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Apple's Weirdest iTunes Walk-Back Turns 12 Today

u2 songs of innocence%402x scaled12 years ago today, Apple published a web page with one job: to make a U2 album go away. On September 9, 2014, at Apple's iPhone 6 event, Tim Cook revealed that "Songs of Innocence" would be given to every iTunes customer for nothing. The album was directly linked to accounts, and devices set to "download automatically" got it without asking.

Complaints quickly followed, and on September 15, Apple was forced to respond with a one-click page that stripped the album from accounts. Users were given a month to reinstall it at no cost. Apple said 26 million people ultimately downloaded the full album. Bono apologized a month later. The web tool is no longer active, but an archive of the support page is available here.

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Top Rated Comments

jayducharme Avatar
48 minutes ago at 04:20 am
If only Apple had said that it’s available to download for free, rather than automatically forcing it on people, everything would have been fine.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
42 minutes ago at 04:25 am
Please, just don’t. It still hurts.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
39 minutes ago at 04:28 am
Tbh I was being a bit dramatic back in the day, and said they had 'polluted' my device. Which isnt wrong tbh.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
14 minutes ago at 04:53 am

If only Apple had said that it’s available to download for free, rather than automatically forcing it on people, everything would have been fine.
That’s not the Cupertino way, though. 🍏 always knows best (tm)
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
k1121j Avatar
37 minutes ago at 04:30 am
That was so annoying.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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