Readers, as well as our own testing, have confirmed that iTunes 8 fixes the lock-out issue that prevented many users from access their iTunes Store purchased content. This unaccepable issue blocked access to iTunes Store content, repeatedly demanding the user enter their password. As we previously reported, workaround simply could not fix the problem, isolated to iTunes 7.7.1.
Considering that the outage lasted about a month, we suggest that you contact iTunes Customer Service if you were affected, and request a $20 or 20 song credit. That is the fair-market price for a monthly music store subscription.
Finally, Windows users have complained that iTunes 7.7 added MobileMe software to their systems, even if they did not subscribe to the MobileMe service. Upon updating to iTunes 8.0, you can now go to Add/Remove Programs (or Programs and Features in Windows Vista), and independently uninstall MobileMe. It is listed as the “MobileMe Control Panel” inside of Add/Remove Programs.
They didn’t do a very good job. I just updated to 8.0 and now I am asked to enter my password in order to play anything, and half of the time my songs/videos won’t play at all. Even after I enter my password, it just tells me that my computer is already authorized, and then it acts like nothing ever happened. If I try to play it again, the cycle continues. I can’t even preview anything in the store, because the same thing happens. I am not completely locked out, but practically speaking, I really can’t use iTunes.
iTunes 8 running on a PC with XP is giving me the same loop, over and over. Fixes work for a day or so, or sometimes just one sync, and then I’m back in it. Apple help has been NOT help–their latest is telling me it’s a problem with my OS. This doesn’t make any sense, since Apple discussion boards are full of people with this problem, running all kinds of Mac and PC systems (I guess maybe it’s time for Linux?)
Please let us know if you get any good fixes.