Hello there, wondering if anyone could put me right please (admittedly i've a funny feeling i'm missing something stupidly obvious here so do bear with). I'm trying to open and listen to an MP3 audio file, however when i try to open it either by pressing command O once focused or via the context menu (VO shift M followed by VO space on the "open" option, voiceover just constantly tells me "music is not responding". This has got me baffled in view of the fact that accessing such files in the way described above has always worked fine before. Volume is at a decent level, i've tried forcing music to quit (command option escape) with no success. I even tried re-starting the Mac (i didn't think it would help but i suppose it was worth a shot). My Mac is running the latest version of Mac Os. Does anyone have any fixes that i know now will be more successful than mine lol? Thanks awfully.
Comments
Open with
What happens when you select open with from the context menu and choose quicktime player?
quick look
I'd just hit space on the file. It'll play in quick look.
Too long a file
If i use quick look the audio has cut out before i've a chance to hear the whole thing. It's longer than a few minutes.
VLC
I highly recommend using VLC to play audio and video files on Mac. Once you have it installed in the Applications folder and have opened it at least once, you can either use the open with menu in the context menu for a file, or assign VLC to open all files of a specific type. IN order to do that, press Command-i on the file type you want to bring up the Get Info window, and look for the open with section. You may need to expand it. IN here, select the button to choose an application. For example, it probably assigns MP3s to the Music app. It may already offer VLC in the list, but if not, select the other option. A Finder window will appear showing all the programs in the Applications folder. If the program you want isn't listed, change the recommended option to all in order to show all applications, select the one you want, and select the add button to return to the info window. If you want to assign all files of the specific type, select the change all button and confirm the operation.
QuickLook is a convenient way to play files, but it only works with files macOS natively supports.
A tip
Just a tit for everyone. Command plus down arrow will also open files, as well as folders. It's basically like pressing command + oh, only a little more convenient IMO.
Curious
So what's the difference between pressing command down arrow and command O? As you say, don't they achieve the same thing?
To confirm ...
Just to confirm i've just tried to listen to the file in quick look but it cut out after about 10 minutes and i can't see a way to get it to continue. I also tried pressing command down arrow to open the file but was presented with the same "music is not responding" message from voiceover.
cmd down arrow and cmd o are the same
as far as I can tell.
Yes, I use vlc on the mac too, it's honestly a much better experience than windows.
Resorted to installing another app
Ok annoyingly i've had to resort to installing just press record onto my Mac and listen to it through that instead. Clearly the music app on here isn't prepared to co-operate unless it's being asked to play something from apple music.
You said it's a big file?
I think the message you are receiving may be the same as what we get in safari. Have you tried waiting once that message appears to see what happens? Or, have you tried turning VoiceOver off and then back on? These work for me with safari.
Re-rachel
The only app which I use for all my audio/ video file playing needs is an app called iina.
It has been working extremely well for me and gives me far less problems than the quick time player app.
In my opinion opening via Apple Music is the worst way to play audiophiles best not to use that app at all!
Just curious, why did you have to purchase the just tap record app? that is literally a paid app it’s not really helpful for your use case isn’t it!
Possible corruption
MP3 is a streamable format, meaning that the state of its decoder is reset after every packet and doesn't really have length limits. If the audio is cutting off after 10 minutes and is longer than that, and if Music is crashing or grinding to a halt, that is likely an indication of corruption in the encoded data that Apple's decoder is failing to handle. Maybe try to regenerate or redownload the file if possible, otherwise you may need to try a player that does not depend on Apple's encoder, like
ffmpegand its derivatives, and even then success is not guaranteed.