iTunes 12.1 Released for OS X Yosemite & Mavericks

Jan 29, 2015 - 21 Comments

iTunes icon

Mac users can find iTunes 12.1 available if they are running OS X Yosemite or OS X Mavericks. The update is said to include some performance improvements for syncing an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to iTunes, and may include bug fixes as well. Perhaps the most notable change to iTunes 12.1 is the addition of an optional widget for Notification Center in OS X Yosemite, though prior versions of OS X will not include the widget feature.


The new iTunes widget allows users to see what song is playing, as well as navigate their playlist in iTunes, or if listening to iTunes Radio, skip songs and favorite them.

Users can download and install the iTunes 12.1 release from the Mac App Store, accessible from the  Apple menu > App Store and by selecting the ‘Updates’ tab. The download is roughly 200mb.

iTunes 12.1, including a widget

Users who wish to enable the iTunes Widget can do so manually if interested, either through System Preferences or by choosing the “Edit” button within Notification Center of OS X.

An interesting “Welcome to iTunes” visual tutorial launches automatically with the new iTunes 12.1 update. The tutorial and brief walkthrough could be included purely for educational purposes, or it may be aimed at some of the perplexed user responses to various adjustments made to the functionality of iTunes with the 12 update.

iTunes 12.1 has a tutorial?

Aside from the inclusion of the Notification center Widget, there are no obvious user interface changes made in iTunes 12.1. Users can opt to change the font size of playlist text and learn how to show the sidebar if they’d like to modify the appearance of iTunes.

iTUnes 12.1 for OS X Mavericks

Mac users running prior versions of OS X, like Mavericks, will also find the update to iTunes available, minus the widget addition.

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Posted by: Paul Horowitz in iTunes, Mac OS, News

21 Comments

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  1. Brian says:

    Have just downloaded latest itunes,i.e.v12.1, and can’t find anywhere to sync my classic ipod.
    Homeshare worked fine and managed to suss how to import from my pc to wifey’s laptop, but can’t sync onto her ipod.
    Normally, going to Devices from the File menu will bring bring down bold options including sync, but now those options appear grey and unselectable. Any ideas please??

  2. Castrofate says:

    Where is the option to fix the track number???

  3. Kristof Roth says:

    I will NOT be updating to Yosemite or iTunes 12.1. What used to be an automatic sign-me-up to all Apple Updates has turned into a cringing “O God, not again” reaction followed by careful previewing of exactly what is being proposed. My faith is shot, in other words.

    Still, the allure of a red iTunes icon was too great to resist, and I went for it, only to wind up with an anemic new music application that is harder to read and negotiate. It was bad enough getting rid of cover flow and the ability to adjust the all-white background to dark grey in Album View. Apparently taking options away is now considered innovative.

    Don’t fix what isn’t broken, Apple! Innovation for it’s own sake–or the sake of stylistic asceticism–is just a pain in the ass and waste of time. Listen to your customers.

  4. KEA says:

    Anyone else notice problems using normal editing techniques in tags? I just ran into some trying to add some info for TV shows.

  5. Lee Davidson says:

    Just updated to the latest iTunes (12.1) only to find that iTunes is still asking me (3 or 4 times) to log in even though I am logged in. This has been going on since updating to Yosemite! I would have thought with all the forum chatter about this bug that Apple would have done something about it.

    • kat22 says:

      I have your same problems, but I figured out , after I sign in the first time, I cancel all the others and it stops
      It’s a pain in the neck though

  6. sduck says:

    That “Welcome to Itunes” pop-up thingie didn’t happen here on my mac when I updated.

    • Sebastien says:

      Relaunch the app and you’ll see the tutorial show up, it’s…. curious. Very un-Applelike, since when have they needed a tutorial to guide you through a simple music player? That’s a UX problem. The tutorial is a sign that iTunes 12 redesign has been poorly received and that Support has been swamped by obvious questions, if I was to venture a guess.

  7. where02190 says:

    All the things this widget does we can do now directly in itunes why is apple wasting time with this and not fixing things like the well known issue with screensaver in OSX Yosemite or one of the many other issues plaguing Yosemite, which IMO is about the worst OS ever released by Apple.

    C’mon Apple enough of these idiotic updates.

    • Robyn says:

      I have to agree with you that Yosemite and iOS 8 are the worst ever upgrades Apple have put out. They should never have been released when they knew they didn’t work. Too many changes and too much trying to level them both – it hasn’t worked and there are so many issues with both Mac and iDevices it isn’t funny. I don’t think it will ever be fixed at the rate they are going as there is always something else going wrong when they try to fix something and they can’t now suspend the platforms to fix it – it has to be fixed on the fly which is ridiculous! Crazy that they kept to their promise and released it with a bang!

  8. Theo Vosse says:

    I thoroughly dislike the newer versions of iTunes. v12 can’t even sort my collection properly, since the developers decided that sorting by Album Artist comes before track and disk number. And of course, installing 10.9 or 10.10 forces the upgrade of iTunes. When my iPod classic dies, I’m not going to get another Apple music player.

  9. Cube Over says:

    Yosemite, iOS 7 and newer and iTunes are examples when “innovation must go on” in User Interface. Just imagine same horribble thing happening to cars if they kept on innovating the pedals and steering wheel functions, location and shape. Computers, according to Steve Jobs, are the bicycles for the mind. To all aspiring UI designers: Stop breaking what’s not broken!
    Microsoft screwed up with Windows 8 for the same reason.

    • Max says:

      Excellent point.

      I recall Steve Jobs once envisioned products as appliances. You turned them on and they just ran. Given what’s happened to iTunes, it’s as if they’ve decided the door to the fridge must be hidden, or the light inside comes on if you can find the switch inside the freezer.

  10. Arthur Coen says:

    OK OK I admit I am a big complete utter iTunes moron, I’m only a lowly software developer, which I do understand is insufficiently savvy to figure out this iTunes 12 thing. So here’s my question, are you guys ready?

    Where’s my iPhone? Where in iTunes does the iPhone show up now?

    I literally can not find my iPhone when it is connected to the computer with iTunes 12 (now 12.1), like, where is it? USB, no go. I have no idea how to enable Wi-Fi tethering thing because, well, I can’t even find my iPhone to begin with in iTunes. Sitting right next to the computer. Plugged in or not. iTunes doesn’t show the iPhone. There’s no sidebar to show it anymore like there used to be, so where the heck is it? It doesn’t show up anywhere. Again, I’m a big fat idiot, so what do I know, I’m probably the only one who can’t figure out iTunes 12.1… but can someone toss this big moron a bone here and tell me how to show my iPhone in this new incredible version of iTunes?

    • cashxx says:

      Little iPhone icon under the volume slider in the top left of iTunes.

    • Robyn says:

      Arthur…click on Music – click on Playlists – click on View – Show Side Bar – There are 3 dots with a menu if you hover your mouse over it – to the right of the dots you should now see a rectangle resembling an iDevice. If you look down under the Side Bar you should see your iPhone.

    • Robyn says:

      Arthur further to what I said – after you have plugged in your iPhone, click on the iTunes Store and then click or double click on your device when it comes up and you will get into it. It has all changed now since the update this morning…unbelievable!!

  11. Marvin says:

    I updated to iTunes 12.1 and other than being just as awful as iTunes 12 I don’t see the Notification widget. Not that I’d use it, but typical.

    iTunes 12 and OS X Yosemite and all things related are terrible. This is the worst release of Mac OS ever made.

    • Pal says:

      You have to enable the iTunes Notification Center widget through  > System Preferences > Extensions > iTunes

    • Xander says:

      This article mentions that nothing has changed.

      Books has been removed. One can no longer delete ebooks from iTunes, you can add and sync but now never delete them…

      Books have now been moved to the Teletubby app iBooks. It looks like it has been designed for idiots that never read books. In short a good stable-mate for iTunes.

      • Kiriakos says:

        I installed Mavericks only after I’ve found the trick to move ibooks back into iTunes 11.4 so that I can still re-tag the few thousand books and articles I own (and READ). The Mavericks version of the iBooks app does not allow you to edit tags (the Yosemite version does, but I rather cover my Macs with cows than install Yosemite on them) so you need to delete the app and use iTunes. Doing so it’s a piece of cake, just follow the instruction you’ll find under the Apple support pages.

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