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I have done this before but it no longer works. Some combination of the XiphQT component and the FLAC Import component allows one to open FLAC files natively in iTunes. After an update I was no longer able to open FLAC files in iTunes. If this was directly related or not I do not know.

I've tried Fluke, which has been no help, especially since the SetOGG script no longer works on Mac OSX 10.6.

Here is the link for the XiphQT component: http://www.xiph.org/quicktime/download.html

The other component is called FLAC importer, available here: http://people.xiph.org/~arek/flac_import/

PS: I use the FLAC files (all of which are legitimate rips or downloads to mix with. Keeping an extra copy of each in ALAC, MP3 or AAC format would just be a terrible waste).

Conclusion

The situation is pretty much helpless. iTunes will never support FLAC and it's unlikely that ALAC will be supported in all DJ'ing software (which is of particular interest to me and is why I asked the question). The situation is also made worse by the fact that FLAC files themselves com in with three different types of metadata:

  • Native FLAC
  • OGG
  • ID3v2+

The good news is that I have found an alternative media player which is cross platform, has a similar feature and look: Songbird.

Hopefully this question helps other people who also has this question. I also hope that if this situation improves that this question can be updated.

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5
  • "After an update..." what kind of update? If it was an iTunes/OS X update, did you try reinstalling the two components afterwards?
    – calum_b
    Jun 1, 2011 at 16:38
  • Yes, I have several times without any success. Is there any sort of log that I can check to see if iTunes is loading the components?
    – Phillip Whelan
    Jun 1, 2011 at 18:43
  • If there were one, I'd imagine the place to look woud be in Console under the 'FILES' Heading, ~/Library/Logs sub-heading. There may be something in there under XiphQT.
    – boehj
    Jun 1, 2011 at 19:48
  • you can check for files an app is using via the lsof command in Terminal.app. lsof | grep 'iTunes' should do the trick.
    – Ben
    Sep 9, 2011 at 1:46
  • I have since switched to the clementine player.
    – Phillip Whelan
    Feb 23, 2012 at 8:22

1 Answer 1

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+50

I've tried Fluke, which has been no help, especially since the SetOGG script no longer works on Mac OSX 10.6.

@Phillip Whelan Fluke has had 10.6 support since 2009. If you're experiencing issues with Fluke, which is considered the top offering at present, then I'd be curious about further inspection of the files or your system. Perhaps they are not 16bit/44.1KHz, or wrapped in the OGG Container?

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  • Fluke is a hack, not a solution. I can get it to work for a single song but I can't be tagging hundreds of albums. The SetOGG script also does not work anymore. The reason it's not working might be a little too technical for this site (missing functions in the python API shipped with Mac OS X).
    – Phillip Whelan
    Jun 7, 2011 at 5:02
  • 2
    Correction: It's not a solution you like. iTunes doesn't support FLAC, plain and simple. Short of converting your FLAC files to another format with an offering like xAct (sourceforge.net/projects/xact), there isn't much else in the way of options.
    – David Metcalfe
    Jun 8, 2011 at 17:00
  • I'll try to get SetOGG working again soon with the changes in the Python SDK. My only other choice is to dump iTunes, plain and simple.
    – Phillip Whelan
    Sep 4, 2011 at 8:00
  • @PhilipWhelan - Apple's python includes all the standard library - what do you think is missing? as if not documented this is a bug
    – mmmmmm
    Aug 10, 2012 at 9:55

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