Song shows as "Purchased" in iTunes and won't let me re-download it, but it doesn't show up in my Purchased list. I want the song back, don't mind re-downloading, but it won't let me

I had this problem and I found my solution was really quite simple. The root cause was the iTunes library was originally created with one iTunes account and then changed leaving a download playlist with the wrong account id. Under iTunes Store there was a folder called purchased that it was trying to download to, however this was still linked to the original ID even after everything else was changed. This is only a playlist, so delete it (renaming it would probably have worked). Now the music will download and new folder called purchased is created. Something so simple, yet so frustrating.

THANK YOU!!

This is the only answr that worked.

Everyone else is making wild guesses as to how to find missing downloads. This is the definitive answer.

Thank you. You clearly understand the workings of itunes, screwed up though they are...thank goodness for people like you, who have the patience to unravel the mysteries of applle I do not- were it not for your answer, I was prepared to do the old-fashioned thing (copy files from one computer to another).

Ive been having the same problem you have had and just by rummaging around managed to find out how to re-download my songs. Now for this to work you have to have at least one song from that SAME album downloaded onto your computer. For me it was one song that I had out of my entire Encore (Deluxe Edition).

1. Go to your library

2. Click "Albums"

3. Find the album that has the songs you cannot download (with at least one on the computer)

4. Open it and click the show all songs button

5. There should be a download symbol next to all of those songs that you couldn't download.

6. Press it 😀

Sorry if this is sort of limited to the albums that you have at least one song on but it got me two of my albums back. Hope this helps!

Note to anyone who moved countries (changed your iTunes country): You cannot redownload things you bought in the previous country. So if you buy an album with your US iTunes account, then try to re-download it with your Canadian one after a move, it shows as "purchased" but with zero ability to recover the album.

This is a long thread and I just realized it's Mac and I'm PC but I wanted to share how I fixed the problem.

Under Edit>Preferences>Store>

'Show iTunes in the Cloud' purchases.

Now the little 'cloud' icon appears next to my entire library so I can download previous purchases. Or I can just stream it.

I HAVE JUST FOUND THE RIGHT SOLUTION.

GO AND CLICK ON ACCOUNT, THEN LOOK FOR THE PART WHERE IT SAYS "UNHIDE PURCHASED SONGS"

CLICK THERE AND THEN CLICK UNHIDE TO ALL THE ALBUMS OR SONGS THAT WONT LET YOU DOWNLOAD THEM.

AFTER THAT, GO TO YOUR LIBRARY AND THEN DOWNLOAD!

I have been trying all of the above and nothing is working. I have a PC, by the way. I have no little clouds and strangely, i have no option in my account for unhiding purchases in iTunes in the Cloud. So, was the end answer just to redownload everything?

I was stuck on this for a very long time. I couldn't figure out why things would show I purchsed but I couldn't download. Found out the songs and albums were hidden. So here's what I did to fix my issue, hopefully it will help people who come to this link and need help like I did.

1) Go to the iTunes store

2) Click on "Account" in the quick links (right side of home page)

3) Under iTunes in the Cloud, look for Hidden Purchases, then click on the link to the right that says "Manage"

4) It should show all of your "hidden" songs here. Simply click the "Unhide" button under each album

5) Go back to the iTunes Store home

6) Click on "Purchased" link in the Quick Links

All the albums that you couldn't see and download before should be there now. Hopefully this solves anybody elses issues like it did mine with this. I had to read through several forums before I found this out. Good luck all!

The same thing happened with an album to me! I had purchased the songs but it would let me play them or redownload them.

What I did was search each song individually in itunes and when I clicked to download them it said that I had already purchased them so I could download them for free. I did this for every song and it worked fine.

Hope this helps!

THANK YOU! This worked for me and I was having the exact same problem as the OP'ster. Songs come up as purchased, but it won't let you re download it.

All the other posts were of no use, but again this worked so thanks.

Still thanks to everyone else for your help as well.

Glenn

This link solved the same issue for me-
http://ipod.about.com/od/UsingiCloud/ss/Using-Icloud-To-Redownload-From-Itunes.h tm

My situation was i purchased album, but songs never downloaded (I think because there was some access privilege problem with the location of my iTunes account). I tried everything - with no luck, until I found link above-

Good luck

In one of my purchases, Sodom's Epitome of Torture, all I did was to delete the whole thing from my library and strangely the iCloud download icon showed up next to each of its songs instead. Downloaded it again.

Hi Go to iTunes store. In the Quick Link section,on the right, go to 'Purchased' and it should be there. Then scroll down to Download it. I had the same problem with the new U2 album and this is where I found it. Hope you get success.

I figured it out! Most of your old album, or song purchases are hidden therefore you can't re-download them until you "unhide" them.

1. Go to your Itunes Store

2. Click Account, under Quick Links

3. Go to the category that says Itunes in the Icloud

4. Go to Hidden Purchases and then click Manage

5. It will lead you to your music tab and all the songs that are "hidden" just click Unhide or something of that nature and viola, your old music purchases will be in your itunes library.

I have a similar issue.

I somehow deleted the music on my Mac while cleaning up and when I go to my itunes library now my purchases no longer have a download link.

New purchases are directly downloaded to my Mac but not all the music that was there before.

Same ID, same iTunes store, same country, music still available in the store, still showing in my library as purchased.

The songs that I'm missing do not show up under not in my Library.

Songs that are supposedly in my library can't be played and itunes asks me to locate them on my Mac, which it can't as they are no longer there.