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mikebatho

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 1, 2004
807
2
Greater Manchester UK
In OSX, where to i put sound files so I can use them as alerts?

I've been trying to place them in what seem like appropriate files, but when I go to set alerts, I still only have a choice of blow, bottle, frog etc.... :confused:
 
They go in /Users/youruser/Library/Sounds/

They should be .wav or .aiff files, if you're using MP3s, that might explain why it's not working.
 
Nope...

I've placed 2 types of WAV files in there, one with a quicktime icon, the other with the standard green icon, & none are showing in the sound effect menu in system preferences.

In fact, shouldn't I be putting them into the folder where the standard sound effects live?

Until I put my files in there, the USERS-LIBRARY-SOUNDS menu was empty...?
 
You're putting them in the wrong folder. They should be in /System/Library/Sounds. :)
 
No...

OK, I've put them in there, was asked to AUTHENTICATE each time, but they've gone in.

They still don't appear in my list of effects in system preferences though... :confused: :confused: :confused:
 
MoparShaha said:
You're putting them in the wrong folder. They should be in /System/Library/Sounds. :)

No, you should never modify anything in System. Sounds should go in /Library/Sounds (for all users) or ~/Library/Sounds (for the current user only).

When I tried this about a year ago, I found that they wouldn't be recognized in wav format. Try converting them to aiff and see if that works.
 
mikebatho said:
how do I do that?

itunes...?

iTunes can do it (although it's not the fastest method). Follow these steps:

  1. In iTunes' preferences, go to the Importing tab and choose "AIFF Encoder" from the "Import Using" menu
  2. Add the wav file(s) to your iTunes library
  3. Select the wav file(s) and choose Advanced->Convert Selection to AIFF
  4. Select the new AIFF file(s) and choose File->Show Song File
  5. Copy the files to one of the Sounds folders
  6. In iTunes, delete the sounds from your library. You may want to delete the originals as well
  7. Optionally, reset the import format in the preferences to what you originally had
 
AH! Looking back now, I must modify my earlier statement.

For SYSTEM alerts, they must be .aiff files.
But things like Mail.app WILL use .wav files for it's alerts.

Sorry for the mislead.
 
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