With iOS 14, Apple presented a stunning accomplishment: screwing up music library management on the iPhone even worse than it was screwed up in previous versions. Two songs remain from an album that’s been on the phone for years. The rest are listed but can’t be downloaded.

“It’s easy! Just delete the album from your library, go to the iTunes store, and download it again!” But! The iTunes store says the album is purchased, but offers no way to download it. And because the album isn’t in the my library, the Music app doesn’t list it in “Purchased”.

There is no way that I can find *from* my phone to restore the purchased items *to* my phone. Meanwhile, while exploring ideas to resolve the problem, I find that under my account settings on the phone, there are nine different instances of authorizations for my Windows PC. Nine!

Ah! There are two options under my account settings on the phone: Purchase History and Hidden Purchases. I’ll find the missing music there! Nope. Purchase History only goes back to July; Hidden Purchases show no hidden purchases (I guess they’re REALLY WELL HIDDEN.)

Turns out the Purchase History defaults to 90 days, but there are options to select ranges. These ranges only refer to specific years; you can’t choose a range, and you can’t choose “All”. Fortunately, I can remember when I purchased this album: August 2013. So I look it up.

Right on; there’s the album. There’s an option to resend—but that only refers to the receipt, not to the content. Maybe there’s a date range under Hidden Purchases. Nope. (I’ve had to type my Apple account password three times so far, by the way.)

So how does one get access to hidden purchases? iTunes for Windows, on the PC? That’s the only place I’ve ever seen it.

I can sign in to my Apple account from iTunes for Windows (iTfW). It asks me for my password. iTfW’s two-factor authentication sends a code to my phone. I enter the code, which iTfW accepts. Then iTfW asks for my password again. Is this three-factor authentication? A typing test?

iTunes for Windows having opened, I click on Account, then View My Account... Whereupon... NOTHING HAPPENS. No dialog box; error message; no change in the cursor; nothing. And while we’re on the subject of problems, NONE of the cover art is showing up under the Albums view.

Ah! If I click on Account again, the cover art all shows up.

When I switch to Artist view, a similar effect; cover art doesn’t show up for that artist’s albums until I’ve clicked somewhere on the menu bar. Even then, some cover art is missing. Avatars in the artists list too.

Is the computer no longer authorized? Click on Account / Authorizations / Authorize This Computer... Nothing happens; no error message; no dialog. Deauthorize? Nothing happens. I click Sign Out; my name and email disappear from the Account menu. I click Sign In. Nothing happens.

Until now, I’ve been wondering if the library corruption problems in iTunes are due to problems with SQLlite, upon which must of its data handling seems to depend. But this problems I’m seeing are more basic, more systemic. So, maybe reinstall iTunes? Let’s try that.

Uninstallation goes with a hitch. Now let’s go look for iTunes on the web. A Google search suggests http://support.apple.com/downloads/itunes, which lists 10 results. Under “Download iTunes for Windows”, it offers a description dated “Mar 25, 2019”. What? iTunes for Windows was updated last month.

So, maybe Google PageRank screwed up. Ah, yes; the SECOND link lists “Download and use iTunes for Windows – Apple Support”. That’s dated July 9, 2020. That takes me to an Apple-hosted download page that offers “Download iTunes for Windows from the Microsoft Store.” Microsoft? OK.

I do you like click on the link, and I am taken to an I tunes download link on the Microsoft store. I click on the get button; I click on the Open Microsoft Store dialog in the browser, and I get... this.

I’m going to stop this now. I have errands to run. I wanted to listen to this album, but I’ll have to forego that. But for now: developers, project managers, testers... This is the world that we are creating for our customers. This is the shit we put them through every day.