Enabling of Genius Fails

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Level 1

45 points

Enabling of Genius Fails

I have been struggling for some time to get the Genius feature working in Music.app. A number of discussions I'd come across ended on simply turning the feature off and back on. I tried it out and now I can't turn it back on. The app really seems to be failing to reach some backend services out across the Internet.

I've tried for hours trying to Wireshark and MitM the traffic coming out of Music.app to see what's failing. I've tried my best to filter suitable log entries out of Console.app. Nothing gets me close to understanding what's failing.

Is some TLS cert broken somewhere? Is DNS feeding faulty addresses? Is there some key pair in the Keychain broken or missing? I can't tell.

What I can tell is that this is only a problem on my Apple Silicon Macs (presently running 13.3.1) An old Intel Macbook Pro running 12.6.5 can have the Genius feature turned on, off, and update.

It seems like connections opened by Music.app to URLs properly function. I see "completed" connections to:

https://upp.itunes.apple.com

https://xp.apple.com

https://genius-3.itunes.apple.com

But maybe there's some other process that's not Music.app that's trying to do this Genius work.

Does anyone know how this is supposed to work or what needs to be open on the network or host? Are there any tech docs out there? I really miss my Genius playlists.

Cheers,

gurple

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 13.3

Posted on Apr 25, 2023 12:48 AM

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Answer 1

su-root

Level 1

23 points

Apr 29, 2023 11:02 PM in response to gurple

I'm not using those network tools. This issue came up right after I upgraded from macOS 11 to 13. I'm not sure if reinstalling macOS would fix the problem, but I don't want to take that route because I have a lot of data to backup.

Whenever I try to activate the Genius feature by selecting "Turn on Genius," the Music app generates four assertion failure errors in the log:

Assertion failure (expected to be not NULL): (pageContext)
Assertion failure: (mPurchaseStoreContainerViewController)
Assertion failure: (mView != nullptr)
Assertion failure: (newContentView)

I'm also actively trying to get help to resolve this issue. Apple Support collected logs from my Mac about a week ago, but I haven't heard back from them yet.

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

274,430 points

Apr 26, 2023 6:45 AM in response to gurple

Having turned Genius off look inside the Music Library.musiclibrary package, delete the Genius file that it contains, then try turning it on again. This should get Music to generate a new Genius database rather than trying to reopen the old broken one.

tt2

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Answer 3

gurple Author

Level 1

45 points

Apr 26, 2023 7:33 AM in response to gurple

Steps taken:

Quit Music.app and wait 10 seconds just to let any child processes time to close.

rm ~/Music/Music/Music\ Library.musiclibrary/Genius.itdb

Launch Music.app a let the library fully load

Head to File -> Library -> Turn On Genius

I now get a blank page of sorts where I would expect the Genius intro splash screen and enabling confirmation.

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Answer 4

gurple Author

Level 1

45 points

Apr 26, 2023 11:29 PM in response to turingtest2

I've created secondary test libraries and test user accounts. It's something occuring deeper on the hosts that I can't see. Maybe I've interupted some SSL/TLS pinning. Maybe LuLu from Objective-See is getting in the way (though that's running on the old Intel MBP). Maybe it's my use of DNS over TLS with 1.1.1.1 (but, again, the old MBP is using that as well). Who knows?! There are no logs and Genius is mostly abandon-ware at this point anyway.

There does seem to be another process that might be involved: amsengagementd

This reaches out to:

But these connections seem to also properly close with an 'ok' 200 response from the web server.

<shrug>

[Link Edited by Moderator]

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Answer 5

su-root

Level 1

23 points

Apr 29, 2023 12:29 AM in response to gurple

I'm experiencing the same problem on my Intel Macbook Pro 16" which is running macOS 13.3.1.

I'm unable to turn on the Genius feature in the Music app. When I click on "Library" and then "Turn on Genius", the Music app just displays a blank page and doesn't respond anymore.

I reached out to Apple Support, but they were unable to help me with this issue.

Interestingly, my friend who owns the same model, but with macOS 12 installed, does not have this problem.

I suspect this may be a bug in macOS 13 that needs fixing in the next version.

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Answer 6

gurple Author

Level 1

45 points

Apr 30, 2023 1:29 AM in response to su-root

I get these same errors when trying to enable the feature.

error 10:04:42.648905+0200 Music Assertion failure (expected to be not NULL): (pageContext)

error 10:04:42.656183+0200 Music Assertion failure: (mPurchaseStoreContainerViewController)

error 10:04:42.656327+0200 Music Assertion failure: (mView != nullptr)

error 10:04:42.656369+0200 Music Assertion failure: (newContentView)

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Answer 7

gurple Author

Level 1

45 points

May 22, 2023 3:09 PM in response to su-root

Ah, I'm glad you made mention of this. I just tried likewise and also found it now working. This is why I'm glad to be a loyal customer of Apple. You always know they're aware of an issue and take it seriously.

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Answer 8

su-root

Level 1

23 points

May 20, 2023 8:07 PM in response to gurple

My Genius feature now works well after I upgrade to macOS 13.4.

I think Apple has fixed this issue in the newest software update.

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Answer 9

gurple Author

Level 1

45 points

Apr 26, 2023 7:25 AM in response to turingtest2

I've done this in the past. I'll try again. However, I'm heavily leaning on my suspicions that something is breaking communications with Apple's backend CDN or something.

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Answer 10

turingtest2

Level 10

274,430 points

Apr 26, 2023 9:04 AM in response to gurple

Odd, I would have expected that to work. You could test behaviour in a new library, or reach out to Official Apple Support.

tt2

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Answer 11

turingtest2

Level 10

274,430 points

Apr 27, 2023 4:04 AM in response to gurple

Genius also underpins Apple Music (the subscription service) so I'm not entirely sure it is being abandoned.

tt2

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Answer 12

gurple Author

Level 1

45 points

Apr 27, 2023 7:01 AM in response to turingtest2

I'll go see if I can harass the folks over on developer[.]apple[.]com

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Answer 13

gurple Author

Level 1

45 points

Apr 29, 2023 3:22 AM in response to su-root

…glad I'm not the only one. su-root, have you happened to install or use any network filtering tools such as LuLu or Little Snitch, or DNS filtering solutions, etc.?

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Enabling of Genius Fails

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