How do I unlock my iTunes account when my old e-mail is unavailable?

Question

When I originally set up my iTunes account, I used an email address from my prior employer. I later moved my account to a personal rather than corporate email address and I have since changed jobs. The original email address associated with my Apple account is no longer valid. In the meantime, my computer on which my original iTunes account died. Fortunately, I had my iTunes music backed up and when I purchased a new computer, I uploaded my songs. I recently tried to play an Album and an error message came up that said that this computer was not authorized to play the songs and that I would need to access my account to authorize the new computer. When I clicked through the authorization screen, my original email address came up and asked for my password. I tried several of my “usual” passwords, but none of them worked. I clicked on the “forgot my password” link and Apple gave me the option of answering a few security questions or having my password sent to my email address. Recognizing that I could not access the dead email account, I asked to answer the security questions. The first one that came up was to enter my birthdate. I did so and Apple said that my answer was incorrect. I next tried the street I grew up on and that did not work either. I soon figured out that none of the questions matched my personal information so I am wondering if these questions were ever associated with my original iTunes account. Apple then locked my account for incorrectly answering the questions.

When I called Apple to see if we could do something to unlock the account and tie it to my new account (which would have the same name, address, and other personal information), I was informed that Apple cannot unlock the account and that I had to have access to the old email account to access the account and authorize this new computer to play the music. After going up three levels of Apple customer service, I was told that there was absolutely nothing they could do for me. So, I have purchased hundreds of songs that I cannot play now.

Is there a work around to this problem? The songs are stored on my computer – I just can’t play them.

Answer 1

I am afraid you are out of luck and there is no help for this. I tried to help a tech support client with this same problem and there is nothing to be done about it. It is truly too late.

People, if you have ever bought anything from any merchant (not just iTunes) and registered your account with the merchant using an email address from your employer, and that email account is still active, do this:

1. Get a free email account from Google Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, or another free email service.

2. Log in to each account with a merchant and change your account's email address from your work email address to your new extra email address from Google, Yahoo, etc.

3. Only ever buy anything on an account that has your free extra email address as the registered email address.

Paul Jackson, I'm sorry you've had to learn a hard and expensive lesson.

Answer 2

Some social engineering solutions :

• Your iTunes account was presumably associated with your credit card, yes? You could attempt to prove you identity to Apple via that credit card connection. You could warn them that you plan on contesting credit card charges if they cannot restore the account.

• If Apple won't help, then collect your old credit card bills with iTunes charges, and speak with your credit card company about contesting those charges. You're beyond the 60 day period, but maybe not the 1 year "claims and defenses" period. I doubt you'll get your money back, but you have a legitimate dispute with Apple, so stick them the dispute resolution merchant fees, which might cost as much as $30 per song. Do not lie to your credit card company, simply push the dispute process as far as possible, the further it goes the more money they charge Apple.

• You could theoretically sue Apple in small claims court. Imho, this sounds like way way too much hassle for a few hundred bucks. But maybe you could get your account back by contacting Apple's legal department in writing.

Two technical solutions :

• You say you still have the files themselves, yes? There are a variety of tools for removing iTunes DRM. A priori, I'd imagine most/all require authorization since that's the easiest way, but perhaps some clever one does not. Try any that look promising.

• Do you have an iPod? If so, try Graeme Hutchison suggestion. If it only give you encrypted music, then theoretically the iPod knows the authorization keys, meaning you've a slim chance someone discovered a trick for using the iPod's authorization to decrypt your music. Google isn't finding anything for me though.

As an aside, you should never buy DRM protected content in the first palce because : (a) Eventually you'll lose access one way or another, often by the company discontinuing the service. (b) Your supporting the DRM technologies which create these problems. Any books, movies, or music distributed with DRM are also available without DRM if you look.

Answer 3

Try contacting the IT department of that prior employer to see if they will accept and forward a few Apple emails to you for one day.

Answer 4

If you have triggered the account to be into a locked status due to too many failed log in attempts, you will need the help of a human to get it unlocked when you no longer can receive email or answer both the birth day question and the security question to a machine's satisfaction.

(yes, I'm sure you know your birthday, but it could have been entered incorrectly or become corrupted along the way)

Do try calling support one last time with some billing history and ask if you can provide a list of Apps and/or songs you purchased or have them ask you some of the history. If the person on the phone can't help, just ask them if there is a postal mail address or person you can appeal for help in resetting the email address used for your Apple ID. You can then follow up with a photocopy of some ID and ask how to proceed. It's a shame that you have lost all 3 of the normal methods to make a change to your account, but I'm sure there is someone that can advise you how you can convince someone that you are who you say you are and get access to your password again.

Once you have a valid password and the account is unlocked, you can go to http://iforgot.apple.com and change the Apple ID to match an email you now have access. You may also then be able to select the correct birthdate and a new security answer to get all your redundancies working for you instead of against you. Best of luck!

Answer 5

I have a possible work around.

The songs that you are missing, are they stored on an iPod?

If so use software such as Senuti which you can use for free to transfer 1000 files from your iPod into iTunes.

If you need more it is a small worth while fee.

I am not sure it will transfer songs already in iTunes so you may need to setup another user profile and use the iTunes on that profile before moving those tracks into a shared location on your HD.

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Additional answer.

Use file conversion software to convert them into a WAV and reimport into iTunes after deleting the originals. You can just google file conversion software, there are a lot of free examples.

Answer 6

As an added note: NONE of the security questions asked will EVER BE CORRECT! This is the issue that is the REAL issue. The option for a dead email address, according to Apple, is using these security questions, BUT not one of them is accepted, not for me and not for a LOT of others--there's something wrong or a bug on the site's part that NO ONE will have the correct answers to the security questions. There can't possibly be that many people "accidentally" typing in their own information incorrectly for the number of people having this problem. SO, when talking to Apple, THIS ISSUE should be fixed, and the email problem would be secondary, and maybe even moot. Anyway, my two cents. I wanted for you to know you did not incorrectly input your basic information, they just have a bug for properly verifying the information. Thanks for reading.