I got rid of an old Mac recently, but I forgot to deauthorize it from my iTunes account. On my new machine, I can’t play some of my content because iTunes tells me I’ve used up all five of my authorizations. What do I do now?!

This inconvenient situation is caused by the digital rights management (DRM) software embedded in videos and other content sold in the iTunes Store. Apple only allows you to “authorize” five machines at a time to play your content—no doubt a concession to entertainment industry suits. So if you’ve hit your limit, iTunes won’t let you play music or video content that’s encumbered with DRM. Thankfully, you can reset your iTunes account, removing all the previously authorized devices and starting again from scratch.

Clicking the Deauthorize All button will clear every Mac from your iTunes account.

From the iTunes Store, click on your email address in the upper-right corner. Enter your iTunes password, and you’ll be taken to your account page. Under Computer Authorizations, you’ll see the number of machines tied to your account. Click the Deauthorize All button, and it will remove all the registered machines from your account. The only drawback is that you’ll be prompted to enter your iTunes account credentials again on each machine the first time you attempt to play content with DRM built into it.

Apple only lets you use the Deauthorize All button once a year, but if you’re really in a jam and need to remove old machines pronto, a call to Apple’s tech support will usually result in them clearing your account again for you. But just to be safe, remember to deauthorize old machines before you lose access to them by going to Store > Deauthorize this computer… in iTunes.

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