Add music

Add music to a slideshow

You can add music to your slideshow. iPhoto includes a selection of theme music, or you can use songs or playlists from iTunes, or songs from GarageBand.

To add music to a slideshow:

  1. Do one of the following:

    • Select the slideshow in the Source list, and then click the Music button in the toolbar. (If you’re in full-screen view, first exit it by clicking Full Screen in the toolbar. If you’re using Mac OS X v10.7 or later, move your pointer to the top of the screen, and then click the Full Screen button that appears in the top-right corner.)

    • While a slideshow is playing, move the pointer to make the slideshow controls appear, and then click the Music button:

      The slideshow controls with the Music button highlighted

  2. In the Music Settings window, make sure the “Play music during slideshow” checkbox is selected.

  3. Do one of the following:

    • To use one song for the whole slideshow, choose an option from the Source pop-up menu, and then select a song.

      To listen to a song, double-click it, or select it and click the Play button. To stop playing the song, click the Play button again.

    • To create a playlist of several songs, select “Custom Playlist for Slideshow,” and drag songs from the top list to the area below the checkbox. To reorder songs, drag them up or down in the list.

  4. To adjust the slideshow length to the music (or vice versa), see Change slideshow settings.

To prevent slideshow music from playing, deselect “Play music during slideshow” in the Music Settings window.

Tip:  If it takes a long time for a slideshow to start, it might be because the background music is a very large file. Try choosing a song with a smaller file size. To see a file’s size, open iTunes, select the song, and then choose File > Get Info.

If you don’t see your iTunes library in the Source pop-up menu:

Try the following:

  • Quit both iTunes and iPhoto. Open iTunes first, and then reopen iPhoto.

  • If you recently installed iLife software, it’s a good idea to open each application in the following order: iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and then iDVD.

    These applications use one another’s media libraries, and opening the applications in that sequence ensures that you see the most up-to-date versions of your music library, photo library, and Movies folder no matter which application you’re using.

  • If you still don’t see your iTunes library, try this:

    1. Quit iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and iTunes.

    2. In the Finder, locate your iTunes folder.

      It is usually in [Home]/Music/iTunes or [Home]/Documents/iTunes. If it’s not there, search for it.

    3. Open the iTunes folder and drag the iTunes Music Library.xml file to your desktop.

    4. Open iTunes and create a new playlist (choose File > New Playlist).

    5. Quit iTunes and open iPhoto.

      You should now see your iTunes library when creating a slideshow.