October 27th-2008 Update: Celebrating the 3rd aniversary of this post with an advice from one of my readers, John: try to retype all of your iTunes account information, that worked for him.
September 11th-2008 Update: It seems that the iTunes 8 update has resulted in a number of people experiencing the 5002 error, related to updating of iPhone Apps.
Please check this thread on the Apple Forums for possible solutions: Topic : ITunes 8 Upgrade Results in 5002 unknown Error when trying to update Apps
Some of my users has been kind enough to provide possible fixes to the issue:
July 1st-2008 Update: A regular trick when you have strange errors on Mac OS X, is to perform a “Repair Disk Permissions” using the “Disk Utility” application. You should also try this if you encounter iTunes error 5002. Thanks to David from Macnyt.dk for making that suggestion.
May 15th-2008 Update: The most recent comments points to a problem with missing credit card security codes, so please review your iTunes account information.
April 2nd-2008 Update: It seems that a recent update to iTunes has made this error much more common, look to the bottom of the comment-stream to get the latest.
There’s no clear solution to the problem, but re-registering with iTunes Music Store, and/or contact iTunes can,sometimes, fix the problem.
April 4th-2008 Update: Concensus is building around something we’ve been focusing in on for a while, that is DON’T EVER USE saved shopping carts. Due to an error in iTunes, you’ll get the 5002 error, if a product you’ve added to the shopping cart, is removed from iTunes Music Store, before you go to check-up.
iTunes Music Store seems to revise their catalogue a lot, especially tail-coating a new product launch, this is why it seems to be related to new versions of iTunes.
This blog-post is, by far, the biggest driver of traffic to my website, and if you read the comment-stream, you’ll notice a lot of frustrations, Apple, PLEASE recognise this problem, and FIX it – I’ll teel it in words you MIGHT understand: YOU’RE LOOSING BUSINESS!
Kim Bach, April 2nd and 4th 2008
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I recently made my first purchase on iTunes, but I kept getting an error 5002 when trying to authorise my PowerBook. After trying again and again I gave up on it, and sent an e-mail to Apple Support, and they promissed an answer in 72 hours. Two weeks later, still no answer, so I turned to the support pages in iTunes Music Store, and there’s no useful information on error 5002.
When all else fails, FGI. So Googling “itunes computer authorization problem 5002” I found a promissing thread on MacNN Forums.
The user who started the thread on the 19th of october, finally solved his problem today. His solution was to shorten the name other computers on the subnet can use to access the computer. This setting can be changed by going to System Preferences/Sharing (in Danish: Systemindstillinger/Deling). After changing my computername and subnet name, I was able to authorise my computer with iTunes and listen to the audiobook I purchased.
I suspect that quite a few users have this problem, since the installation procedure of Mac OS-X allows you to enter whatever, ridiculously long, computername, and mine was indeed very long.
But I’m NOT impressed with the (lack of) support I got from Apple iTunes support. They MUST have heard about this problem before, so why the solution isn’t featured on the iTunes FAQ, beats me!
I wrote iTunes support to let them know about the solution, I really hope they return with an answer.
114 replies on “iTunes 5002 error blues cured”
I’ve had success with updating the billing info/credit card stuff, de-authorizing the computer, and re-authorizing it. YMMV
It seems to me that anybody i’ve spoken to, or emailed, has had problems with itunes. The solution that seems most succesful is re-entering tour account/billing info. Itunes doesn’t like it if you don’t capitalize adresses, and use proper punctuation. Thanks for the help itunes
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That’s a great idea … I’m going to move ALL of my business for any track that gets the 5002 error to Amazon, since none of these solutions work for me. Apple, if many people do this, is that motivation enough?
I did everything you all said and the only thing that worked was to put my security code in for my credit card. I deleted everything out of my shopping cart and then switched to one-click purchasing. I signed out and in. Then I entered the security code and it works! Go figure.
I’m getting this every time I try to purchase the ‘Wine & Conversation” iTunes Essentials playlist. Very unfortunate – past experience says an iTunes Essentials playlist purchase will remain broken for months.
Following the advice on this thread, to remove a 5002 error I kept getting after depositing a purchase in my shopping cart–I couldn’t even access the cart after this–I went into preferences, switched from shopping cart to one-click purchasing, and…success. The change automatically removed the shopping cart from my iTunes, and all subsequent purchases went through. (NB: It looks like the problem was a change in the sales mode for the saved purchase, from three pieces (Bach) for one price,. to individual purchase only.)
I found a fix for 8.1.1.10 running on Vista 32bit (Possibly other versions of Windows).
1. Close itunes.
2. Open Programs and Features (Add or Remove Programs in XP).
3. Select itunes and click “Repair.”
4. When finished open itunes again and things should be fixed.
I’ve heard that reinstalling also fixes it if you still have the Setup.
Just get a new account. That’s the easiest way to solve the problem if any of the above suggestions do not work.
Well I have tried all your suggestions and I am still locked out. So much for movie night with the kids!
I just deauthorized and authorized my computer and can redeem itunes cards again. I also restarted by router first.
Just get a new account. That’s the easiest way to solve the problem if any of the above suggestions do not work.
I had also this same 5002 after itunes update to version 11.0.1.12 , even when trying to connect to Itunes Store account, so no way editing the account. All action around Itunes Store or application update was resulting in error 5002… while on another computer it was working fine with the same account … so really link to one particular computer. I have checked security right of itunes folder but was not the issue.
THE SOLUTION : I just launched creation of a new account, accepted the “itunes rules” and when arrived to the final page (with all data) just clicked on cancel… then tried again to log with my previous account … and all was working again !!!