03-08-2011, 08:13 PM

My kid bought a song from the iTunes store and can't sync it to his iPod. An error message comes up after syncing that says. "'(song)' wasn't uploaded to '(iPod)' because you don't have authorization on this computer". Anybody ever have this message come up?

He was on his own account and no dialog came up for me (the administrator) to authenticate. Just the error message with no clues on how to authorize.

Any ideas as to how to solve this? Could the song file be corrupt? Help!

Edit:
This occurred on an iMac, less than a year old, running a Snow Leopard.

03-08-2011, 08:17 PM

You can authorize up to 5 machines (iTunes) with a single Apple ID. So when your son is logged in and using iTunes, he Apple ID he is using to download the song should be authorized with that version of iTunes so that it can sync with devices..

Regards

03-09-2011, 06:42 AM

Thanks. But that makes me even more confused because he has to use the Apple ID (my ID) to buy from the iTunes store. Odd that he wouldn't be able to sync using the same ID. I only have 2 Macs, but the only one we ever log into iTunes with is the iMac.

03-09-2011, 06:48 AM

Open up iTunes, head for 'Store" on the menu, then 'Authorize this computer' - enter the Apple id and password used to purchase the song.

03-09-2011, 06:06 PM

Originally Posted by bobtomay

Open up iTunes, head for 'Store" on the menu, then 'Authorize this computer' - enter the Apple id and password used to purchase the song.

Thanks. I'll give that a go and report back.

04-24-2012, 04:19 PM

My son is having a related problem, and no thread I've found has solved it. He downloaded TV shows directly onto his iPod Touch using his account. The next time he synced with his iTunes account on our Macbook, the shows were copied to the computer but erased from the iPod. He got the message that the computer was not authorized for those files. (Yet, they will play on the laptop.) We have gone to Store>Authorize, using his account id and password, and are told that the computer is already authorized. The file structure for the iTunes media is default, and it all has read write permission. In the "TV Shows" tab of his iPod information displayed in iTunes, " Sync TV Shows" is checked, "Include Episodes From Playlists" is checked. and under it "Purchased" is checked.
Any ideas? Much appreciated.

04-24-2012, 05:32 PM

My son downloaded TV shows directly onto his iPod Touch using his account. The next time he synced with his iTunes account on our Macbook, the shows were copied to the computer but erased from the iPod. He got the message that the computer was not authorized for those files. (Yet, curiously, they will play on the laptop.)
We have gone to Store>Authorize, using his account id and password, and are told that the computer is already authorized.
The file structure for the iTunes media is default, and it all has read/write permission. In the "TV Shows" tab of his iPod information displayed in iTunes, " Sync TV Shows" is checked, "Include Episodes From Playlists" is checked. and under it "Purchased" is checked.

Any ideas? Much appreciated.

04-25-2012, 04:14 AM

The basic problem here, as i understand it, is that you are trying to use two completely different iTunes accounts to buy stuff, and then sync it on the same computer. As you've discovered, this can cause a lot of headaches.

04-25-2012, 11:25 AM

@gundor

Please do not double post or cross post. Confine your question to one forum and continue posting to that thread until it's ended.

Thanks.

04-25-2012, 10:35 PM

Will do on the single posts. I'm a newbie here. The reason I started another thread was that after I posted in this one I thought, this has had no post for a long time, maybe my post won't get seen here.
So seeking advice, here's my question: When a thread has not been posted to for a long time, and it is not a strong match for one's own concern, is it better to start a new thread with one's issue leading the discussion, or to put it as a response to a thread related to it?

04-25-2012, 10:41 PM

To chas_m,
Thanks, I had eventually thought of that, too. Separate users, BUT a single computer. So I deauthorized the computer for both accounts and rebooted (zapping PRam - it's an old superstition/habit when trying to make a problem go away.) Then I logged into the Apple account with the problem and authorized the computer again.
Same result.
I've got an email into Apple Support. If I find out anything useful to anyone else, I'll post it.
Thanks, again.