Elijah Ketchum
Since Google Music was launched, there was always a limit on the number of authorized devices. 10 devices was the most any person could have linked to their Google Play, and everyone (well, most everyone) was fine with that. However, people’s comfort with the service’s limits began to change a little when Google announced that they would only let you unauthorized 4 devices a year from you Play account.
So what’s the big deal?
Well, many people are fine with a 10 device limit because at any time they can un-authorize the devices that they aren’t using and add new ones without any problems. With this new rule however, people can only do this 4 times a year. That means if you get a bunch of devices that you don’t use on Google Play and have maxed out your unauthorizations, you’re stuck with what you’ve got. This is especially bad news for those who root their devices, because a lot of times your Google Music will recognize the same device as a different device because it’s running a new ROM. You can see how this can quickly become an issue. If you have a computer, tablet, and phone all synced and authorized to your Google Play account you should be okay. That is until, you flash a new ROM a couple times to find which one you like most, or add another computer or get a new one. With this new regulation, Google is really handicapping a lot of people who take advantage of using multiple devices.
Because this was such an issue, Google has currently retracted this rule, allowing things to return to normal…for now that is. Google has released the following statement to clear things up a little:
“Yesterday we made a change to our device policy for music on Google Play. Any user can associate up to 10 devices to his or her account. Once you have connected 10 devices, you may add a new device only by deauthorizing an existing one from your account, and you may do this up to four times per year.
We limit the number of times you can swap out new devices at the request of some of our music partners in an effort to limit abuse. We understand this has caused some issues for users who often deauthorize and reauthorize the same device, and we are currently re-implementing the solution in a way that works for our users and music partners.
We apologize for any inconvenience and will update this page as new changes are made.”
Hopefully they find a way to allow users a little more room to breathe with authorizations, because I for one, will not be able to last very long on a 4-unauthorization limit. I’m sure many of our readers would agree, especially those who like to root their devices and flash ROMs. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on the situation, and until then make sure you have only the devices you want on your Google Play account, because you may not have much time.
