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I remember there used to be a play button on my music files on my Desktop. I would click it, and it would play that song without opening anything up. Now I can't. I have to make do with opening Finder, switching to column mode, and then playing it. I don't want to use Quick Look, because it disappears when I move away. I may have switched view settings, updated Quicktime, etc. Do you know of a way that I can do this again?

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What kind of file type are you trying to play and what version of OSX are you on? This works on mine (v 10.7.2), but only after the thumbnail changes from the default iTunes icon to the "cover" preview image. – Mathew Hall Mar 30 '12 at 17:21
@MathewHall I'm on OSX 10.6.6 – CoffeeRain Mar 30 '12 at 17:23
If you select the file and select "Get Info" from the File menu, in the "Preview" section of the Info window, can you click to play the song? Or does that fail also? – nathang Mar 30 '12 at 17:44
@nathang I found my problem. As much as I didn't want to, I answered my own question. – CoffeeRain Mar 30 '12 at 17:46

2 Answers

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In order to show the play button, the icon needs to be at least 64x64 pixels. It works fine now that I've enlarged my icons from 60x60.

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I suspect you must have installed a very light weight media player at one time and associated your music files with it.

You should try VLC. It will play most audio files, and if you associate it with your audio files then it will play them with a double click as you had before. You can change the icon of VLC to a play button image, and then your associated music files will look like play buttons.

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Sorry, I meant that it was on each music file and it wouldn't open anything up. I edited my question to reflect this. – CoffeeRain Mar 30 '12 at 17:22
@CoffeeRain I've edited my post to better meet your needs. – Adam Davis Mar 30 '12 at 17:30

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