My iMac will not play tunes purchased with a previous Apple ID that is no longer in the system.iMac, 2.8Ghz, 4GB Ram, OSX 10.11.2, iTunes 12.3.2.35

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Old Latvian Author

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My iMac will not play tunes purchased with a previous Apple ID that is no longer in the system.iMac, 2.8Ghz, 4GB Ram, OSX 10.11.2, iTunes 12.3.2.35

35

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Dec 19, 2015 11:13 PM

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Answer 1

judysings

Community Specialist

Dec 21, 2015 9:05 AM in response to Old Latvian

Hi Old Latvian,

It sounds like you have purchased music with more than one Apple ID. The resources below will explain how to edit your previous Apple ID and password so that you can sign into that account and download your past purchases. If you are unable to edit the other Apple ID, the Apple ID Account Security team may be able to assist. Click on the links below for complete details:

About your Apple ID email addresses
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201356

Learn how to add, change, or delete the different types of email addresses that you can use with your Apple ID account.
Sign in to your Apple ID account page.

If you can't remember the older Apple ID or password, click on the Forgot Apple ID or password? link on this page.

Contact Apple for help with Apple ID account security
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204169

See your purchase history in the iTunes Store on a Mac or PC
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204088

Download your past purchases
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201272

Take care,

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Answer 2

Old Latvian Author

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Dec 21, 2015 11:01 AM in response to judysings

About 1000 of the 1612 purchased songs were bought with an Apple ID that no longer exists. When I attempt to play one of those, I get the dialog: This computer is not authorized to play XX song. To play this song you must authorized this computer for songs purchased using the Apple ID -"my old Apple ID"

and it shows the the old Apple ID and asks for password. when I type the password, I get "Your Apple ID or password is incorrect." After a couple of tries, it says that you've entered password incorrectly more than once and you will need to retrieve it before continuing. you can click on "Forget Password." When I do that, I get the dialog: enter your Apple ID to continue and it show my old Apple ID. When i click on the old Apple ID, the next dialog box says: no Apple ID found. I spent an hour with Apple Tech support with a person who did not understand the problem and was not able to help.

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Answer 3

Old Latvian Author

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Dec 22, 2015 11:16 PM in response to Old Latvian

iTunes songs that did not play were purchases with an old Apple ID, no longer in the system and another session with Apple tech could not solve the problem of resurrecting the old Apple ID. In info box for each audio file (songs) there is identification of the purchaser's Apple ID and name and whether "Purchased AAC Audio File," or "Protected AAC Audio File." The protected songs are the ones that iTunes would not play. I checked my backup startup disk that had earlier OS X 10.11 version and iTunes 12.3.2.23. Changing back to the earlier software versions solved the problem. All purchased songs now play. Now I do not dare to install any system and iTunes upgrades.

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Answer 4

Dec 23, 2015 3:52 PM in response to Old Latvian

That makes sense. The Purchased songs are more recent, from after Apple was no longer required to use DRM (copy protection) for songs by content producers. The Protected songs are older purchases, from the early years of iTunes Store, when content producers required DRM.

About how many are you seeing, that are the Protected type?

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Answer 5

Old Latvian Author

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Dec 23, 2015 4:03 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Hi Kenichi, I have1612 purchased songs. Of those, approximately 700 are "protected" and did not play. I thought it had to do with the old Apple ID that was no longer in the system. B ut no. It had to do with either El Capitan upgrade from 10.11 to 10.11. 2 and or iTunes 12.3.2.23 to 12.3.2.35. I reverted to the previous version of both OS and iTunes and now all songs on iTunes play. It was interesting that Apple techs, with whom I spent several hours on the phone, did consider that as a possible glitch. Thank you for your input. It cleared up a lot .

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Answer 6

Dec 23, 2015 4:21 PM in response to Old Latvian

Ultimately, you'll need to know the Apple ID and password for those songs. Authorization is by computer, so when you get a new computer, it will not be authorized to play those DRM'd songs (no matter what version of iTunes or OS X is installed).

I asked how many protected songs you had, because back in the days when iTunes Store song purchases used DRM, some people burned the songs to CD to create music CDs (which also provided a backup of purchases because you could not download again back then), then imported them back from CD to iTunes library as regular AAC or MP3 files. If the number of songs was small, you could consider doing that. 700 would be a pain.

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Answer 7

Old Latvian Author

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Jan 1, 2016 12:46 PM in response to Old Latvian

I wan to close out this topic item: the problem with I tunes and the old Apple Id with which they were purchased. To recap; Itunes would not play songs purchased with Apple ID no longer in system and showing File Kind as "protected AAC Audio File," instead of "Purchased AAC Audio File." Over seven hundred song are in this category. They played fine before and even when I upgraded to Yosemite. When I upgraded to El Capitan OS 10.11.2 and then to iTunes 12.3.2.35, I would get the dialog that the song purchased with the former Apple ID could not be played and I would have to sign in with the old password and authorize this computer. Since the old ID was no longer in the system, I could not do that. After discussions on this forum and discussions with Apple techs, with good advice but no practical solutions that I could implement. I went to my back up bootable copy with the original El Capitan OX 10.11 and now all my iTunes songs play. The file information remains unchanged "Protected." Upgrading to OS 10.11.2 apparently did something that caused the glitch that threw me in a panic about loosing some 700+ songs. Thank you for all your help. It was useful to ultimately solve the problem.

Al Graps "Old Latvian"

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Answer 8

Jan 1, 2016 2:09 PM in response to Old Latvian

One more note... Not being able to update your OS X (with ongoing bug fix releases) is not a good solution, and when you get a new computer, you won't be able to play those 700+ songs without the Apple ID/password to authorize that new computer.

Subscribing to Apple's iTunes Match service will probably solve the problem for most of those 700+ songs. I also had many protected songs from the early years of iTunes Store. After signing up for iTunes Match a few years ago, most of those songs have been replaced by higher-quality 256 kbps DRM-free AAC files (the same files iTunes Store currently sells for the same songs).

iTunes Match works by "matching" or uploading your iTunes music library to create your iCloud music library. If a song in your iTunes music library matches a song in the iTunes Store catalog, the 256 kbps AAC file that iTunes Store currently sells is made available to download. This works for songs imported from music CDs, songs from "other" sources added manually to iTunes, AND those old protected iTunes Store purchases. So, all of your lower-quality (less than 256 kbps) MP3 and AAC songs that match can be "upgraded" to 256 kbps AAC (with no DRM).

About 30 of my old protected AAC files are still in my library, because they did not match; this is because iTunes Store no longer sells those particular songs. But most of them did match. iTunes Match subscription is $25 per year. If I decide not to renew subscription, songs downloaded using iTunes Match continue to play (because no DRM).

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