Q: I just installed the latest version of iTunes (7.0.2) and when I went to the iTunes Store, everything was suddenly displayed in German, despite the fact I’m in America. What’s up?
– Henry
A: This is a known issue with the iTunes Store that has affected many users of multiple iTunes versions (even back to version 4), although it only materialized at the release of iTunes 7.0.2. With this bug, users who launch the iTunes Store often seem to be taken to the localized store of a random country.
When users are taken to the iTunes Store for non-english speaking countries, this problem is easy to identify. However, another, trickier variation of this issue is that when American users open the iTunes Store and are greeted with, perhaps, the United Kingdom’s storefront, all they notice is that the iTunes Store has suddenly stopped offering movies and TV shows.
We’re not sure what the technical issue is behind the bug, or why Apple still hasn’t fixed it for good. In fact, they seem to have installed a temporary user workaround for the problem, by adding a “My Store” country selection pull-down menu at the top of non-US storefronts, to mirror the one that’s always been there on the bottom.
Until the issue is resolved for good, simply use this pull-down menu to change to your local country, or sign into your iTunes account using the “Sign In” button in the top right of the window.
