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Songs bought in iTunes “not authorized to play” – FIX!!!!

Ive seen messages all over google pretty much about:

My computer says it is not authorized to play certain songs. When I try to authorize it, it takes my password XXXXX however, does not actually authorize it.

and so on…

Well, today (2/5/12) I bought an album Wester – Danger Music, everything was downloaded and added to my iTunes. 1 Problem thou, one of the songs would not play, I kept getting the error message: iTunes – “not authorized to play on this computer”

I tried the options from (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1389) iTunes repeatedly prompts to authorize computer to play iTunes Store purchases

Those did not work for me, so what I did to fix this issue was very simple.

1. Delete the song in iTunes to remove from your library and hard drive

2. Open the iTunes Store

3. Make sure you are signed in with the same account used for the original purchase

4. Tap Purchased from the bottom navigation bar in the Features category

5. From the Purchased tab, tap the artist name for the content you intend to download again

6. Once you’ve located the music you are looking for, tap the download button

(If you want to download all songs from an album that you’ve purchased, click on the button to switch to the “Album” view.)

Hope your issue is Fixed!

Any questions please don’t hesitate to ask.

Posted in ComputerTags:
9 Comments
  • Tumi

    You are God sent! None of he advise Apple gives works and this worked immediately.
Now I can listen to my songs again 🙂

    7:12 pm May 16, 2020 Reply
  • Jeanette

    Thanks for the tip. Only problem is I purchased this music 10 years ago and do not remember my original Apple ID and password so I can never retrieve about $400 worth of music I purchased from iTunes!!!! Every time I try to play the songs I PAID FOR, it says my computer is not authorized. Then, when I sign in to Apple with my new user name and ID to authorize, it says this computer is already authorized!!!! But it STILL WON”T PLAY THE DAMN SONG!!!! Fed up with iTunes!

    7:11 pm May 18, 2020 Reply
  • Paul

    After many stressful hours of trying Apple website fixes, I came upon this thread. This fixed my issue in less than 5 minutes. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Looks like there will be music at my wedding in two days!

    7:14 pm May 18, 2020 Reply
  • Greg

    Sounds like a great idea only mine wont open when I hit the ‘purchased’ option at the bottom of the Store screen.Yes,I’m logged in. It’s like the whole itunes site is fried.

    6:41 pm May 30, 2021 Reply
  • sammm

    Thanks for the tip! It actually worked after so many tries following the Support from Apple.

    9:50 am June 16, 2021 Reply
  • Gregory White

    This did the trick! I’ve run into situations where I purchased an album but a song latter goes missing, from iTunes and album folder in the Files folder. I learned through trial and error to search for the song in the iTunes store by song title. (If you search by album, the song will show as “downloaded” while the other songs show “play.” Clicking on the “downloaded” button does nothing. ) The trick is when going to the iTunes store, don’t search by artist album rather search for the song title. With more obscure artists, you may have to enter the song title and the artist name. When song appears within the search results, it appears as if you have not purchased it. Click on the amount, as if to purchase, and you should receive a response to the effect of “you have already purchased this song; would you like to download?” Problem solved. NOTE , if the album you purchased is not the current version, you’re screwed and it will sell it to you again; so do this at your own risk. Sigh. BUT, thank you for this post as it will usually work. The directions from Apple or Microsoft are tripe. The path you have provided is MOST helpful. Thanks again!

    6:42 pm September 15, 2021 Reply
  • John B

    Just in case someone needs this later. There is a kind of shortcut from the above methods. I assume it will work with a single song or one from an album (It worked on an album for me).
    Right click the song in question and click “delete from library”. On the pop-up window click “delete song”. On the next pop-up window click the “keep file” option. After that the iCloud download icon should appear to the right of the song. Click it to download the song again.

    Hope this helps

    1:48 am January 4, 2022 Reply
    • Shari

      You Sir, are a legend! Thanks dude! I was going outta my mind!

      2:28 am April 3, 2022 Reply
  • Peter Gordon

    Well, I deleted the song from iTunes and my hard drive, followed your instructions about going to purchases under features, but there is no record of the song I previously purchased. I have been stuck in the authorization loop (same computer and same Apple ID) for several months, Apple won’t deal with people who still have an original iPod, and now I will have to purchase the song again.

    9:39 pm August 13, 2022 Reply
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