iTunes Tips: Solving Common iTunes Music Store Problems

iTunes Tips: Solving Common iTunes Music Store Problems
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Downloading Music Legally

iTunes has become one of the premiere location to purchase digital music, mainly because the iTunes music store is directly tied to the iTunes player and the intermediate software to sync the iPhone, iPod, and iPad. In fact, the iTunes music store top download list is one of the main ways that Billboard determines who is popular at a given period of time.

Since the iTunes Music Store actually comes as an Internet service through a program that is not a web browser you will find that a lot of different iTunes Music Store problems will come up in seemingly random situations. Here are a few common iTunes Music Store problems that you may find, and ways to solve them when they come up.

iTunes Music Store Connection Problems

One of the most common iTunes Music Store problems is that you simply are unable to connect to the iTunes Store, either consistently or at all. The immediate place to look at when you can’t connect to the iTunes Store is your Internet connection as iTunes works the same as any web based service, and an interruption with your service will cause immediate iTunes Music Store problems.

As long as your Internet is functioning correctly then you have a step-by-step process of iTunes troubleshooting to go through. Right off the bat try closing out iTunes and reconnecting as well as restarting your computer completely. You may even want to try to reset your Internet connection by unplugging your router for up to a minute, plugging it back in, and trying over.

First, check the version of iTunes that you are running. If your version of iTunes is significantly out of date then you will need to update it to the newest possible version. Your keychain may be the problem as well, so going through a system of Keychain First Aid is important. This is really only an issue if you are on a Mac computer, and there is built in features to deal with this issue. If you are on a Windows based PC then you will need to make sure that your version of Windows has the most up to date Service Pack, which is a built in update feature in the same way that the Mac OS has its updates presented.

If you still can’t connect to the iTunes Store at all then you may be having a problem with your Internet Service Provider where there is an actual hardware component blocking the iTunes connection. Here the iSP needs to be contacted and the issue approached right at the source of the Internet service. This could also be an issue around the Firewall that you are using on your computer. The best way to check this quickly is to turn the Firewall off and then check to see if it still can’t connect to the iTunes Store. If it can then you should go into the Firewall’s settings to make sure that it will allow for iTunes to connect to the internet.

Interrupted Download

Since difficulties with your Internet connection and problems with your computer can cause an interrupted download when trying to download

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music from iTunes. This can seem frightening to you when it happens because you are still going to get billed for the purchase after you have agreed to it. There is an easy step by step process to ensure that you still get your selected song.

In most situations you can just close out of iTunes completely if it hasn’t already during the download. When it is open just go into the Store option and then choose Check For Available Downloads. Once you enter your correct iTunes account info you will see it there is a download from the iTunes Music Store that has not finished you can then complete the download. If it is not there then there may not actually be any iTunes Music Store problems and you should just check in your iTunes Library for it.

Delayed Billing on iTunes

Some iTunes Music Store problems are not actual issues, but a problem that users have that can not be repaired in your iTunes account. One complaint that comes up is that iTunes Music Store users get delayed billing from their iTunes purchases. People tend to purchase a song a time from the iTunes Music Store, but they do not get billing to their credit or debit card until they have made several purchases. This is because it would be too difficult and expensive for Apple to issue billing for each individual purchase and there is a general assumption that iTunes Music Store users purchase items on a regular basis.

You cannot change this problem, but you can expect that billing will remain consistent despite it. It may simply be important to keep an independent log of your iTunes Music Store purchases for your financial records since your bank account will not report it directly, and since you are going to be billed in bulk and not for individual purchases you may also want to list what you bought along with how much it was. Your iTunes download record will list this as well, so you can check it against that.