How do I search the iTunes Store on a Mac?

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How do I search the iTunes Store on a Mac?

I have a new Mac Book Air (M2) and am running Monterey 12.6 and Music 1.2.5.7. I do not have an Apple Music subscription by choice (bad experience) and I don't have it enabled in the Music app. I followed the steps an expert provided in another thread that asked this same question. The problem is, I cannot find a way to search at all. If I select my search button, it does not show the search boxes for the location in the upper right corner. It only will search my library. I do have iTunes selected in Music > Preferences > General. Although the iTunes Store link appears on the left of my main screen in Music, when I click the search box it says "Searching your library". I cannot find a way to change that. If I click on the left menu for iTunes Store, there's no search box there either.

I am new to Mac and I apologize if I'm missing something obvious. I do not have this problem in my Music app on my Windows PC. If I want to search the iTunes Store, I have to use my phone or my Windows PC. The only app I see for music on my Mac is the Music app. I do not see iTunes Store as an app available for download, at least for my OS.

Windows, Windows 6

Posted on Oct 1, 2022 4:54 PM

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Answer 1

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ed2345

Level 9

62,948 points

Oct 1, 2022 5:17 PM in response to wombat88

Wombat,

On the Mac, the iTunes Store is not a separate app. You access it thru the Music app.

Do you have it enabled in Music Preferences > General > "Show -- iTunes Store"?

If there is still an issue, follow the details in here: Buy music from the iTunes Store - Apple Support

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Answer 2

wombat88 Author

Level 1

12 points

Oct 1, 2022 5:14 PM in response to wombat88

I just found another thread that described a similar issue. In that one, the solution was to force quit the music app on my Mac. When I did so, the search options on the right magically reappeared. The other poster said the options disappeared after a while, but closing the app completely restored the search options on the right. For now, my search appears to be fixed for me, so I hope it stays that way. I don't know if it is a bug or a quirk that appeared after I updated to Monterey 12.6.

In an unrelated question, why do my posts show Windows and Windows 6 at the bottom? I do not see a way to update that in my profile.

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Answer 3

wombat88 Author

Level 1

12 points

Oct 2, 2022 4:42 PM in response to ed2345

I did follow those steps and do have the iTunes Store option checked.

For right now, I am showing the boxes on the right side of the screen for searching in the iTunes Store. They were not there previously. What I did was force quit my music app and that restored the menu options for the search field. Someone else in a different thread has the same issue and used the force quit to get his menu options back. His kept disappearing but so far they have stayed for me. I am thinking that an update may have caused the glitch, but it was described as a bug in the other thread.

For now, I plan to try force quitting should the problem recur. If I need to do that repeatedly, then I will file a bug report with Apple.

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How do I search the iTunes Store on a Mac?

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