How to Authorize a Computer on iTunes and De-authorize

The content you have purchased through iTunes is allowed to be accessed through 5 computers only and if you try to authorize the 6th computer, it wouldn’t allow you and notify that you have reached a limit.

While its pretty simple yet we receive quite a lot of requests about knowing procedure.

In today’s post we will explain to our users how to authorize a computer on iTunes so that you can have access to your digital assets and also how to de-authorize a computer.

The authorization and de-authorization are done to save the digital products you have purchased on iTunes and also the piracy.

The content you have purchased at iTunes is protected by the Digital Rights Management (DRM) system that discourages the piracy and save your content from being used by any other person than you yourself.

The authorization is done through the same computer you wish to authorize to use content from your iTunes account.

It can not be done through any 3rd computer or through iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc. Each of the computers needs to be authorized directly from the computer. No other way!

Why authorize a computer on iTunes?

I think the reason is already explained above, and hence it makes sense to protect the products from being accessed by another person than us through our iTunes account. Also it helps the company to from content being pirated.

Although the iTunes Music doesn’t require authorization as the company stopped it several years back but it needs authorization if you have to access TV shows, Movies Rental, Radio, etc.

We can allow up to 5 computers on iTunes and access the digital content from our account on iTunes. For me, 5 computers are more than enough but in some cases, it could be less and annoy people.

Well, it never means that once you authorize a computer on iTunes, you will never be able to de-authorize that computer ever. You can always do that in seconds and we will discuss how in this article.

Also see: How to take a Screenshot on a Mac

It becomes important for us to de-authorize a computer that we are no longer going to use or the computer that has been sold to someone or sent to the scrapyard.

It generally happens that we replace or upgrade the computer that we have authorized for access on iTunes and forget to de-authorize that.

Some people believe, since they just have upgraded the computer, it will remain authorized. No its not!

The iTune will count the upgraded computer as change and you will have to authorize the upgraded computer again.

Hence the same computer (old n upgraded) gets authorized twice unless you de-authorize the old one.

If you are wondering how to do that, we will discuss everything in the article as to how to authorize a computer on iTunes and how to de-authorize it in few simple steps.

How to Authorize a Computer on iTunes

If you want to know how to authorize a computer on iTunes, follow these simple steps and you will be able to do it. Its a few steps process and easy as hell! Let’s go ahead and do that:

1. 1. Open iTunes.
   2. Go to Account > Authorisations > Authorise this Computer.
   3. Next, it will ask for Apple ID and Password. Fill in the details and the “Authorize” button will be highlighted. 

 

1. Hit “Authorize” and done! You’ve authorized this computer on iTunes to access the content you have purchased. You will receive notification for the same as below.

How to De-authorize a computer on iTunes

As we have already discussed, iTunes allows only 5 computers to be authorized at a given time. If you try to add a 6th computer it will give you an error “You cannot authorize more than 5 computers.”

In that case if you need to authorize a new computer, you will have to de-authorize old ones. I wish there was some way to de-authorize a single computer but that’s not possible.

If you want to authorize a new computer and all 5 spots are filled, you will have to de-authorize all of them and re-authorize those 5 computers that you want to use with iTunes. Here is how to do that:

1. Open iTunes
2. Go to Account > View my account. It will ask for Apple ID and Password. Fill in the details
3. Scroll down to the “Apple ID Summary” section and check how many computers are authorized already. You will find it under the “Computer Authorizations” head.
4. Click the “De-authorize All” button to remove all the computers. That’s all.

You may now go ahead and re-authorize new 5 computers on iTunes.

How to de-authorize a single computer on iTunes

If you have only one computer authorized on iTunes and want to remove it due to any reason. For example, if you are scrapping it, you do that as below:

1. Open iTunes.
2. Go to Account > Authorisations > De-authorise this Computer.
3. Next it will ask you to enter Apple ID and Password. Supply both the information and hit “De-authorise” button. Once done, you will receive a notification as below. That’s all !

Summary:

If you want to use iTunes content on your computer you need to authorize it. Apple allows you to authorize 5 computers at once and in case you have to add more, you have no other choice than deleting them all and re-authorizing the 5 computers.