Hello everybody,

(Please excuse any errors as I'm pretty new to forums.)

I'm running OS 8.6 on an imac and have been using Limewire with no problem. Suddenly Limewire started launching the mp3 files I've downloaded in RealPlayer format, as opposed to Quicktime previously (which, unlike RealPlayer, could be read by itunes when i transferred files to my laptop,)
Then it gave me a load of "internal error" messages, so I got rid of my old Limewire and downloaded the latest Limewire for OS Classic but it still launches Real Player, or else downloads the mp3s as a "Limewire Document" which nothing will read at all - not even the Limewire launch button - and which can't be loaded into the file Exchange Control Panel as anything but Acrobat Reader (useless!).

I have no "Player" menu in the tools/options menu (can't think why, it goes straight from Chat to Bug) so cannot change to another preferred mp3 player.

I've searched the forum and tried applying some of the helpful tips (file exchange panel etc.) but it's still not working. Has anyone else encountered these (unreadable) "Limewire document" files? I really don't get why it suddenly changed. Can anyone advise? Is there something really obvious I've forgotten to do? It's driving me crazy!

Thank you...!

I'm not sure of this (I can't fire up an 8.6 just now), but if you go to the quicktime control panel, I think you can reset its prefs to make Quicktime the default for all media types.

btw--if you drag the file from the download folder onto the quicktime player icon, that should override the setting for RealPlayer.

I sure hated the way RealPlayer would mess up a system by resetting all the mappings. Grrrr.

Thanks fo the tip - I have tried changing the Quicktime MIME prefs, but RealPlayer still seems to override all. I have managed to recover some of the "Limewire document" files as Quicktime by shortening the titles and ensuring the full .mp3 extension is there though, wierdly, not all of them respond to that...
Still nothing doing for getting rid of the RealPlayer files though.
Grrr indeed.

I'm surprised the File Exchange Control Panel didn't do the trick. The problem of LW documents has been around for some time. I have a suspicion it's a Java problem where it strips the files of their properties. I've discussed this a no. of times on the forum over the past few mths. The ultimate fail-safe technique is to use a file utility (I use Mac Army Knife) to change the file's attributes to what they should be. However this might be a bit technical for some people. MAK is easy to use however. Do a search on the forum for this app. Using the file Attribute Editor, once you've re-added the file properties such as type & creator, the appropriate icon returns & will open by that app.
I'm not sure QT can play all types of mp3's anyway!! And there are many types. You might hate the suggestion but how about obtaining an mp3 player that can play all. I'd recommend Audion which can also play formats that iTunes can't even play such as OGG Vorbis. The newest version (v3) can also recognise the newest format of mp3 Pro. It's called os9 version but is compatible with os8.6. Whenever you open a file with Audion it changes the icon to that of its own so it'll always open it by default. (But I think you can change that in prefs.) You'd just drag & drop your mp3 (with its blank icon) onto audion.

http://www.frederikseiffert.de/filetype/
This is a handy little file type changer, and the developer was very helpful when I needed help a while back.