignore.

Apple ][ Forever wrote:

With all due respect, the culprit behind this issue is already known, and has nothing to do with Location Services.

The issue is that iTunes is storing a cookie in Safari's (or should I say, WebKit's) respository in ~/Library/Cookies, and balking when the cookie doesn't exist (such as when Safari is reset) or has the wrong value.

You are right. At least on the Mac the problem has been identified. We know what causes it and how to avoid it. I hardly ever use Safari, and now I am careful not to reset the cookies when I do use it, and so I have no problem with iTunes.

All we need now is for Apple to disentangle Safari and iTunes sharing cookies.

The issue is identified and reproducible with 100% consistency.

Cookies.binarycookies located in YourName/Library/Cookies is the problem.

Safari throws all its cookies into this document. iTunes also throws its cookie into this document.

When you reset Safari including 'Remove all website data', the Cookies.binarycookies file is removed, and therefore you lose your iTunes cookie.

I have tried a number of ways with which to separate the two without success. I have no coding skills whatsoever and that is what is needed to correct the issue.

There is no reason at all why iTunes can't have its own separate cookie. It could even live in the same Cookie folder as Cookies.binarycookies. There is a 'com.apple.appstore.plist' file happily living in the Cookie folder and it is nothing more than a cookie.

Do note: there are TWO 'com.apple.appstore.plist' files:

1) lives in Preferences where you would expect to find it, and lo and behold it contains all your persistent preferences for the App Store, just like a plist (preference list) file should.

2) is the one I've just mentioned which is a cookie (not a 'regular' plist) and lives in the Cookie folder, and is totally unaffected by any Safari resets.

So why can there not be TWO 'com.apple.iTunes.plist' files located in the same way as above? None that I and others here can think of. Unless my conspiracy theory is correct! This is what we need to ask Apple to do.

I logged this issue with the ADC Bug Reporter website way back in December, and have updated the report three times since. The last contact included precise details of what causes the problem and a suggested solution.

During March alone there have been updates to all three of the components that would have some influence upon the issue:

Latest iTunes 10.6.1 (7)

Latest Safari 5.1.5 (7534.55.3)

Latest Mac OS X 10.7.3

None of these have addressed our concern.

I will update the ADC BugReport channel again within the next day or so, but in the meantime if everyone who is fed up with it should post details of the problem, the cause and solution here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

http://www.apple.com/feedback/safari.html

The more users who do this, the more chance that Apple will take note and produce an update. This is the ONLY way to make our voices heard.

Simply growling on the forums website doesn't help (apart from the glorious relief of letting out a bit of pent-up bile and steam!) The forum website is user-to-user and Apple doesn't read it. Do not expect any responses from Apple here.

So, get onto all three links and tell Apple (politely) what's going on and what they can do to fix it.

(Hope I haven't been too patronsing and bossy!)

I have this too at both home and office. THAT makes me wonder if it isnt "account based".

Ironically, when I joined this forum, it asked me for my name and password twice also, adding "for added security, please enter your name and password again". There is no I.T advantage over this type poor planning and architecture. There must be little thought of the irritation of the Apple Customers...

I have actually chose not to GO INTO iTunes due to this double log in crap numerous times. Times that I would have probably bought apps.

SOMEBODY needs to get off their dead *** at Apple and fix this.

I guess there is no motivation to do it quickly since they apparently don't see any value to reducing customer frustration and irritation.

That's how Bill Gates got into trouble, ironically.

If I did work like this, I would be fired.

.

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I have updated the ADC BugReport channel again:

"Mac OS X 10.7.3 / Safari 5.1.5 (7534.55.3) / iTunes 10.6.1 (7)

This issue persists.

Users should be able to flush Safari without affecting iTunes.

The iTunes apple.com cookie needs to be stored in a way that it is not affected by resetting Safari.

My own first report to you was mid-December 2011. I have updated the Problem ID several times. Four months have passed and during this time Mac OS X, Safari and iTunes have all received updates.

It would seem a very simple issue to resolve.

The AppStore login cookie is stored outside of Cookies.binarycookies. The iTunes login cookie needs to be stored in the same way.

The Apple Forum shows that quite a number of users (OS X and Windows) are irritated by having to repeatedly enter their iTunes passwords for no apparent reason.

Please would you provide some feedback regarding this issue as soon as possible.

Many Thanks."

Again, everyone who is fed up with it should post details of:

1) The problem: iTunes repeatedly asks for log in details when already logged in.

2) The cause: resetting Safari deletes the 'apple.com' cookie for iTunes.

3) The solution: store the 'apple.com' iTunes cookie OUTSIDE of Cookies.binarycookies.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

http://www.apple.com/feedback/safari.html

Copy and paste to all three links and tell Apple (politely) what's going on and what they can do to fix it.

This is ridiculous that they haven't fixed this. Its beyond irritating.

I used to buy music, Apple... i don't anymore... because your annoying pop up has angered me to the point of irrationality that i REFUSE to sign in. It's THAT annoying.

I also do not get why i was asked THREE times to log in, in order to post on this thread.
Hopeless. Utterly hopeless. This has been an issue since November and no-one is happy about it.

same here Kelly.

I avoid iTunes as much as I can now.

my best suggestion is to get the iTunes cookie in order then stop using safari.

there are enough decent alternatives out there.

and other places to buy music online too. ;)

seems the money in our pockets is the only voice apple will listen to.

Thanks, this tread helped me a lot and it seems to solve the problem immediatelyon both of my machines (MBP and iMac) 🙂 - I also reported the bug to http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

http://www.apple.com/feedback/safari.html

Well today has the password irritation doing something new, at least for me here. Right now for the last 10 minutes and continuing as I type, the iTunes icon is bouncing on the dock, then it goes away and restarts only to continue doing this over and over. I did not start iTunes and I no longer use Safari. iTunes does not actually start and no crash report is generated. Mmm, perhaps this is Apples way to fix the problem, let it do it's thing and not generate any crash reports to clog up the mailboxes over at Apple! The quest for the fix from Apple continues!

This is the only solution that has worked for me.

anyone have any luck with the new iTunes 10.7.3 in fixing this?

No. But the only fix that worked for me was Apple Forevers post:

Apple ][ Forever

Re: iTunes 10.5.1 password irritation

The issue is that iTunes is storing a cookie in Safari's (or should I say, WebKit's) respository in

~/Library/Cookies, and balking when the cookie doesn't exist (such as when Safari is reset) or has the wrong value.

It's easily, and completely reproducable by manipulating the Cookies.plist file.

Log in to your iTunes account a few times, or make a few purchases, to reach some as yet undetermined threshhold (I'm too lazy to try), and the nagging dialog goes away.

With such a state settled, quit iTunes, and temporarily move the Cookies.plist file to the desktop or another location.

Launch iTunes, and get nagged. Twice.

Quit iTunes, then restore the temporarily displaced Cookies.plist file to its rightful home, overwriting the newly generated file. (Note that that file only contains a single cookie for the apple.com domain.)

Launch iTunes. No nagging. No problem.

I posted a few months back when I found a solution to this nagging problem. I realized after reading more posts that if I reset Safari it might undo my fix (which involved going into the "notifications" settings of the iTunes store online). I finally bit the bullet and reset Safari and sure enough a double sign in request occurred when I opened iTunes on my Mac. So I reset the notifications again from within the iTunes settings to temporarily fix it again. But having to do that each time I reset Safari was annoying. What I'm about to tell you is not feasible for many of you reaing this thread. But some of you, like me might be desperate enough to try what I did.

My wife really likes order. I had scattered files and useless downloaded apps that I had accumulated over a long time. I was needing to clean up my Mac anyway, for her and because it was so disorganized. So I re-installed Lion with the most up to date version. However, I did not do this casually.

First, I cloned my drive using SuperDuper! to have a couple of good backups. Then I installed the original Snow Leopard that came on the system (mid-2011) as a clean install from dvd. I performed all of the security updates, turned on the Mac App Store and re-downloaded the latest version of Lion by pressing the option key while clicking the purchases tab. Then I did a Macworld Magazine trick to put the OS on a memory stick to make a personal Lion Installer. Next, I actually booted from one of my cloned drives and deleted the HDD on the Mac. THEN, I did a full clean install from the memory stick with the latest version of Lion direct from Apple, and NOT over the top of Snow Leopard. After that, I performed all of the updates in the order that Software Update provided. Then I went to apple.com and got the latest version of iTunes. I deleted iTunes from my Mac and re-installed the newest version [10.6.3 (25) ].

Then it was time to test everything, so I pointed my new iTunes application to the library on my old cloned external drive and moved my iOS backups from the clone to the clean Mac (in the mobile sync folder of the ~Library after un-hiding it). Then, I opened iTunes to verify my library and all was Ok. No sign in was required. So I closed iTunes and reset Safari, prayed, and opened iTunes again. BOOM ! good to go, no sign in yet. I have tested this multiple times at this point. So far so good and no tricks or resetting iTunes notifications or moving Cookies.plist files. Maybe they have fixed the issue. I mean, Maybe the clean install of the new iTunes solved it. I don't know. Maybe the shared "Safari / iTunes cookies" thing was related to upgrading from Snow Leopard as a kind of legacy bug. . . or even remaining in an early version of Lion. Whatever part of the process worked, something worked so far. Again, I know most of you will not go thru all of the hassle I did and then move an enormous TB sized list of files. No one should have to do that to fix something so simple but annoying as this sign-in bug. But I had to do all of those things anyway. I'm just saying I did all of these things and now I'm good to go. It may revert back at some point and if it does I'll let you know. I'm in a hurry, so if I wrote something wrong or mis-typed, I'm sorry for that and for the stream-of-consciousness style here. I don't have time to number everything in a list, but wanted to share my experience with you all.

Happy iTuning