Q: how to deauthorize before your year is up

Hi. Check this article: Deauthorize your computer using iTunes - Apple Support

Why do you need to deauthorize all?

What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

You only need to deauthorize all if you have 5 or more computers out there somewhere to which you have no access and need to authorize an additional computer.  I suspect most people are not going to have that many computers our of their control that frequently.  Oh, and this probably isn't a  feature Apple has put there to spitefully vex you, it is likely there at the request of the media companies who don't want people having weekly authorizing and downloading parties with all their buddies sharing their accounts with each other.

While it is good form to deauthorize a computer I don't know it is absolutely essential.  If your computer was stolen and you changed your iTunes Store account password nobody can get into your account to download media.  The only thing deauthorizing would really do is prevent another user from playing your movies currently on the computer, and prevent somebody from syncing a device with the computer.

If you feel you absolutely have to deauthorize this computer right now you can contact iTunes Store and ask them to reset the timer.  iTunes Customer Service Contact - http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/contact.html > Get iTunes support via Express Lane > iTunes > iTunes Store

Limnos wrote:

The only thing deauthorizing would really do is prevent another user from playing your movies currently on the computer, and prevent somebody from syncing a device with the computer

Actually, it doesn't even do this. If the computer is currently authorized, it will still play everything on it just fine. The authorization is stored on the computer and the only way to remove it is to use iTunes on that computer to deauthorize it.

Deauthorizing all simply resets the number of authorizations at Apple.

macca0302 wrote:

 

Thanks thunderbuzz! and others who replied

 

I have read the instructions and gone through the steps but it iTunes doesn't allow you to do it within a year of your last deauthorization so it's telling me I have to wait until April 2016.

Correct.

However, if you contact Apple customer support and ask them to reset your authorizations, they will likely do so.

I sold the laptop and rather deauthorize all for peace of mind that my account will not be access at all.

If you change your AppleID password, they cannot access your iTunes account.

Also, you did wipe your hard drive and reinstall the OS before selling, correct?

See this -> https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065

macca0302 wrote:

 

Hi Chris! Yes I did wipe the hard drive and reinstall. I just don't see having to wait

Since Deauthorize all does not actually stop the computer from playing anything, one could authorize 5 computers, Deauthorize All then authorize another 5 computer ad nauseum and have a whole bunch of computers which would actually play DRM protected content (which is what authorization does). So they limit how many times this can happen.

Again, contact Apple and they should be able to reset it for you.

See the link Limnos posted above.