I bought two jazz tunes from the Itunes store but they won't play on my non-apple cell phone. Is there any way to remove the drm protection, which seems to keep them from playing? If not, is there any way Apple can signify if a song is DRM protected because I only bought those songs to play on my cell phone not on my desktop.
iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)
I believe iTunes Plus is what you are looking for. It costs a bit more but has the function you are looking for. About iTunes Plus - Apple Support
We cannot help with removal of a copyright protection system.
You might want to give Apple feedback on identifying protected material at http://www.apple.com/feedback
If you bought them recently they are presumably not suffering from DRM, which has not been applied to purchases for some time. (You can tell because they will be described as 'Protected AAC' if DRM'd, or 'Purchased AAC' if not.) It's more likely that your phone simply won't play M4a (AAC) files. If they are not DRM'd you would need to convert the files to MP3 following this procedure:
Firstly, go to iTunes Preferences>General and click the 'Import Settings' button. Set 'Import Using' to 'MP3 Encoder' and use the next drop-down menu to choose your settings - you can choose 'Custom' and set the bitrate as suits you.
Click OK, then OK again to close the Preferences.
Go to the Music list; select the files you want to convert and from the 'File' menu choose 'Create new version' then 'Create MP3 version' (iTunes 11 - in earlier versions choose 'Create MP3 version' from the 'Advanced' menu).
MP3 versions will be created and placed in the music list (the AAC versions will remain there). You can drag them out if you want to save them elsewhere (doing this will not remove them from the Library). You can select and delete any files as required in the Music list. (Never tamper with the actual library in the Finder).
Thanks! That seems to create new MP3 versions of the files, but I still can't get the stupid Windows phone to transfer it over.
The fact that you've been able to create MP3 versions shows that the files were not DRMd. As to why they won't transfer, the phone should certainly play MP3 files - everything does - so it sounds like an incompatibility between the phone and your Mac. Possibly the manufacturers can assist.
It might be the incompatible issue between the Phone and the MP3 format produced on Mac. I suggest you reconvert the MP3 file (with some free music converter, convert mp3 to mp3) and try again. If you have many iTunes songs that need to transfer to cell phone, I will suggest you try CD burn method.
Would an iPod work? I don't have the energy to take up a crusade with Windows and Nokia.
An iPod will play the AAC files in their original format.
I tried this and received an error message that says: "XXX could not be converted because protected files cannot be converted to other formats." I did the MP3 change listed above and have a 'Create MP3' option, but got the error.
Any advice. I've obviously paid for the songs already.
You can't convert protected files directly. You should be able to copy them to an audio CD which you can then rip in the usual way.Put them into a playlist, control (or right) click it and choose 'Burn playlist to CD'. Make sure to choose Audio CD.
Well, I did that and they come across in a *.cda format...with no identifying info, just Track01, etc. iTunes will not let me make an audio disk with MP3 files from protected AAC files.
Any other suggestions?
There are no other suggestions. You can't remove DRM and you can't change the format of DRM'd files, period. Audio CDs can't by their nature contain any track information, so your only method is to make an audio CD, keep track of which track is which, drag the tracks to the Desktop (whereupon they will become AIFF files), rename them and convert them to MP3 in iTunes.
My understanding was that music purchased long ago was protected by DRM. But choosing 'Remove download' in iTunes, and then redownloading them would clear the DRM or give us AAC files with no DRM. When I follow this procedure for the White Stripes album 'Get Behind Me Satan' (which I purchased in 2007 in the iTunes store), it just downloads a protected AAC file again. So I'm unable to play this on my Android phone.
It seems very cheesy to burn this to a CD and then import the CD. Wasn't the point of Apple going DRM free that they would free up these old tunes?
When Apple stopped DRMing music files the DRM remained in place on previous purchased DRMd files. For a time it was possible to convert these to non-DRMd by paying a small fee for each track. That option is no longer available. (Songs originally available with DRM would have been subject to a contract between Apple and the copyright owner which required this, which is why you can't re-download them for free). Recent songs without DRM would be subject to a revised contract.
In order to re-download previously purchased songs but without DRM (where it originally applied) you have to be a subscriber to iTunes Match ($24.99/£21.99 per year). Once done you can continue to play them without DRM even if you terminate the subscription.
More details on iTunes Match and Apple Music here:
I will try this subscription. I run Serato software for djing and I've been an Apple iTunes music purchaser since 2004. Because of this, many, many, many of my songs are DRM protected and are not even recognized in Serato. When I use the software called djay, while playing the DRM protected files, certain functions that are disabled. I've been looking for a way to resolve this. Thanks. 🙂
Removing DRM
