Audible.com -- Cannot authorize account, cannot play .aa file

Question

Level 1

9 points

Audible.com -- Cannot authorize account, cannot play .aa file

I purchased the audio book, 'The Willpower Instinct', not through iTunes store, but tried to start a subscription at audible.com.

My Mac (Mac OS X 10.6.8 iTunes 10.7 (21)) cannot play the audible.com .aa file, either from a non-privileged every day user account I use, nor from the Admin account. I have spent a lot of time trying to make this happen. Audible will not provide me with a refund.

In the user account I get: “Could not authorize this computer because you do not have enough access privileges.”

In the Admin account I get: “Could not authorize this computer because an error occurred (-44134).”

I copied the .aa file to the shared files, and changed the permissions so that everybody could read and write it, before trying the Admin account.

The workaround Audible requires is for me to change permissions on my systems library file, among other steps. This I do not plan to do.

Audible blames Apple. From an email I received from an Audible 'Technical Manager':

“The need to modify the permissions is directly tied to iTunes request to write the Audible activation to your computer and as such there is no Audible software that could be updated to alleviate this need should it arise. Under normal circumstances, the request of iTunes to create the necessary file should result in the standard prompt for you to enter Admin credentials of the machine however, based on our experiences and that of Apple, there are unknown causes that prevent this from occurring and result in the steps outlined here to be required.”

Are there any other solutions? I have looked for converters, but all seem to get bad reviews.

iTunes-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Oct 2, 2012 12:01 PM

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Answer 1

Charles--- Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 2, 2012 12:40 PM in response to Charles---

From Charles---

After MUCH effort, finally found a SIMPLE workaround to play the .aa file, that does not require that I change permissions on System Files et. al.

I simply:

1. gave my every day account Administrator Privileges (done in Menu Bar > Apple Menus > System Preferences > System > Accounts, by checking a box; to do so one must have access to another account with Admin privileges; if one does not have such access, one must call upon someone who does have such access),

2. rebooted,

3. double clicked the .aa file, playing the file with iTunes, and authorized the Audible.com account (this only worked when I typed in each letter of the long password, not when I pasted the password into the request space), [also as the process seemed to contact the iTunes store, it may be necessary to have network access at the time one does the authorization]

4. removed the Admin Privileges from my every day account (System Preferences > System > Accounts)

5. rebooted

6. again played the .aa file with iTunes ('The Willpower Instinct' now appears in iTunes > Books)

charley hine

“It is never too late to become what you might have become.” - George Eliot

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Answer 2

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Oct 2, 2012 1:37 PM in response to Charles---

Just an FYI:

You could have simply logged in with an admin account and done the same (rather than changing the account type then changing it back).

When you authorize iTunes, it authorizes the computer and all users on that compouter.

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Answer 3

Charles--- Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 2, 2012 1:55 PM in response to Chris CA

I had already tried that, and it did not work.

As I stated above "My Mac (Mac OS X 10.6.8 iTunes 10.7 (21)) cannot play the audible.com .aa file, either from a non-privileged every day user account I use, nor from the Admin account. I have spent a lot of time trying to make this happen. Audible will not provide me with a refund.

In the user account I get: “Could not authorize this computer because you do not have enough access privileges.”

In the Admin account I get: “Could not authorize this computer because an error occurred (-44134).”

......."

In any case I am not 'authorizing iTunes', I am authorizing an audible.com account in iTunes. Perhaps there is a difference.

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Answer 4

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Oct 2, 2012 2:47 PM in response to Charles---

Okay.

You could have simply logged in with an admin account and done the same (rather than changing the account type then changing it back).

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