Everyone tells me how wonderful and easy it is to use iTunes (OK, mostly Janak Parekh), but it must have been designed for people smarter than I am - I installed iTunes on a different computer and wanted to sync my iPod Touch with it. I had iTunes installed on my software testing computer, which has since been wiped out, so I need a permanent home for iTunes. Here's the problem I'm running into:
I've set it up to manually sync everything, because it seems if I don't do that, iTunes will wipe everything out on the iPod Touch. In iTunes, when I go FILE > TRANSFER PURCHASES, I get the above error message. You might be thinking "OK, your computer hasn't been authorized" - but it has. The screenshot below shows that.
So what's the deal? If I tell iTunes to auto-sync apps, it tells me it's going to wipe out all my apps on the device - but if I tell it to transfer the purchases from the iPod to the desktop computer, it tells me the computer isn't authorized. I only have one iTunes account - I've verified that the email address on my desktop computer matches the email address on my iPod Touch. Is there a way for me to re-download the apps I've paid for once they get nuked from my iPod Touch? Any ideas on why I'm seeig that error message about my computer not being authorized?
Side question: how do I de-authorize those other two authorizations that I don't have/aren't using?
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1. You can't individually remove authorizations, but you can deauthorize all. Open iTunes, go to the store, and in the upper right corner click your e-mail address. On the account info screen, you can deauthorize the other ones IF you've maxed out the five, otherwise the option isn't available. You can do this once a year.
2. You're running into a problem that's a symptom of the weird way iTunes handles content. The Touch you're sync'ing is (for lack of a better term) paired to anbother computer. Therein lies your problem. You can sync 30 ipods to the same computer, but you can't sync the iTunes content through an iPod. You have to copy your iTunes library over on another media and then sync to the computer. That should (I think) solve your problem.
Transfer purchases is for when you buy stuff on the iTunes store on the Touch and you want it on your desktop.
Mind you, I'm only stabbing at this one but I think that's what it is based on your description.
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It sounds to me as if the authorization is bad, so I would de-authorize the computer and then reauthorize. If it is not this, then this may actually be worth an iTunes support call/email. You should be able to transfer your purchases to another computer from the iPod itself so long as the computer is authorized (note that this is purchased items only - you cannot use the iTunes interface to transfer non-purchased content, which makes sense from a piracy sense - you wouldn't want to steal an 120 GB iPod and be able to copy all of the ripped content to your iTunes account.)
You can de-authorize the computer from the "Store" menu, and you can do that for each of the computers where you have installed iTunes. Of course, you may be like me, and wipe a computer before you remembered to de-authoroze, so Apple lets you de-authorize all of your computers from the account menu on the iTunes Store itself (go to the iTunes Store itself, make sure that you are logged in to your account, and choose the "account" link on the right, under "quick Links".) I believe that you can only do that when you have all 5 authorizations filled, and I know that you can only run that procedure once in a calendar year. Since you have less than 5 authorizations, you probably will not see the "de-authorize all computers" option.
You can sync 30 ipods to the same computer, but you can't sync the iTunes content through an iPod.
Yeah, I know Apple things everyone is a content pirate and you can't use the iPod Touch to move content from one computer to another, but I thought that because apps were tied to my account, this would work because it's supposed to be that way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vincent Ferrari
You have to copy your iTunes library over on another media and then sync to the computer. That should (I think) solve your problem.
How do I copy my iTunes library "over on another media"? I don't really have anything on it that I care about beyond the apps - everything else is media content that I have stored elsewhere, outside of iTunes. This was mostly about getting my apps off the Touch and onto my desktop PC.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vincent Ferrari
Transfer purchases is for when you buy stuff on the iTunes store on the Touch and you want it on your desktop.
Right, that's what I wanted to do I thought - take the apps I've paid for on the Touch and transfer them over to the desktop PC. Isn't that something that iTunes does? Backs up your apps?
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OK, so I set up auto-sync for movies, TV shows, and apps - and got the warning about it wiping out all the apps on my device. It finished syncing, and nothing changed. I disconnected and re-connected the Touch and I'm getting the same error message about apps not syncing because of a lack of authorization...and I'm staring at the pop-up window that says "This computer is already authorized".
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It sounds to me as if the authorization is bad, so I would de-authorize the computer and then reauthorize.
I just tried that - no dice, I still get the same error about the apps not transferring over because the computer isn't authorized.
Quote:
Originally Posted by doogald
...you cannot use the iTunes interface to transfer non-purchased content, which makes sense from a piracy sense - you wouldn't want to steal an 120 GB iPod and be able to copy all of the ripped content to your iTunes account.)
Kind of lame that Apple treats all their customers as if they were pirates - the Zune can transfer content from the Zune to a PC.
I really don't want to have to hard reset this thing - it took me forever to get it configured to sync with my Exchange server.
Are there any settings on the Touch itself that I should be looking at?
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Does anyone happen to know why, when I go into Preferences and change the location of my iTunes library, iTunes re-creates an iTunes folder in my Music folder? I changed it to /Public/iTunes and that's where my content is (thus far, one purchased movie). Is there some magic that you have to do to have iTunes live in a different folder, outside the Music folder? This is on a Vista computer.
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It's in the "Advanced" menu of Preferences. You can change the location of media storage, and then you want to choose "keep itunes folder organized" to copy all of your stuff to that location. Once it is all copied (it will not move files) you can delete the extra copies stored in other locations. See here.
That location, by the way, is what you would copy to another computer. Start iTunes on the new computer to set up the library, close it, and then copy everything under "iTunes" in your storage location to the location that was set up on the new computer. It should have library xml files, artwork folder, and an iTunes Music folder. This will move all of your iTunes stuff to the new computer.
I don't have a Touch of iPhone so I don't know if apps are authorized differently from media.
This is a good description of moving/copying iTunes libraries to other computers; though it describes using an iPod to do so (using its storage), you can just do so with an external drive, network share, etc.
I had this EXACT same problem with iTunes when I upgraded from Win7 beta to Win7 RC. Not a different computer, just a different OS install. Same error messages and assurances that my computer was authorized. Half of my apps were lost as were all of my DRM'd iTunes music. It fixed itself with an upgrade to iTunes. Make sure you have downloaded and installed the latest release. Sorry, no exact cause or any real answers as to how to fix it if this is not the problem. If not, try perhaps just a reinstall.
The iTunes directory is for everything BUT music. Apps, games, artwork, and the metadata describing the contents of your library (including your playlists) all reside there. AFAIK there is no way to move this from the default music folder. I created a music folder below my default music folder to store my ACTUAL music. So, my default music folder ("Library") has Audio Books, iTunes, Music, Playlists, and Sample Music subfolders. Probably just me being anal, but I like it this way. Easier to backup and sync stuff since everything is together but separate.
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