How to and why you should deauthorized Google Music synced Devices

In the line of work that we are in we often times end up with devices to review and return to the respective manufacturer. Sometimes we get to keep them, but not always. Whether or not you do what many of us do, or are just an average user who likes to flash your device, knowing a few things about Google Music will help keep you up and running.

This all came about during a current review of a tablet I am in the process of completing for you guys. After having it for a little while I thought I should check out how Google Music fairs and looks on it. After installing the app I was greeted with a rather discerning message. “You have reached your limited of connected devices. Please deauthorize some devices to sync.” Well, it was a similar message to that. Essentially, Google Music allows only 10 devices to be synced up to your Google Music account at one time. Compared to the 5 that I believe iTunes still allows, this is great. But there are issues one can run into.

Knowing that I didn’t have 10 devices synced up at the moment I began to look for an answer. I couldn’t find one and opted to call into Google. Which is pretty easy actually. Through the Android Market I located the Help articles and a really nice “Talk to a Specialist” section. Fill in your information and click the “Call me” button. With in seconds your phone will ring and you will be on hold for a little bit and talk to a real life person. OMG!! Really, a real life person, not a computer, not a canned email response that doesn’t solve your problem? Ya, a real person, it was quite refreshing actually. So I explained my situation. I review many products and devices and since I don’t have them any more how can I deauthorize them? The rep I spoke with told me in plain English, how to find my authorized devices and how to solve my issue. All of this took maybe 5 minutes. No run around, no try to sell me anything, nothing. Just a nice rep that helped me and let me get off the phone. Let me also remind you, this was today, it is a Saturday after 5pm PST. There is someone available 24/7. WOW! I can’t even get that service from my cell provider.

On to more pressing matters. What I discovered was not that I had too many devices connected to my Google music, but rather due to extensive ROM flashing, my same device had been registered multiple times. ‘Interesting,’ I thought and I asked him about it. Since the service relies on the make and model of the device rather than the IMEI or IMSI, it had a track record of what my device was claiming to be. Let me further explain. I have a Samsung Vibrant, T959. In many cases some ROM’s would tag my device as an I9000. During those switches It would register the new device as connected. So I ended up with various T959 entries as well as I9000 entries. Hence my dilemma.

I am sure you are over the reasons behind this and are more interested in a solution, right? Here it is. Sign into your Google Music account via a PC. In the upper right most corner of the Music page, right next to your photo, if you have one, is the cog. Click on the cog and you will be presented with options. Select music settings and viola. You will quickly and easily see every device currently authorized to your Google music account along with their dates.

What you don’t see in the image is to the far right, a simple deauthorize button to take that device out of the service. Talk about a stupid yet super simple fix to my issue.

If you have many devices synced up, or you are a habitual ROM flasher you might want to take a gander at what is showing up. It is rather frustrating when you open the Music app and get a message that you are past your limit. Especially if you are out and about after a clean install.

Hopefully this little how to and personal story will help others avoid unnecessary stream blocking. I want to personally thank Phil from the Google Music Team for helping me with this issue. I am sure many of you will face similar issues in the future if you haven’t already. I am glad that someone was there to help, even if it seemed like a mundane issue that some of you may have already figured out.