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dvwannabe · May 28, 2003, 12:40 AM

Hi all,

I've bought a few albums from the iTunes store. I didn't know about the "limiting songs to three computers feature." This concerns me because what will happen three or more computers from now?

Will I lose the AAC's that I bought from the store when I reach my fourth computer?

Thanks...

Nebrie · May 28, 2003, 12:56 AM

It's 3 computers at any given time. So if you discard an older computer for a newer one, just deactivate the old computer, then activate the new computer to take it's place.

voodoo · May 28, 2003, 01:06 AM

see, no problemo

absmiths · May 28, 2003, 10:39 AM

Originally posted by Nebrie:
It's 3 computers at any given time. So if you discard an older computer for a newer one, just deactivate the old computer, then activate the new computer to take it's place.

What does that mean, "activate a new computer"? Is that an iTunes function?

Do we still have the right to convert these to MP3? If so, does that loose something?

Developer · May 28, 2003, 10:45 AM

Originally posted by absmiths:
What does that mean, "activate a new computer"? Is that an iTunes function?

Do we still have the right to convert these to MP3? If so, does that loose something?

Deactivating a computer is an iTunes function in the Advanced menu. You should deactivate your computer before you sell it and I think also before you format the hard disk and/or reinstall the OS.

I can't buy any music myself, so I don't know if you can convert bought songs directly into mp3s. But you can burn as Audio CD to CD(-RW) and reimport as mp3. Either way, you will lose quality when reimporting/reencoding as mp3 (the burnt Audio CD is as good as the AAC though).

awaspaas · May 29, 2003, 01:04 AM

What if your computer blows up or something? Can you deactivate a computer from another computer?

slider · May 29, 2003, 11:29 AM

I am not totally sure I know what your concern is, but you should burn your music to CD's anyways as a back up at the very least. Once you buy the music it's yours, the only way you lose it is by trashing your HD without a backup, but that has always been the case with computers.

awaspaas · May 30, 2003, 03:11 AM

Aha, but what if all 3 of your authorized computers blow up? Even if its backed up, you don't have any more authorizations left.

suthercd · May 30, 2003, 12:27 PM

You have an account/login at iTunes. You lose all 3 computers, you log on with a new one. You can listen to you music on three computers at a time. You can't be listening to the lost computers because they're gone.

Don't look for problems that aren't there.

Craig

dreilly1 · May 30, 2003, 12:36 PM

Originally posted by awaspaas:
Aha, but what if all 3 of your authorized computers blow up? Even if its backed up, you don't have any more authorizations left.

Apple hasn't definitively answered this to my knowledge, but it would be very trivial to, say, call them and say that your computer broke and you can't get to it to deactivate it, and have them de-authenticate the computers on the server end. Or, at least, it should be.

I haven't done it yet, but I've read that writing purchased songs to a CD as CD Audio format, and then re-encoding them as AAC or MP3, does not result in a poor quality file. It probably won't be as good as if you had the original CD to rip from, but you probably can't tell through your headphones...

Moral of the story: if you're overly concerned with the 3-computer limit, buy some CD-R's, and once you download a new set of songs, burn them to CD as audio right away. Then you can do whatever you want (provided what you want to do is legal, of course

) with those songs...

Developer · May 30, 2003, 12:50 PM

Originally posted by suthercd:
You have an account/login at iTunes. You lose all 3 computers, you log on with a new one. You can listen to you music on three computers at a time. You can't be listening to the lost computers because they're gone.

I don't believe this is true. As far as I understand it, if you didn't deactivate the lost 3 computers, you can't listen to your music on a fourth.

chabig · May 30, 2003, 12:56 PM

I think you can contact iTunes support and they can reset your account so that you can then authorize three new machines. The older machines will no longer work.

Of course, I could be wrong...

Chris

slider · May 30, 2003, 01:31 PM

What if all three computers blow up and Califorinia is hit by a nuclear strike, will I lose my music then?

Yes.

tikki · May 30, 2003, 01:42 PM

Originally posted by slider:
What if all three computers blow up and Califorinia is hit by a nuclear strike, will I lose my music then?

Yes.

I hope you are worrying about something OTHER than your iTunes Music if that were the case

slider · May 30, 2003, 01:52 PM

I know, jeez, no more Apple computer. Yikes, I'd have to buy a PC, you're right, that is something to worry about. But will I be able to authorize my PC?

electropura · Jun 4, 2003, 10:14 PM

If your computer blows up, you e-mail iTunes Music Store Customer Service from withing iTunes...
They can de-authorize from their end...they just did it for me...

Dear Apple Customer,

We have manually deauthorized the hard drive listed on your account. You should now be able to authorize any three systems you desire. Let us know if you need anything else.

Thanks

The iTunes Music Store Team

Nice job Apple

PS: Actually my computer did not blow up, just my boot hard drive failed. Luckily, my iTunes music was stored on another internal drive...authorizing a computer is, in fact, a misnomer...what you are actually doing is authorizing/deauthorizing a boot drive