I have a bunch of M4P songs which I have purchased in the past. Using iTunes 12.11.4.15 on a Windows 10 device, I try to convert them to MP3 to use on a non-Apple Device, I get the message "cannot convert protected files". How do I convert these songs to MP3s?
You can't, they are protected (from conversion).
iTunes stopped selling protected files some years ago and I think their offer to substitute non-protected files is no longer available. That said, you could try looking in your account with the iTunes Store, to see whether you can download newer, non-protected versions from the "your purchases" section, not from the main storefront.
Alternatively, I believe you may be able to burn the songs to a CD and then re-add them from the CD back into your iTunes library, where they will no longer be protected. That process may reduce the quality of the audio, but you may not notice that.
You can't, they are protected (from conversion).
iTunes stopped selling protected files some years ago and I think their offer to substitute non-protected files is no longer available. That said, you could try looking in your account with the iTunes Store, to see whether you can download newer, non-protected versions from the "your purchases" section, not from the main storefront.
Alternatively, I believe you may be able to burn the songs to a CD and then re-add them from the CD back into your iTunes library, where they will no longer be protected. That process may reduce the quality of the audio, but you may not notice that.
"their offer to substitute non-protected files"
Ah, wish I'd known about that while it was available. Anyway, thanks for your response. Here's what I've found out:
1) Re-downloading from my Purchased list just gets me M4Ps.
2) iTunes warns me that I can only burn a Playlist with protected songs to disc up to 7 times.
3) Burning to a DVD-R as a Data CD gets me M4Ps. These get re-imported as M4Ps.
4) Burning to a CD-R as an Audio disc (NOT MP3 format) gets me CDAs. These get re-imported as MP3s which are 50% larger than the corresponding M4Ps, so hopefully the quality is decent.
5) However, I can only fit about 17 songs on a 700MB CD-R (and I have around 120 M4Ps to convert). I only had one blank CD-R, but I was able to successfully get 17 songs converted. So I've ordered a pack of blank CD-Rs to enable me to do the rest.
Thank you SO MUCH for your help. I would have been extremely unhappy if I hadn't been able to find a way to do this without paying for the songs all over again.
Can't convert M4P songs I purchased to MP3 for non-Apple Device
