Q: I purchased a song on my iMac on iTunes and it plays on that but won't play on my macbook even though both computers are authorized under the same iTunes account.  how do I fix this?

Hi stuartbonk,

Welcome to the Support Communities!  Here are some steps you can try if you keep getting asked to authorize your MacBook for iTunes:

iTunes repeatedly prompts to authorize computer to play iTunes Store purchases - Apple Support
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203160

If you authorize your computer to play your iTunes Store purchases, but you can't play them and iTunes keeps prompting you to authorize, try these suggestions.

 

Authorize your purchases from an administrator account

To authorize your purchases from an administrator account, follow these steps:

1. Log in to the administrator account.
   Note: If you don't have access to an administrator password, you'll need to contact the administrator of this computer. If this is a work computer, this may be your IT department.
2. Make sure you have the latest version of iTunes installed. You can download the latest version free.
3. Choose Store > Authorize Computer.
4. Enter your iTunes account name and password.
   Note: If you have multiple accounts, you'll need to log in to the iTunes Store and authorize each account separately.
5. Quit iTunes.

After you've authorized your computer on your administrator account, you'll need to log out and log back in to the user account you'd like to play your purchases from. Once you're logged back in, simply open iTunes, select an iTunes Store purchase in your library, and click Play. The item should begin to play.

Authorize using the correct account name

The items you're trying to play might have been purchased using a different iTunes Store account. To determine which account was used to purchase an item, follow these steps:

1. Select a purchased song in your library and choose File > Get Info.
2. Click the Summary tab. Note the Account Name that appears in the list. This is the account name (Apple ID) you'll need to use when authorizing your computer to play this purchase.

Note: The account name that appears is the one you used when purchasing the item and does not change if the account name (Apple ID) changes.

If you've authorized the Apple ID that is shown in the Summary tab, you can check the purchase history for that Apple ID from Store > View My Account. If your purchase history does not reflect the purchase of the items in your iTunes library, consider any other Apple ID you may have created, and authorize the computer for your additional Apple ID.

If you forgot the password to one of your accounts, you can recover it using Apple's password-recovery website.

Remove the SC Info folder

If you're still unable to authorize your computer to play your purchases, you may be able to resolve your issue by removing the "SC Info" folder. To do so, follow these steps:

OS X

1. Quit iTunes and any other open applications until only Finder is open.
2. Choose Go > Go to Folder.
3. Type /Users/Shared/SC Info and click Go.
4. If Finder is not already set to column view, set it by choosing View > as Columns.
5. Select the SC Info folder and move it to the Trash by choosing File > Move to Trash.
6. Restart the computer and open iTunes.
7. Authorize your computer to play your purchases. Note: If you have multiple accounts you'll need to authorize your computer for each account. For more information on how to authorize your computer, see this article.

 

Last Modified: Dec 16, 2014

I hope this information helps ....

- Judy