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Can you just play a song in iTunes without importing it?

Tumbleweed666

Tumbleweed666

macrumors 68000
Original poster
After a bit of searching I'm getting the idea this isn't possible but I thought I'd double check here.

All I want to do is play music files in folders without the damn thing importing it every time. Can this be done? I can see how it can be done for CD's, but not files on HD.
 
There are two ways to import music into iTunes.

One copies the files to another location, and one leaves it where it is.

The second can be activated by deactivating the copy function seen below.

itunes-preferences-advanced-general.png


If that is not what you are looking for, you could use VLC to just play a folder full of music.
 
If you don't want to import songs, use VLC or another player.

However it's much easier to import into iTunes and tag appropriately when you listen.
 
Tumbleweed666 said:
After a bit of searching I'm getting the idea this isn't possible but I thought I'd double check here.

All I want to do is play music files in folders without the damn thing importing it every time. Can this be done? I can see how it can be done for CD's, but not files on HD.
Click to expand...

If you right-click (cmd-click) the file from within the Finder and choose "Get Info", you can play the music file from within the Preview. Just click the little triangle and you'll get a standard play/pause/progress bar.

Does that do what you want?

Also, if your Finder windows are in the "column" view and previews are enabled, you can get the play/pause/progress bar as well.
 
Eidorian said:
I normally just use VLC for this.

If it's a quick look I'll just use Quick Look. 😎
Click to expand...

I'm still a newbie at this stuff, (not yet a week into Mac) so Quick Look is exactly the thing I was looking for for 90% of what I wanted to do, and I wasn't even aware it was there !!
Knockout stuff.
And looks like I 'll be getting VLC as well so many people have recommended this to me.

Thanks to all.
 
Tumbleweed666 said:
I'm still a newbie at this stuff, (not yet a week into Mac) so Quick Look is exactly the thing I was looking for for 90% of what I wanted to do, and I wasn't even aware it was there !!
Knockout stuff.
And looks like I 'll be getting VLC as well so many people have recommended this to me.

Thanks to all.
Click to expand...
I'm glad that it was helpful. It's one of the small things that I enjoy about OS X.
 
an easy way to activate quicklook is select the file and press spacebar. Works with audio, pictures, text, word docs and much more.
 
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