Purchased music no longer available for redownload

The "missing" items are no longer available for re-download from your purchase history because for whatever reason the copyright holder of the music removed the original items you purchased from the iTunes Store and replaced them. This can happen in the case of a remastered album, for example. Bear in mind that Apple does not own the copyrights to the content it sells on the iTunes Store. If the copyright holder tells Apple to remove an item you've purchased from the store and replace it with a "new" or "improved" version Apple must do so. The result is the item will not longer be available to re-download from your purchase history.

It is your responsiblity to keep and maintain backups for all of your iTunes Store purchases, as iTunes in the Cloud is not a backup service.

My media is now being stored on an external hard drive so I'm right back where I was in 2000. I'm no longer getting my music from iTunes and I'm actually finding it better this way. My collection has significantly grown and continues to grow. This has been a harsh reality check for me to always read the interminable terms and conditions or else face the consequences. However, you would think that Apple would have thought it prudent to provide us with reminders to backup our purchases and not rely solely on the iTunes Store. I just wish I had learnt it before I had spent so much money obtaining music, movies, and tv shows.

Darkening cloud.... It seems the safe way to keep your purchases secure is to download them onto your computer, or external drive, just in case iTunes can no longer supply your digital copy. So for the hundreds of movies, tv shows, and songs that you have purchased you will need to find enough space and (if you're wise) additional space to save backups of your originals in case your original storage crashes. The advantage of keeping your purchases in the iTunes Store vanishes because now you're right back to where you were before iTunes arrived. If purchases can vanish (if you haven't backed them up) then what benefit is there for purchasing music and movies if you can buy the CD and Blu-Ray for even less money on Amazon? You can always buy Cloud storage, of course, to keep your shelves uncluttered with CD/Blu-Ray cases... So, the wisest choices open to you might once again be: 1) purchasing Discs like we did in the old days, or if you're really determined to keep everything digital then; 2) purchase cloud storage and hope the service doesn't vanish without warning (taking your content with it).

Yes, I have lost purchases unexpectedly because they were no longer available on iTunes. I have since been forced to re-acquire them to get them back into my digital library. When iTunes launched it revolutionized how I collected music, movies and tv shows. It was so much better to buy digital movies (only if they were cheaper than the Blu-Ray) and watch them anywhere. Sadly, I no longer see the iTunes Store as the safe and convenient option for acquiring digital content.

AND EXACTLY WHEN WHERE YOU GOING TO NOTIFY US ABOUT THIS? ANGRY IS PUTTING IT MILDLY! I WOULD LIKE A REBATE FOR EVERY SONG THAT I PURCHASED THAT IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE! IS THAT GOING TO HAPPEN??? PROBABLY NOT!!!!

This is not new news or a new policy. Media should be kept in your iTunes Library on your computer or on a backup. Media comes and goes from the iTunes store, and if it goes, and you purchased it but do not have a copy of it in your library, you are SOL.

What would you expect Apple to do about it. They don't own the rights to the media. If an artist or company pulls something from the store, then it is gone.

And iTunes in the Cloud, and iCloud are not the same thing. iTunes in the Cloud simply allows you to "temporarily" store your purchases without having them on your computer. Do you think it has a physical copy of every purchased item that anyone has ever purchased? No, when you "store" your purchases in iTunes in the Cloud, what you are doing is saving a "pointer" for that item. That pointer is the same pointer for everyone that has that item stored in iTunes in the Cloud. It is just an "address" that says where that item is located in the store. If it is pulled from the store, then that pointer is not going to find anything, and anyone who does not have a hard copy of that item stored somewhere is not going to be able to get it out of "temporary storage" since it was just a placeholder and nothing more. There was no physical copy of your media sitting out there....

GB

Your iTunes Library is your backup. What more do you want Apple to do? They have supplied a library structure for you to store and organize all of both your purchased media as well as your personal media. This Library can be used to sync that media to any of your Apple devices. If you keep everything in the actual Library (even if you have to store some or all of it on an external drive), you have your Library.

The Apple Store is neither a Library nor a storage facility. It's a Store, where you can conveniently leave your packages there to pick up later (i.e., purchase but not download them yet), or even move some of your stuff that is in your Library back into the store for temporary storage, but the only and best place to keep your purchased media is in your iTunes Library. And your regular Time Machine backup on your Mac will back that library up for you every time you back up.

Cheers,

GB

EXACTLY! What now is the point of iTunes and iCloud if Apple is not going to protect our purchases? We have thousands of songs. That equals thousands of dollars. ****** puts it mildly!!!!

This has always been the case, and that is explained to you in the Terms of Service for iTunes. See this link for those terms. Legal - Apple Media Services - Apple

If content is no longer available, or the content is not eligible for re-download, then you cannot get it back. The link also explains that it is your responsibility to backup content.

Additionally, you are not addressing Apple here, this is a user to user support site, and Apple does not participate here. I can tell you, however, that you are not eligible for any rebate for past purchases.

Did you, perhaps, use a different iTunes or Apple ID to purchase them? To redownloading, you'll have to log in using those IDs.

Apple doesn't control what is for sale, withdrawn, or not available for redownloading. The copyright owners and distributors control that.

Ok.