I'm new to all this so please be patient. I posted this question a few days ago and nobody responded. Then I posted the question again in the general forum - and I can't even find that one! It's all betting a bit annoying!

Anyway, I'm using LimeWire with OS 8.6 on an old PowerMac. I've downloaded about 24 music tracks so far, but v ery few of them show in LimeWire's Library window, even though the files are all in the right folder (I checked in the Finder).

I realise that LimeWire chops the ends off long names because the Mac only allows filenames 32 characters long; so I adjusted some of the names to make sure the .mp3 suffix is included, figuring that maybe LimeWire doesn't recognise files without the suffix. This helped a lot, but still some of the files aren't getting listed.

Can anyone suggest what else is causing this problem? Appreciate any suggestions.

Hi,

This may be a dumb question, but are all of your mp3's are in the same folder that you have chosen to share?

Also, from what I hear, since version 2.5.x, LimeWire needs to hash the files which can take a long time. When I first installed 2.5.5, all of my files weren't showing, then I noticed that some were adding to my Library, but slow. I thought it was a problem so I uninstalled and went back to 2.4.4.

I hope one of these thoughts can help.

Thanks Julie. Yes all the files are in my shared folder, the one that shows as a folder icon next to the Library window.

I don't know what 'hash' means but I am aware that LimeWire takes for ever to do just about _anything_!! (It must have been written by a Microsoft developer!). So I wait for the filenames to show up, but there's never any more than about 17 listed out of the 20-odd files in the folder.

I don't know what "hash" means either...I've just read it alot.

I upgraded to 2.6.3 last night. It took a long time for all of my files (633) to show. That was the "hashing".

But, they all show. I am sharing two folders. One is music, the other is video. I'm not sure what the problem is for all of yours not to show.

sorry.

Oh well, thanks for your reply anyway.

You'd think there'd be some way to ask the developers of LimeWire about such things.

'hashing' a file means that LimeWire is analyzing it to produce some kind of 'fingerprint'. this lets other people easily say 'find me more sources of this specific file'. unfortunately, it takes a bit of time to analyze every single file.

do you think some kind of visual indicator that limewire is hashing the file would be useful? i've been pondering a way to display all potentially shared files, but display the non-shared ones in italics. or, if that isn't possible, having an extra 'Pending Shared' folder that lists all files that are awaiting hashing.

Maybe just a message that comes up when you first run the versions that do this. Something that says:

"LimeWire will now complete the process of hashing (maybe a description of what it means) your shared files. This will take some time, but will have no adverse affect on it's performance"

I don't know. Something like that in plain english. It was why I didn't stick with 2.5.5 and went back to 2.4.4. I didn't know what was taking so long and it also froze alot. So far 2.6.3 is working ok (except for the lack of downloads! but that's not new ). I knew about the hashing this time, so I just waited it out. Sure enough, the next time I ran LW, it listed all the files much faster.

Even a spinning beach ball or an eggtimer icon would indicate that _something_ is happening.

But this still doesn't explain why some of my files aren't getting hashed at all - even ones I've just downloaded!