Deauthorize All on iTunes?

I can’t figure out what five computers I’ve authorized my iTunes account on. I suspect some of them are long gone from our household. I’d like to deauthorize all and then reauthorize the five macs I we use in our house to play music on.

Anyone know how to "deauthorize all" accounts?

#VC & Technology

Comments (Archived):

  2. dave

    Click Store>View my Account. There should be a button to click that allows you to do this. It’s only allowed once a year so if it’s been done already in the last 12 months, then it won’t show this button.

    1. fredwilson

      thanks dbudde. just did it. now i have to go re-authorize all the machines in my house. god i hate DRM.

  3. Joe Moreno

    1. Open iTunes and then click on the button with you Apple ID in the upper right.2. Enter your Apple ID and password.3. In the middle of the screen you should see “Computer Authorizations”. If it says “5 machine are authorized…” then there should be a button next to it to Deauthorize All. But, you can only deauthorize only when all five authorization have been used.

  4. Innerdaemon

    Fred,On iTunes, select the Store menu, and choose Deauthorize Computer. There is a limitation (you can only deauthorize once a year).

  5. fredgraver

    I am SO with you on this… And the whole thing is so counter-intuitive… if I OWN more Apple computers, why do they become less valuable after five cpus? (I once had to authorize a computer in an edit suite to get a copy of a song on itunes… that computer is STILL authorized as one of mine, because I can’t get anyone at the place to de-authorize it for me!)… Apple’s DRM, in general, gets more onerous with every new release of iTunes, it seems…AND Scoble’s right about the Apple people in the comments… Let’s call the Apple Scruffs (after the George Harrison song)… this unquestioning devotion to the brand doesn’t help… Look at the comments here… instead of decrying the drm, they just show you how to collaborate!

    1. JT

      Sorry, all the other comments didn’t show up at first.

  8. robster

    In your account settings in iTunes Store you should have the option to ‘deauthorize all’ as you’ve hit the magic 5 authorizations. Apparently you get one shot every year to fully deauthorize all remotely. Then all you need to do is ‘Authorize’ the 5 machines individually.I did this a month or so ago and it worked just fine.

  9. PaulFavata

    If you forgot to deauthorize a computer you no longer own, you can deauthorize all of your authorized computers at once. Choose Store > View My Account. You can use this method once a year.

  10. ben s

    i’ve hit this problem, what’s worse is they will only let you deauthorize all machines once per year! DRM is the single worst example of a company shafting their customers.. it has actually gone ahead of activation as more draconian.

  11. Mead

    Please post the answer to this question, I have the exact same problem but have not been able to rectify it.