I'm getting a "genius is unavailable for this song" message on recent albums, after genius is updated, feels wrong!?

Question

I'm getting a "genius is unavailable for this song" message on recent albums, after genius is updated, feels wrong!?

When I try to create a genius playlist from some of my most recently bought music I get the message "Genius is not available for this song" (righ click > Start Genius to cerate the playlist).

I'm guessing that for music that has only just been released or is obscure genius might not be able to start a playlist, but I'm still getting this message on some popular albums that have been out for some months now.

These are the albums I've bought over the last six months that I can't make Genius playlists from. I don't really follow the charts but I'm pretty sure the Adele, Cut Copy and Mark Ronson albums have sold enough copies by now that I'd expect them to show up in Genius results.

Miami Horror - Illumination
Daft Punk - Tron: Legacy Soundtrack
Cut Copy - Zonoscope
Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - The Golden Year
Adele - 21
Adele - Rolling in The Deep (EP)
The Black Keys - Brothers
Röyksopp - Senior
Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. - Record Collection
John Lennon - Power to the Peope - The Hits
Underworld - Barking

I've tried updating genius, disabling genius and the reenabling it. Disabling genius, deleting the file "iTunes Libary Genius.itdb" then reenabling it. All my other results come back but these albums still don't have Genius working.

All but one album were bought from the iTunes store, most in the New Zealand store, some from the UK store (I recently moved), the other album was bought from another MP3 store but is available on iTunes.

My music libary in iTunes is currently 108GB / 10,300 tracks, a mixture of songs bought from iTunes and MP3s ripped from my CD collection. I'm using the latest version of iTunes (10.2.1) on the latest verison of Snow Leopard on a 2010 iMac. I sync the Mac with my iPhone, iPad and Apple TV (old generation).

If anybody can help explain why these songs don't allow me to create a genius playlist from them I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks / Russ

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Apr 16, 2011 7:15 PM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

272,707 points

Apr 24, 2011 9:56 AM in response to russelljsmith

A reply in this thread suggests turing Genius off and then turning it back on again may work. Failing that try throwing away your iTunes Library Genuis.itdb file which should force iTunes to rebuild it from scratch.

tt2

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Answer 2

Apr 24, 2011 8:47 PM in response to turingtest2

Hi, I tried both of those suggestions already (see above for details), it didn't help with songs I'm having problems with.

Thanks / Russ

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

272,707 points

Apr 25, 2011 7:24 AM in response to russelljsmith

Oops, so you did. I must have been on auto-pilot 😊

I don't have any of those tracks in my library so I can't tell you that any of them work for me. If Genius works overall then it's probably a matter of sampling a critical mass of playlists that already contain those songs, for it then to be able to suggest suitable "mixes". I've not tried to get to grips with the mechanism behind Genius but I'd guess it works something along these lines. Your library gets inspected and some kind of summary gets uploaded to a server which integrates data from lots of users, and then gives you some back. Perhaps the process just does take time.

tt2

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Answer 4

Apr 25, 2011 12:58 PM in response to turingtest2

Hi,

Did you happen to notice if Genius worked for any music you have where the release date is in the last six months? Other people I've seen report this problem have found that if they buy an album released ten years ago that will work just fine, but anything they buy that was released late-2010 to now isn't working!

Thanks / Russ

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

272,707 points

Apr 25, 2011 1:36 PM in response to russelljsmith

FWIW none of the stuff I've bought so far this year works, but that's not very much.

tt2

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Answer 6

idburns

Level 1

11 points

Apr 27, 2011 8:22 AM in response to turingtest2

Apple needs to get off their collective butts and start updating Genius for the music they are selling in their own store. 😠

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Answer 7

turingtest2

Level 10

272,707 points

Apr 27, 2011 10:16 AM in response to idburns

I don't think you understand how Genius works... OK, that's not not really how it works but perhaps it will help you lighten up. Genuis works with undirected anonymous crowd-sourced data. Before iTunes can start including the latest stuff in your Genius playlists you and all the trendy people buying stuff you like that is only just out need to start including it in your playlists. Give it some time and then when Genius collates your efforts with those of others it will know what tracks go with what, or least make a better stab at it than I might.

tt2

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Answer 8

idburns

Level 1

11 points

Apr 27, 2011 2:13 PM in response to turingtest2

Oh come on. If an existing artist already has genius results and they release a new album that new album should automatically get those same genius results. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out...

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Answer 9

May 3, 2011 2:24 PM in response to russelljsmith

I am having all the same problems with new material too, even albums like Neil Young Le Noise... what I do not understand is what iTunes refer to as playlists? All of my playlists (many) are Genius created so how would new list be created if new material is added. Is a playlist the music that you have recently played through iTunes, if so then there would be no consistancy as my music ranges to all spectrums 39000+ songs in 20+ genres. It is frustrating, this only started happening mid last year, prior to that new music was quickly integrated into lists, and as someone recently noted these are not just obscure tracks, but a lot of mainstream music also.

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Answer 10

May 15, 2011 3:31 PM in response to turingtest2

Genius does not work any more to create playlists from songs released after April 2010, including big-selling songs, eg Lady Gaga - Born This Way; Take That - The Flood; Arcade Fire - Ready To Start.

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Answer 11

May 15, 2011 4:25 PM in response to turingtest2

Here are some other threads on the same problem:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3000658

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2744045

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2553235

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Answer 12

May 15, 2011 5:38 PM in response to schnackal

Everyone who has this problem, please take one minute and let apple know.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

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Answer 13

May 15, 2011 8:00 PM in response to Jason Gallagher3

Completed the feedback from, don't have high-hopes but you never know...

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Answer 14

Jul 10, 2011 7:04 PM in response to russelljsmith

Things have got a lot better recently. Most of the songs in my original list started working suddenly without any changes on my part. Some newer songs from the last 3 months still don't work with Genius, but I can live with that as long as Apple makes regular updates.

Does anybody know if Apple ever acknowledged the problem?

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Answer 15

guspasho

Level 1

13 points

Mar 4, 2014 10:24 AM in response to russelljsmith

Has anyone figured this out? I have the same problem. I have submitted feedback. Moreso, at one point I was able to create Genius playlists for a few songs that I now cannot update because Genius is now not available for them.

I've turned Genius off and back on. I'm going to try to delete the file recommended above but I suspect that won't have any effect either. These aren't necessarily obscure songs either. I can't create a playlist for "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division. Can anyone else?

The two songs I was able to create playlists for at one point but not any longer are "We Close Our Eyes" by Go West, and "Nightcall" by Kavinsky & Lovefoxxx.

How can I fix this? Thanks.

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