Error: Could not enable this Audible account because...

I recently purchased an iPod and was looking to transfer the books I had previously purchased from Audible into the iTunes software and then onto my iPod. I eventually figured out that you need to install the Audible download manager which then automatically adds the Audiobooks into iTunes (at which point you can put them on the iPod). This is where I ran into problems. When I'd click to download the audiobook from Audible, the download manager would fire up and download the book, but then when it was trying to add it to iTunes, I would get asked for my Audible username and password and it would just come back and give the error:

Could not enable this Audible account because you do not have the required privileges.

I also found that depending on the version of iTunes, you might also get this error:

Could not enable this Audible account because an error occurred (-44013)

I eventually found the solution to this problem in the Audible help section (Answer 2971) which allowed me to fix it. I thought I followed the instructions properly, but after I did what they said, it still didn't quite work. The problem is related to the fact that the registry permissions for the Audible registry keys are all broken. I'm not sure if they did this as some sort of protection mechanism, but either way, they aren't right. I basically went through all the subkeys in the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\AUDIBLE and took ownership of those keys (using the same method they describe in the article). Once I did this, the error went away and the Audiobooks imported into iTunes with no problems.

I'm thinking of creating a free automated script or tool which will perform this fix by just running one file, but I'm not sure if there would be any interest in something like that. If you would be interested, please leave a comment using the comment system below.

Author: DPAK
Created: Dec 14 2005
Categories: iTunes/iPod
TechByte #111

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Comment posted by 'obiyone' on Sep 8 2007 @ 21:32:49
Hey I had this same problem only the error I got was that the username or password are incorrect even though I know they are correct I am going to try your solution and see if I have any luck with it. Thank you.
Comment posted by 'Tracey' on Aug 21 2008 @ 05:49:56
I am having this exact same problem. Thank you SO much for posting this answer. I think the script would be WONDERFUL!!