Tip: How to disable Genius in iTunes 8

Here’s how to disable the new Genius sidebar in iTunes 8:

In iTunes 8, choose Turn Off Genius in the Store menu.

Thursday, September 11th, 2008, 5:41 pm    You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

15 Responses to “Tip: How to disable Genius in iTunes 8”

  1. anne taylor September 11th, 2008 at 7:22 pm

    PLEASE send instruction how to disable the Genius part of the iTunes upgrade.

    I do NOT want Genius, I prefer making my own list of songs..and not being directly connected to the store.

    I simply was updating my software, per the automatic notification…and got stuck with Genius.
    There was no clear disconnect icon in the iTunes store.

  2. Jez September 12th, 2008 at 11:34 am

    Thanks for this. Pretty simple actually, but not obvious…

  3. dan September 12th, 2008 at 2:55 pm

    go to the itunes store menu at the top and then click on turn off genius

  4. carole fenwick September 15th, 2008 at 7:04 am

    I too got stuck with genius and if that’s genius I
    am Einstein. I like the surprises of “shuffle”
    Great site,found you on Google
    Kind Regards
    Carole

  5. Kev September 18th, 2008 at 4:26 pm

    I NEED HELP
    How do I get the view with Gender/Artist/Album and all the songs on the bottum? iTunes 8 is driving me crazy!

  6. John Blackburn September 18th, 2008 at 4:39 pm

    Kev, do this in iTunes 8:
    1. Select Music in the Library section on the left side of the window.
    2. Click the center of the three view buttons in the upper-right corner of the window.
    3. You should now see tab buttons for Albums/Artists/Genres/Composers

  7. Kev September 19th, 2008 at 2:36 am

    Thx for your fast help John Blackburn,
    I’ve done what you told me, but this isn’t what I tried to have back. I’m looking for this “eye like button” which iTunes7 had on the bottom right, where the genius button is now. I don’t like the covers, it takes to long to load and is less convenient then a list. To me at least. And the List alone is just nonsense when u have a some what big library. Am I the only one with this problem? If I hadn’t just bought an iPhone, I would change back to 7.

  8. Kev September 19th, 2008 at 12:33 pm

    I’ve found it out!

    It was very simple:
    Go to “View -> Show Browser”

    Uff, so happy to have it back to the way I like it best!
    :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

  9. Mr. Reeee September 20th, 2008 at 11:45 pm

    Thanks for the tip.

    The Genius is more of an irritant than help.

    If music in your iTunes Library is NOT in the iTunes Store… most of mine… then you get error messages.
    Or the suggestions hopelessly off…
    Or it simply lists best sellers in the particular genre.

    Sorry Genius, but if you keep telling me about Andrea Bocelli, then CLEARLY you’re no genius. And certainly lack taste.

  10. Jo October 27th, 2008 at 3:24 pm

    I can’t find the “turn off genius” button in the itunes store on the store menu, I want to turn genius off and I have Itunes version 8.

  11. Mark October 27th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

    I would LOVE to turn Genius off, as it keeps freezing iTunes, but my “Turn Genius Off” under the Store menu is grayed out and I cannot click it. How do I turn this thing off so I can listen to my music?
    Any suggestions would be appreciated.

  12. Brian November 8th, 2008 at 9:31 am

    Mark,
    On the bottom right of itunes, there should be an arrow that opens your Genius sidebar back up. Click on that so that the Genius sidebar is showing. Then try going to Store >> Turn Genius Off again. It should no longer be grayed out. I had the same problem and this worked for me.

  13. Greg November 21st, 2008 at 3:40 pm

    If it’s grayed out, that might mean it’s currently updating. If so, click the X on the right side of the info pane at the top to stop the updating process, then choose Store > Turn Genius off.

  14. Lizzy December 19th, 2008 at 10:32 am

    THANK YOU, thank you, thank you. What a horrible addition. Ever since Genius popped up with my last update iTunes has been bogging down my computer. Anytime I want to listen to music off iTunes or plug in my iPod it just sends my compy into snail pace. A G5 Mac without many installed programs too. Not a shabby computer. It was so irritating!

  15. Katie January 5th, 2009 at 7:37 am

    Can the genius sidebar be manually updated? I’m trying to get a feel for it before I decide if I like it or not. I just bought a bunch of songs and can’t get Genius to work for it. Itunes keeps telling me to update Genius through the itunes store. I have no clue how to do this. Please help!

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