iTunes Authorization Looping Problem When Syncing iPhone

April 28, 2009 · 15 comments

in iPhone,Tips

I don’t know how often this happens to others but it happened to me. I just downloaded a video file to iTunes and was about to sync it to my iPhone when the dialog box above popped up.

It doesn’t have anything to do with the video file I’m trying to sync but I know I still have applications that haven’t been synced between iTunes and iPhone. I’m not sure either if this was caused by the new iTunes version (8.1.1) that I installed a few days earlier.

Anyway, I thought I just have to authorize my computer again and everything will be okay. Nope. iTunes says my computer is already authorized.

Syncing again only brings back the same pop-up messages. Deauthorizing and authorizing again didn’t work.

Apple Support suggests this solution:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1389

It also mentions deleting the SC Info folder.

Unfortunately, it didn’t solve my problem.

It gets frustrating until finally I found a solution.

  1. Deauthorize your computer in iTunes (from the Store menu).
  2. Sign out from your iTunes Store account.
  3. Quit iTunes and unplug your iPhone.
  4. Remove the “iTunes Helper” application from the Startup items (In Mac, go to System Preferences -> Accounts -> Login Items)
  5. Delete/uninstall the iTunes application (this won’t erase your iTunes media files).
  6. Reboot.
  7. Download iTunes from the Apple website and install.
  8. Start iTunes and sign in to the iTunes Store.
  9. Authorize your computer (from the Store menu).
  10. Plug in your iPhone and Sync!

Hope this solution works for you too.

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  • http://takeitrightaway.blogspot.com James Retuya

    Oh C'mon! I thought I tow a putty cat! Life ain't that easier then!

  • http://babydesertwolf.blogspot.com Jamie

    I did not know Mac is racing against Microsoft in terms of the number of application bugs… LOL… thanks for posting…

  • Brad

    wow… good job! I've been dealing with this for a few months and your trick worked (but I'll never really know since the 8.2 iTunes download came out 20 minutes before I deleted it, maybe that helps too)

  • http://menoob.com menoob

    Great! iTunes 8.2 just popped up on my Software Update this morning. I do hope they have fixed the problem.

  • Pim

    8.2 is a piece of crap….
    This trick did NOT work with 8.2

    Apple is really really making HUGE mistakes here… iTunes 8.2 on my friends PC won't even sync the iPhone anymore, it just crashes iTunes.

    Apple, get your act together!!!

  • Pim

    8.2 is a piece of crap….
    This trick did NOT work with 8.2

    Apple is really really making HUGE mistakes here… iTunes 8.2 on my friends PC won't even sync the iPhone anymore, it just crashes iTunes.

    Apple, get your act together!!!

  • jber

    This is the only trick that worked with 8.2.1.6 for me, tried all other describe step by step from apple.

    Thanks allot.

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  • O

    Thank goodness. Your tip totally helped. All is working again. Thanks so much!

  • pac42

    I think I love you!!! This worked a treat :-)

  • Miri

    thank you thank you. Finally broken the cycle and found sanity again!

  • angie001

    this didn't work at al. i'm fedup! i#ve tried everything here -.- is there any other way to fix this prob?

  • MB

    THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH! It Worked for me, and this has been a problem for me for a very long time (2years +)!

  • Ladyj_frost

    hi this really works for me at least i can get to sync my newly converted movies.. one more thing my problem is not “authorize computer” now, you see i have downloaded apps from cydia and instullous and they will all be deleted (i choose cancel than remove).. will that be ok?

  • Rdamani01

    I tries your solution on my tower and no luck…still asking to authorize my account for an old email address I no longer use with my itunes account any ideas on how to fix this. Mac Pro Quad core, itunes 10.5, iphone 4 and ipad 1

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