On my old LW 4.16 on Mac OSX Tiger, I had no problem importing a song that downloaded from Limewire to iTunes. Once it finished downloading it opened iTunes and automatically imported the music.

This does not seem to happen with LW 4.18.8 on the same Mac OSX Tiger, which I just installed yesterday on my Mac OSX Tiger 10.4.11. This is also the case on a Windows Vista platform when I installed it for a friend.

In both cases, iTunes shows the Limewire application and the song that was downloaded, but it never makes it automatically imported into my music library. I have to either double click on the actual downloaded file or drag it to the music library of my iTunes.

I cannot find any other configuration that I have not set. I have told LimeWire where to download and to make that folder shared. I have enabled sharing on my iTunes.

Does anyone know what I am missing or if this is a bug?

Thanks

Auto-importing from LW to iTunes is only an option for Mac OSX with LW version 4. However I think LW introduced the option for windows users with version 5 beta. (for both mac & windows users, to use LW 5 beta, you need a 64-bit machine. Java 1.6 is 64-bit & older macs & older windows computers cannot use this java version.)

Issues you should know about iTunes & iPod (click on blue link)

It's my guess those files are fakes.

Try playing those audio files with an alternate player, I recommend ToolPlayer; Alternate Audio players (click on blue link). It's very small but a very capable player able to play many, many more audio formats than iTunes can.

Otherwise, try disabling then re-enabling iTunes importing option in LW's preferences. Sometimes it needs to be reset.

Thanks Lord of the Rings.

I did not know that auto importing was not allowed for Windows versions.

But I am still having this problem and am using version 4 (4.18.8) on Mac OSX Tiger. It worked for version 4.16 before I upgraded.

I have enabled all the iTunes import flags.

I will try resetting everything again. But don't expect much.

I did have trouble with downloads that would not play when I manually imported them. It was frustrating as it was the first few songs I downloaded after upgrading. I thought there was some problem. But I downloaded a song that I had from before and it worked fine. So I realised that the songs were likely bad.

But even the good ones will not auto import any longer with 4.18.8.

It can be as simple as disabling the import option in LW's options, press apply, close preferences. Then open them again, enable importing & press apply. This is an issue that's not uncommon. However if this does not work, perhaps your LW preferences file needs deleting so it creates a fresh set. Updating to LW 4.18 did require new preferences for some people.

To be a step ahead just in case the first option does not work, then see Deleting LW Preferences folder in OSX. You should make a note of all settings before you do this however.

Yes. That did the trick. Although to be safe I rebooted LW after disabling the iTunes options and then after re-enabling them.

Thanks so much, Lord of the Rings.


P.S. Are you sure that won't work on Windows Vista version 4.18 of LW? Otherwise, why does it have all the same iTunes options? I may try that anyway. Where is the equivalent of the preference file kept on Windows Vista, in case I need to trash that and start over again?


Thanks again

No, the import option for iTunes within LW was only just introduced in LW version 5 beta. All that LW 4 version for windows can do is list a playlist of recently downloaded songs in iTunes. But that is simply a playlist, the actual files themselves are still within the LW download folder.

Some people have got around this by using iTunes Music Library folder as the LW download location. I do not recommend this, however it's an option. (the reason I do not recommend it is fake files, viruses & non audio files that might be downloaded & muck up or confuse iTunes.)

That is strange as I swear I saw the toggles in the Windows version that I helped my friend install. I will have to look again. Perhaps I am confused.


Yes, I agree.

Too bad there are people out there who want to be malicious with fake songs and viruses.

I was aware of a few of them as they seem to list at the top of the search with many many sources. I am always leery of those. But seems that more and more files are bogus in one way or another. Glad I am on a Mac.

Thanks for all your help.