Q: This computer is already associated with an Apple ID

Maybe, but it is the exact same error.  If it helps one person out of everyone else in this thread then that works for me.

I'm sorry, but this is stupid! Why ruin things for everyone?

Anyone tried to clean install OS X with that issue? Or even tried to boot from external drive to see if the problem persists on iTunes after that?

I thing it goes with some unique serial number or something from each Mac.

And come on Apple, 90 days is way too much.. make it 30 days!

As I cannot afford a computer for multiple family members I'm left locked out from my own account. I can't download songs and so on that I paid for... PAID FOR with ££££ As it's expecting me to wait 90 days (could by cd from Arabia and have it delivered by camel in less time). then if someone beats me to the computer it's another 3 bloody months.

I Think to purchase a product or service but not be able to have or use it is robbery, con, fraud....... And so forth.

ANyone else feel this way.?

well simple solition as I can't afford to buy everyone their own computer I'm off out to get one of those swish looking Sony tablets and a Samsung phone.  Far cheaper in the long run and I will actually get the songs I paid for.

sod u apple rip off scamming bunch of.......  With ur overly priced low grade products. I'm leaving! U lost this customer

Buttercup1283 wrote:

 

As I cannot afford a computer for multiple family members I'm left locked out from my own account.

No, you are not. You can purchase anything you wish. Nothing is stopping you.

I can't download songs and so on that I paid for... PAID FOR with ££££

Why did you delete them after you downloaded them?

I Tried to pay for the songs again but it won't let me

i I had lack of memory on my phone so tried to create space to run new update and deleted the wrong songs.

anything else u would like to know?

Buttercup1283 wrote:

 

I Tried to pay for the songs again

You cannot repurchase songs.

i I had lack of memory on my phone

Simply resync them using iTunes on your computer.

so tried to create space to run new update

Update your iPhone using iTunes and it does not require as much memory.

I, like everyone else, have also been locked out of my itunes match. After 35 minutes on the phone with Apple  the agent gave up and began to seek the advice of a "Senior Advisor".

When he came back to the phone he said that he was sorry for the wait and that it took so long because the problem was "not in my resources".

He said that the problem can only be resolved by a Senior Advisor.

After 45 minutes my issue was resolved. I'd recommend calling and saying that the problem can only be fixed by a senior advisor apparently.

piratx wrote:

 

Anyone tried to clean install OS X with that issue? Or even tried to boot from external drive to see if the problem persists on iTunes after that?

 

I thing it goes with some unique serial number or something from each Mac.

 

And come on Apple, 90 days is way too much.. make it 30 days!

hey piratx... i have. in fact, that's why i'm here...

i have an old used white MacBook for a friend that i've been asked to upgrade for them.

so (after backing up first) i booted from another drive, used disk utility to completley erase the macbook's hard drive (re-partitioned it too, just for good measure); and then installed Mavericks on it from scratch.

after done, i went thru all the "updates", so it's a current OS etc. then i started going thru all the apps & such. i went into System Preferences > iCloud and logged in to their iCloud account. got Mail going. made sure Calendar & Contacts were syncing'n'all.

then, when i got to Messages, i was greeted with this message (see attached screenshot)...

...so, after some research, i heard you needed to make sure the computer was "authorized" via iTunes (which doesn't make sense, because, they & i use two different apple ID's - one for itunes/app purchases, & one for icloud syncing). but, iTunes was next on the list anyways, so i went there, and signed in successfully.

after a few moments tho, i was presented with this message (see attached screenshot)...

...HOLY COW! how could that be? this doesn't make any sense at all.

I came upon this thread like the rest of you, with the "... this computer is already associated with an apple id..." error when I tried to download a tv episode in iTunes. So, I contacted apple support via live chat, and after some discussion, they fixed the problem.

Here is what happened. I am the only user of my laptop, however, I did (40 days ago) create an account for my daughter so we could get a good backup of her phone. Apparently, this flipped some switch at apple, causing the issue. It seems that they have some new rules in place with respect to accounts and devices. Basically, only one iTunes account can be used by a single device. My guess is this is some sort of anti-theft type of policy -- you know, plug my phone into your computer, grab your songs/media etc, and off I go... kind of thing -- who knows.

I asked the support rep, who was pretty great, what I should post here for others who may have this problem and this is what she said she did:

"Pretty much I just released the restriction on the 90 day limit on your account. Once you mentioned that you set up a account for your daughter. I was able to see your computer had indeed been associated with another device and account and that was your daughters phone. When customers are having these issues they can chat into us and we can look at resetting the 90 day restrictions."

So there you go. I suspect that everyone has connected another device, or account in some manner, that seemed innocuous at the time (like me) and fell into this hole. I can't say that I would call it a "bug," and I don't know all of Apple's motivations for this 90 day restriction policy, but I do know that they were able to fix it quickly for me.

Excellent insightful post! You deserve a hundred points for that one!

I didn't pose the question, however, so here you go...

Cheers,

mm

Apple + the movie industry is really shooting themselves in their foots.

OSX is a multi user OS. Its incredibly stupid by Apple to lock down a computer to just one user!

Me and my wife share a computer. I decided to start to convert my digital movie library to punched iCloud enabled content. There is no problem loggin in on iTunes and buying stuff using 2 different AppleIDs. The first download is not a problem.

But:

If the computer crashes before the initial download

or if the first download is halted for some reason.

I can’t download the movies/TV shows I bought. “This computer is associated with an AppleID”.

Apple happily sells stuff to different AppleIDs on the same computer but than I can’t access it. This would never have happened under Steve Jobs.... Greedy Tim that bows down to the Movie industry and DRM. (remember that Apple was the last major company that joined PRISM. Just weeks after Steve’s death)

I had to install iTunes on a virtual machine on my Mac just do download the stuff I have bought. My idea of having everything in the cloud/Icloud does not work because of this “only one AppleID” stuff.

The strange thing is this (beside that Apple SELLS to different AppleIDs on a computer)

The rules are simple. Movies/iTunes match I buy can be shared/authorized on 5 computers. Apple have no right to restrict an authorized computer.

Only reason this happens is because iTunes music is “DRM” free. (for even if someone downloaded all my movies from iCloud/Itunes the computer have to be authorized to be able to play the move because of DRM).

Apple should just focus on people who abuse iTunes match. (if someone matches 25K songs with another AppleID tagged in the songs: focus on them Apple, not us who PAY for our own stuff).

This is all very strange... count me in as another long-time Apple user who pays for music that, after encountering this "error" (it's really a "feature" resulting from a boneheaded decision at Apple) of trying to even just *stream* music I have purchased (and I pay for iTunes Match) on my Mom's computer since I am here for two weeks, under my OWN user account in Mac OS X signed into my own apple ID, have decided I will no longer use iTunes as my default music purchase option. 

My mom has her own login, and I get that she can't play MY music on her login (and no, she doesn't have my login information, nor would she want it... we have separate ACCOUNTS for a reason, duh!)

I will transfer all the music into Amazon, where I can use cloud player on a set number of devices (I agree that is fair), without it being tied to a machine.  My playing my music shouldn't disable my Mom being able to download music on her own computer; that's silly!

Sheesh you guys, the answer is simple. Put your media on a backup drive or a flash drive and then you can play it wherever, whenever.  Just don't put yourself in a position where you have to re-download it from Apple which is a stupid place to put yourself in the first place since if a distributor (not Apple itself) pulls an item from the store then the only place you'll have a copy is on your backup drive.

Realize too all you claimers that Apple is being mean to you that Apple itself has every reason to make things easy for you so you will buy lots and lots of things from them.  However, media companies see the online and digital world as the haven of piracy and they are the ones who ultimately control what online distributors can sell and under what terms.  No, there is no official policy statement so use your reasoning processes and you'll probably be heading down the right track.

So here's Apple telling us that we can switch Apple IDs to download content on a different account (screen shot from iTunes 12.x preferences), but clearly we're not able to do that. This has to be fixed for everyone.