iTunes Store acting up!

[Ubernerd]

I’ve been stumped by this problem.

A little background: I’ve had an iTunes music store account for a about a year now. I’ve downloaded a number of song, and enjoyed the service. All songs that I’ve purchased have ended up on an iPod, though I also listen to songs from my eMac as well.

Several months ago, I switched email address on the account, as I was no longer using the old one email account that much. After making the change, all went well. Songs played, transferred to iPod etc. Songs would play from mac or iPod just fine. Though the name of the account was changed, I kept the same password.

Not too long ago, I upgraded iTunes (via an automatic download). I noted the interesting new features and have generally enjoyed the update.

However, many of my song that I have purchased no longer play. Oddly, these seem to the older songs purchased with the old email I had listed on my iTunes account. Newer songs seem to play just fine. When I first click one of these older songs, I get a message that says “This computer is not authorized to play “XXX”. Would you like to authorize it?” It then lists the old email account. I’ve entered the password using the old email account and the new. For good measure I’ve also tried every password and email account I could think of, just in case an alternate password got in there.

All songs play just fine on the iPod. Newer downloaded songs continue to work just fine.

Here are some of the fixes I’ve tried:
--Ran the fix permissions program
--Restarted the Mac from the original CD that came with the machine and ran the fix permissions program
--Erased home/library/preferences/com.apple.iTunes.plist
--Manually downloaded iTunes 4.5 and re-installed it

I’m at the point where I am no longer purchasing songs for fear that I’ll no longer be able to play them again. Do I have any recourse? Any technical advice?

[Randman]

You entered the password for the older e-mail address and hit enter? It should have recognized it and authorized you to play your songs. Maybe it's getting mixed up with two different sets of authorization in the same library. Have you contacted Apple? They may be able to fix it on their end.

[Ubernerd]

Originally Posted by Randman

You entered the password for the older e-mail address and hit enter? It should have recognized it and authorized you to play your songs. Maybe it's getting mixed up with two different sets of authorization in the same library. Have you contacted Apple? They may be able to fix it on their end.

After entering the email address with the password, iTunes says "The Apple ID you entered couldn't be found or your password was incorrect. Please try again." It also displays a button that says "Forgot password?", which take me to a web page allowing me to reset the password.

If I try to retrieve the password based on the old email, the Apple website says "The Apple ID specified does not exist." The site will let me reset the passworld of the current password, though of course this does nothing for the older songs.

I guess I'll try Apple when I have a moment.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

The songs you download are "owned" by the user account you used to purchase them with. If you get rid of an e-mail address or account, then the songs associated with that account become unusable.

I would take this up with the iTunes Customer Service people. Somewhere there's a way you can write a troubleshooting email to them and they're generally pretty quick about getting back with you.