Open Radar

 
Summary:
After enabling automatic downloads in iTunes, my iPhone and iPad, any time I download new content, I must go to each device and enter my password to let the download happens. This really seems to take the "automatic" out of automatic downloads.

Steps to Reproduce:
- Enable Automatic downloads for music(or apps or books) in iTunes, an iPhone, and an iPad, all using the same iTunes account.
- Purchase an Album or App on any of the devices.
- Enter iTunes password on the device that you made the purchase.

Expected Results:
The downloads should begin automatically on the other devices without prompt.

Actual Results:
You must go to each other device and enter the iTunes password to allow the download to proceed.

Regression:
I can't pinpoint a specific time, but I noticed the change somewhere in February 2012. Before this time it worked as expected, you only entered the password on the device that made the purchase, and the downloads automatically happened in the background on the other devices without prompt.

Notes:
From the introduction of this feature until a month or so ago this feature worked flawlessly and was great. It really does a great job of seamlessly keeping your devices media in sync with no action required from the user, it just worked. However the recent change that requires a password to be entered on each device has really taken the magic out of this feature.

It also leads to a very bad user experience, the user is prompted to enter their password without knowing what it's for.  Say I'm out on the go, and I purchase a new App or Album on my iPhone. I come home a few hours later,  at which point the purchase I've made is in the back of my mind, I grab my iPad or Mac and wake it up. Upon waking the device I'm immediately prompted to enter my password without any idea why it's asking for my password. Eventually I remember "Oh yeah, I bought something earlier, I guess this is why it's asking for my password", but it's very vague and really seems to defeat some of the purpose of Automatic Downloads.