Tip: Update Genius in iTunes 9 to Access Genius Mixes
3:57 pm, September 9th, 2009, Tim Cox

After learning of iTunes 9 becoming available by repeatedly clicking ”Check Now” on Software Update for the past couple of hours, I installed the update and immediately went for the Genius Mixes feature.
It wasn’t there.
Turns out, and yes this is an obvious tip, you have to “Update Genius” in the iTunes to activate the Genius Mix.

At this point, I’m not really impressed with mixes. It seems to be based off of the track music genre, so I have a mix called Blues Mix 4 including Sigur Rós, Explosions in the Sky and Frou Frou: definitely not Blues but that’s what I have listed in the track info. I’m still playing with the bubble wrap, so I’ll post more thoughts soon.
Posted by Tim Cox in News | Comment on this article




Tim Cox is the social media and communications coordinator for a private university in the Los Angeles area. He has written for a number of online and print publications and has presented on technology and social media at the national level. One of his greatest accomplishments was networking a Mac Plus with a Mac Pro. In his spare time he writes music, poetry, and trains for Street Fighter IV tournaments. He is married with 5 beautiful kitties. He encourages you to 






Cool feature and Woo some Jeff Buckey, Grace in the mix
Marc, on September 9th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Figured that you need to update Genius, however, it doesn’t work, I constantly get errors stating the network connection timed out.. Will try later, seems the servers Apple is using are pretty busy atm.
Jesse, on September 9th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Hmm, updated Genius but I’m still not seeing the Genius Mixes option — odd.
Rob K, on September 9th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
i found that to..
Works like a charm, and you can synch them to your iPhone to!
Rutger, on September 9th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Thanks for the tip, I didn’t notice that and was wondering why amen’t I presented with that option :\
Miladinoski, on September 9th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
@Jesse: I have the same problem. A few people seem to be having it. For others this just runs easily through.
Jon Gretar, on September 9th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Great tip, thanks! Now, to get those Genius mixes onto your device, you’ll need to choose them from the Playlists list under the Music tab when your device is connected to iTunes. Would’ve been nice if Apple documented all this!
Mike, on September 9th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
And why on earth do you have Sigur Rós tagged as Blues?
alvareo, on September 9th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
@alvareo, I’ve never bothered updating the genre info for my iTunes music library. Apparently I need to get on that.
Tim Cox, on September 9th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Thank you for listening to nothing except for music which I, pitchfork.com, recommend. You are a member of an elite group of people with incredible taste in music.
Pitchfork.com, on September 9th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
i have turn it on and off updated it and many other things. And it still does not have an icon under Genius saying ‘Genius Mixes’. Could you please help me?
Jordon, on September 10th, 2009 at 7:51 am
I can’t see genius mixes on the iPod Classic. Does it work on this model?
Eduardo, on September 10th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Good tip. Obviously, from the comments here, and the Apple ipod touch discussion forum, a lot of people could not get this to work. Apple should provide a tech article with step-by-step instructions.
-fred
Fred Avolio, on September 10th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Also… If people are having the “network connection timed out” error they will have to open up Safari and search for all cookies with “apple” in it and delete.
Jon Gretar, on September 10th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
To sync the genius mixes, you have to ensure that you have checked the sync music tab in the device menu bar. However, this will delete all other music if you have manually managed music before.
Paul, on September 10th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
So this means if I have not purchased music from iTunes store I will not have Genius mix?
steve, on September 13th, 2009 at 11:38 am
i have the same thing where i updated Genius but it’s not showing up in the left sidebar. help?
Jordan, on September 13th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
i tried that 5 times now it still hasen’t worked
this didnt work for me but you might want to try
1. going to the store menu
2. clicking turn off genius
3. turn on genius
aaron, on September 15th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Genius mix looks good by Rock mix contains stuff I have genred as Blues. Can’t work out how to fix it.
Nigel, on November 5th, 2009 at 2:15 pm