Removing DRM protection from purchased AAC music files

I bit the bullet and paid $25 for the iTunes Match subscription in order to follow this procedure, and it mostly worked. I can confirm that the "match" service offered by the free trial of Apple Music didn't allow non-DRM copies to be downloaded; I needed the "classic" paid version 😟

It seemed to be important to wait for my library to be uploaded and sync'd with the iCloud Music Library before getting reliable operation - you can't really control in what order your tracks are being scanned and uploaded. After that, deleting the "download" of a "Protected AAC Audio File" and re-downloading it I received the unprotected "Purchased AAC Audio File" version. From there, I converted to "Apple Lossless" file and then fully deleted the "Purchased" version. I also made sure all the newly created lossless tracks were added back to the iCloud Music Library, though I don't know if this is strictly necessary.

After going through this procedure with the 400 or so Protected tracks there were still a dozen or so that were problematic, refusing to re-download in anything but their original "Protected AAC" versions. These were mostly obscure older songs, so I suspect Apple hasn't bothered to convert their complete library down to every last track.

I've got a bunch of purchased AAC music files in iTunes and I've been trying different method to convert the AAC files to MP3. But I found out I cannot make the conversion unless I remove the DRM protection first. Then I used Apple Music Converter to remove the DRM and convert the AAC to MP3 smoothly.

lfcgreat wrote:

Also I subscribe to Apple Music and not iTunes Match. Would these steps change because of that?

Yes, see About iTunes Plus - Apple Support. Only iTunes Match includes the facility to remove DRM from past iTunes purchases.

tt2

I have this issue as well and cannot perform the steps as described.

In the songs view, I dont see a iCloud Download column to add - has this changed? I'm running iTunes v12.6.2.20

Also I subscribe to Apple Music and not iTunes Match. Would these steps change because of that?

Thanks for any help!

Hi,

With iTunes match you can upgrade previously purchased Protected tacos from 128 Kbps to 256 Kbps BUT not all tracks are upgradable, usually because that version is no longer available. I had a set of Beethoven Symphonies which was no longer available, so I was not able to convert them. I had a small number of such tracks - some actually matched with different sets of the same music - was able to upgrade as matched rather than previous purchases.

I burned the remained to CD, deleted the original and then re-imported them. Some were actually matched but others were uploaded.

Jim

This is a problem, since it is my understanding that AAC Protection is no longer supposed to be used by iTunes.

Not exactly. New song purchases from iTunes Store do not use DRM. This has been true since Apple was allowed to offer songs using the 256 kbps "iTunes Plus" AAC format, quite a few years ago. However, during the early years of iTunes Store, songs were sold with DRM in 128 kbps AAC format. When you download the song again from the Purchased screen, you get back the same song file, because that's what you purchased.

If you subscribe to iTunes Match, when you delete the original song file from your iTunes library for any song that matches, you DO get back a 256 kbps AAC song file with no DRM when you download it from your iCloud music library. I had many older 128 kbps songs with DRM, and they have mostly been replaced by the currently sold 256 kbps AAC file with no DRM, thanks to iTunes Match. I say "mostly" because there are a few songs are no longer sold in iTunes Store. Those songs still come back as 128 kbps "protected" for format when I re-download it. Also, I replaced my other matched songs (that did not come from iTunes Store) with 256 kbps AAC (no DRM) using iTunes Match. Stopping iTunes Match subscription ($25 per year) does not change status of downloaded songs.

If you are using the Purchased screen to download the song again (which is how you described it), try doing the download from your iCloud music library. If you have iTunes Match, your iTunes music library is showing you your iCloud music library. Show your music library using the Songs view (to show a plain list of songs with columns). If you don't see the iCloud Download column, make it visible (it has a "cloud" symbol in its heading). I like to put it next to the song name column. On your library song list, right-click on a song (that has this problem) and select Remove Download (not Delete). Select option to send song's file to the Trash. The song remains on the song list, but it now has a download button (cloud symbol with down-arrow) in the iCloud Download column. Click it to download the song from your iCloud music library (which is different from downloading from Purchased screen). It should be 256 kbps AAC no DRM, for any matched song (including 128 kbps protected).

If it works for one of the songs, sort your song list by the Kind column, so that all of the Protected AAC audio file songs appear together on the list. Select them all at once on the song list, right-click on selection, and Remove Download. Then, right click on selection, and Download.

Do you have Match alone, or Match as part of Apple Music? Match as part of Apple Music isn't the same.

I think I read that music will sometimes get reclassified in the Apple Store. You may see an album you have but if it was re-released it won't appear as a purchase.

The delete-the-track-and-re-download-it technique works for me too.

Some minor details to add:

1) Some of the tracks listed in "kind" as simply "AAC Audio File" (not "Protected AAC Audio File") prove to be DRM-infected (or at least, that's what Google Music gives as the reason for not allowing me to upload them). So searching by "Protected AAC Audio File" might not find all your DRM-tainted tracks. The tricky thing is that the tracks simply listed as "AAC Audio File" are not all necessarily DRM-tainted. Something like Google Music upload can be used to identify which files are (according to Google) DRM-tainted.

2) Downloading the songs again, they switch to "Purchased AAC Audio File". It's curious that this sometimes occurs with, say, only a single file out of a recently (Feb 2016) purchased album of music from the iTunes store. This suggests there is something flaky about how iTunes delivers purchased files. Why else would a freshly purchased album require delete-and-re-download of only one of its 22 tracks? The album in question, "Marc Ribot:Soundtracks II", was released in 2003, prior to the 2009 end-of-DRM, so yes it could have been lumped into the DRM-using category for that reason. But in that case, why is only one track DRM-tainted? And why is it only tainted on the initial download, not when I re-download it?

3) The re-download technique works for me even though I do not use iTunes match nor Apple music. You don't need either of those in order to re-download tracks you've purchased from iTunes store. I just delete the track via iTunes and then click the cloud icon next to it to re-download.

While you can re-download tracks even without iTunes Match or Apple Music, if you don't subscribe, the re-downloaded track will still be in its original, 128K/protected format.