Purchased M4P files Cannot be converted or burned

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Level 1

8 points

Purchased M4P files Cannot be converted or burned

I have some older purchases from iTunes dating back from 2004 through 2012 - when iTunes offered the 'plus' without DRM in 2009, some of those older purchases automatically converted or offered conversion to the new DRM-free versions - however some did not. Strangely, some music I purchased through iTunes into 2012 are still showing as protected, and can't be converted or burned either.

I tried every possible method to get some mp3 versions of those songs I legally purchased from iTunes, but nothing has worked. I put them in a playlist and attempt to burn an MP3 CD-R, but it says they cannot be burned. I can't convert them to MP3. I don't get the 'cloud' icon for those songs, so I can't delete the Protected version and re-download a non-protected version from the cloud. Nothing has worked, and I'm stuck with 38 songs I purchased legally from iTunes, that show up in my purchase history, but that I cannot burn to a CD or convert to MP3 to play in other locations, such as my car.

Can anything at all be done? Are there other options I haven't tried yet - after trying the 'burn the playlist to CD-R trick, and with no cloud download icon for any of these? I just want to put the music I paid for on an SD card to play in my car. I don't have iTunes Music subscription or Match subscription - I might be willing to try 'Match' if there was a guarantee it would pick up these purchases and give me a DRM-free version...but don't want to waste the money if those songs won't convert. Strangely, some songs on one album have the cloud icon, while other songs on the same album don't.

iPhone 8, Windows 7

Posted on Jul 1, 2018 4:22 PM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

278,639 points

Jul 3, 2018 5:58 AM in response to zackiedawg

My recollection was that the store stopped selling DRM laden tracks late in 2009. You should be able to burn a playlist of your protected tracks to audio CD format, then rip back. I successfully used iTunes Match to match, remove download, and then redownload 256K DRM-free versions of my older DRM purchases.

tt2

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Answer 2

Jul 3, 2018 6:05 AM in response to zackiedawg

38 songs will probably fit onto two audio CDs, and the blanks are cheap enough these days, so you may feel it's not worth the cost of iTunes Match ($24.99 for a year). However note that the data - title, artist and so on - won't survive the burning process so you need to keep a careful note of what you are doing and re-title them on their return to iTunes. You can re-import them directly to MP3 if that's what you want (Preferences>General: Import Settings).

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Answer 3

zackiedawg Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 3, 2018 8:37 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

made a playlist of the songs in protected format (enough to fit on a CD), but when I tried to burn the CD-R as an MP3, it said the files could not be burned due to protected status. So I need to actually just make an audio CD, as opposed to an MP3 CD? I hadn't thought of that - but seems to be the cheapest and easiest option for now. I don't mind not keeping the full data, since it's only 38 songs, i can manually add that info back in again. I guess the issue when I tried to burn them is that I was burning as MP3 CD so I was still trying to convert them. Thank you for this info - I'll give the audio CD burn a try this evening.

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Answer 4

zackiedawg Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 4, 2018 8:57 AM in response to turingtest2

Just wanted to say thank you and confirm this worked. I honestly hadn't thought about 'audio CDs' in probably a decade, so it just didn't dawn on me when I kept trying to make a CD and was selecting 'MP3'. I still don't know how an album I purchased from iTunes in 2012, and a song in 2017, ended up as protected m4p files...but at least I had a workaround to put them on a CD then transfer them back so I could have MP3 versions to stick in my car!

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