To say it right away, I know how to de-authorize a computer (laptop, desktop), but I was unable to de-authorize an old iPad.

I even tried to de-authorize all my computers from iTunes, but Steve Jobs in his infinite wisdome told me that I cannot deauthorize all me computers more than once per year, so I have to wait until December 20, 2012 to do that. Unfortunately he failed to explain to me the rationale behind, so I take the liberty of calling this policy "stupid".

Still, I cannot re-authorize my desktop, which after upgrading to iTunes11, suddenly was no longer authorized.

Note to self: DO NOT UPDATE iTUNES!

But seriously, how do I deauthorize an iPad? A step-by step guide is highly appreciated.

I know it's not the answer you are looking for, but I think it's best that you open a Topic here:

https://discussions.apple.com/community/ipad/using_ipad or here https://discussions.apple.com/community/itunes

That is a User to User forum (and not monitored by Apple Personnel) but there are some really knowledgeable people on there.

Good Luck

^ yeah i came across that 1yr rule just the other day. Often get that authorise-de-authorise etc.... numbers of authorised i-items never the same.

I thought we can only authorize/deauthorize computers to iTunes and not phones or iPads?

I thought we can only authorize/deauthorize computers to iTunes and not phones or iPads?

Hmmm...you might be right, because I really could not find any way to de-authorize it. So my problem is, which computers are authorized?

Looks like I have to wait until Apple allows me to deauthorize them all and then re-authorize one by one. Fortunately only 2 more weeks.

Why is Apple so patronizing and so judge-mental?

^ yeah i came across that 1yr rule just the other day. Often get that authorise-de-authorise etc.... numbers of authorised i-items never the same.

I got that for some of my old music, I usually then proceed to download the mp3s from somewhere, delete the (purchased) files from iTunes, and replace them with the DRM free mp3s. These days all the music on iTunes is mp3s so it's OK. But that was a pain. I am not even sure how that was supposed to work, I bought some stuff 10 years ago and since then have used way more than 5 devices....

I'm not sure you can deauthorise.

Don't you just do a hard reset? It will clear all the data off it as well.

If you're still looking around, maybe you are looking to remove/unlink iPad from iTunes?