iTunes 90 day lock out on iMac - only one AppleID can use a Mac at any one time?

Apple is so worried about preventing piracy when they couldnve created a system for users to combine Apple IDs which combines purchases. Everything I have, I’ve purchased including Logic Pro X. There is no way in **** I am giving Apple another $199 under my current Apple ID. BTW, as soon as I log onto my older ID, without activating anything - my computer automatically attaches to my old ID. SMH.

Yeah... That is completely bogus. I switch between my accounts all the time on four computers to check past purchases and I too use iTunes match. So no.

The problem was caused when either one of you activated automatic downloads. This is thoroughly explained on the iTunes user agreement. Your frustration is understandable but entirely misdirected.

My bad, I forgot whenever things go wrong and someone else disagrees they're being fanboys and the fact that multiple users made the same mistake proves there is a problem with the system and not with the users.

But your rant is still wrong. One of the users of your Mac messed up. In fact, it was the one whose account is associated with the computer. The 90 day period is not 'an issue that's being escalated for a fix' although it is an absurd policy, that much you got right. Everything else is, again, bogus.

I'm having the same problem. i believe it is because it is a new imac and you had to authorize your imac to play content from your two apple id's. it seems like a silly bug which will hopefull get fixed. I now have limited access to my music on my brand new mac for the next 50 days or so. grrrr

I came on here looking for a work around, anybody have any ideas?

Yes, I am having this problem because I have 2 Apple IDs/iTunes accounts. Mind you, I don't want 2 accounts but Apple forced me to make a new apple ID when they started requiring email addresses as user ID. This was the first big mistake that Apple made. Their second mistake was not allowing people to simply merge these accounts. Had they not made these mistakes initially, many people would still only have one Apple account/ID. Some bloke ought to lose his job over that.

However, I understand this isn't the same problem as having multiple household members using the same computer. It seems that Apple could figure this all out by either authorizing multiple users at the time of purchase, or allowing a handful of users to download to one computer. After all, if I bought a hard copy of a music CD, I could certainly allow my son or daughter to listen to it or download it to their computer. Next thing you know, I'll have to sign a release saying that I am the only person that uses my iPod.

I am also returning not just one but 2 brand new Mac computers ($4500 coming back from Apple to my wallet) because I am so fed up with the poor customer service response that Apple has given this problem. Not only did they take a ton of my money for iTUnes songs, but then they restricted my access to those songs. I think it's criminal and I wouldn't be surprised if this issue ended up as a class action wrongdoing suit. I have to admit I've considered talking to a lawyer about it myself. I am so sick of large monopolizing companies thinking that they can treat their customers poorly and expect us to sit back and take it. The good news is that this is a free country and I can choose to throw my money at any old company I choose..........Toshiba here I come.

Same issue. Ridiculous.

My girlfriend and I share a single iMac with two different logins.

We each spent hard earned dollars on our own iPhone and iPad.

We each have our own iTunes accounts and download our own aps, music etc... from iTunes.

I paid for and tested the iTunes Match service and it worked brilliantly.

When my GF logged in to try and do the same with her music, she was told that we can only have one iTunes Match account per computer (else I would be locked out for 90 days). In other words we need to buy another computer if we both want to be able to access the music we have each paid for on devices that we have each paid for from the iTunes cloud that both of us are willing to pay for.

Is this a record company or Apple joke?

Just noticed this on my new MBP. My daughter and I are sharing it, but luckily I knew about this in the back of my head before I turned on Match on it. Sure enough I got that "if you do this blah blah blah 90 days" message, so I cancelled it.

Seems pretty silly to me -- what's the reason behind this? Are they worried that two people on the same machine might share music files, somehow? They could do this easily enough using a USB stick, so I don't see what they are stopping. Pirates will still get their stuff for free, whereas all this does is peeve off legitimate paying users.

Btw, anyone know if this would still occur if I actually ran a different OS on my MBP? In other words, one Lion installation on one partition and then another Lion installation (or ML when it comes out) on another partition? Not sure if they'd show up as two different machine ID's or not....

Sandal wrote:

Yes, I am having this problem because I have 2 Apple IDs/iTunes accounts. Mind you, I don't want 2 accounts but Apple forced me to make a new apple ID when they started requiring email addresses as user ID.

Apple didn't force yo to make a new AppleID.

Why didn't you simply update your old AppleID with an email address?

Dylan Williams1 wrote:

Same issue. Ridiculous.

My girlfriend and I share a single iMac with two different logins.

We each spent hard earned dollars on our own iPhone and iPad.

We each have our own iTunes accounts and download our own aps, music etc... from iTunes.

I paid for and tested the iTunes Match service and it worked brilliantly.

When my GF logged in to try and do the same with her music, she was told that we can only have one iTunes Match account per computer (else I would be locked out for 90 days). In other words we need to buy another computer if we both want to be able to access the music we have each paid for on devices that we have each paid for from the iTunes cloud that both of us are willing to pay for.

Log in with your AppleID for her to use iTunes Match. It will then include your songs and her songs.

Only one AppleID can log into iTunes Match but all iTunes accounts authorized on that computer can use that one iTunes Match.

Rhahahah, Er', I'm a pirrrate and I use a VirtualMachine to bypass the limitation.

Once again, stupid computer limitation messes with legitimate users just for fun, while doing nothing to prevent savvy users from doing what they please.

@ Chris CA,

While what you are stating here is true, it is a rather confusing scenario when you are first doing this kind of setup and a bit ambiguous in what is ACTUALLY happening. Take my scenario:

I have a MacBook Pro which has my itunes library, at the moment I do not uses iTunes match. I have it authorized to my account, no problems, everything works, sync, multiple devices, etc.

I created a user account for my girlfriend to use my laptop. She has an iPod touch 4th gen and did not require itunes for activation. again all works fine. However, she wanted to add music that she had from her old computer. We added the music in itunes and then authorized the computer to play her purchased content and sync all the music back and forth to the device. This, as we know from following this thread = I am now locked out of my laptop from using MY itunes account on my user account, and therefore can not download my purchased content.

A note, Deauthorizing her account does NOT fix it so I may use my account again, I am still locked out, However, her account has "used up" 1 of her 5 devices allowed. At this moment, there is no need for her to have her own machine, so I will just wait for my lock out to be over, but I don't see any other clear way to add music to her ipod that she has already purchased from Rhapsody, Amazon etc., anyone have another method?

Fred, from your description there isn't any reason why you should be "locked out" of your iTunes account. Perhaps I'm just missing something but if you have multiple User Accounts in the OS, those should keep everything seperate for you and your girlfriend. As long as neither of you have iTunes Match enabled, which you say is the case, there shouldn't be any reason for what you describe.

Unless what you are actually saying is your girlfriend actually logged into her iTunes Store account from within your OS X User Account. If automatic downloads were enabled, this would trigger the 90-day account lock. But, again, since you don't have iTM enabled it should not affect the ability of either of you to sync iOS devices via USB with iTunes.

A note, Deauthorizing her account does NOT fix it so I may use my account again, I am still locked out,

You are locked out from downloading previous purchases. You are not locked out from making new purchases.

It's messed up in that adding a new account seems have Automatic downloads enabled by default, thereby locking out other users.

but I don't see any other clear way to add music to her ipod that she has already purchased from Rhapsody, Amazon etc., anyone have another method?

This has zero to do with the issue above since the items are already in her iTunes and they are not getting downloaded from iTunes store.

The 90 day lock out is ONLY for redownloading past purchases (or enabling Autromatic downloads on other iTunes account).

Plug in the iPod and sync what she wants from her iTunes to her iPod.

Same for you.

Even if the items are not in her iTunes, she can simply add them from her old computer & sync them.

I love when people are so quick to blame Apple for what is clearly a much, much larger problem. This isn't fanboy goggles or whatever you want to call it. This is a DIRECT response of the music industry in policing copyrighting laws. As a musician, I find it apalling. However, if you want to remain ignorant and be a goon customer, go back and return your computer, make a jerk out of yourself and buy your 2 pc laptops. See how they work out for you.