Mac question

Open the file and see what's on it. It might be grouped into albums. If so just drag those right into iTunes, grab the folder and drag it from the finder window to where it says music in the upper left corner of iTunes. Or if you are using a program other than iTunes to play back then find the add to function in that program and select some or all of what is on the thumb drive.

This might be helpful: Adding content on your computer to iTunes

I assume its a USB drive. The first thing I would do is try a different USB port. There may be a problem with the one you are using. After that, try rebooting your computer with the drive already in place. If it still doesn't work, ask your friend what file system he formatted the drive with and what format is the music in. It may not be compatible with Mac OS.

There are some other things you can try, but I would do this first.

With the thumb drive installed, Open iTunes, in the upper left hand corner of the screen is the word "iTunes", just to the right of it is the word "File". open the drop down menu. listed on the menu is "Add To Library". click it. a finder type window will appear. If the thumb drive is active it will be located in the left of the window, click it. any files on the drive should appear. select the folder or folders you want and click open. the music files will be added to your iTunes.

Good luck.

Ejlif is correct - you have to go through iTunes on a Mac. You can use a different program to burn a CD of stuff you like (I use a program called Burn), but iTunes has to see it first before you can do anything else with it.

???

On a Mac, open the thumb drive folder and just double click the file and it will play. There is no need to open iTunes or add it to the library unless you want to.

I understand the need to go through iTunes to access the music (if he's using iTunes as his player), but you should still be able to see the files themselves in finder. That's why I think the issue may lie elsewhere.

Lindisfarne, The first question should be is when you insert the thumb drive into the mac, does an icon appear on the desktop?

"Lindisfarne, The first question should be is when you insert the thumb drive into the mac, does an icon appear on the desktop?"

BINGO!

Before you can double click a song or drag the music files to your iTunes folder, the drive has to be mounted on your desktop.

If you don't see the thumb drive mounted on the desktop as a volume, then do as Zd542 suggested and restart the computer with the thumb drive in the USB slot. This will always work unless there is something wrong with the drive itself or the way it's been formatted. It's possible the drive has been formatted in FAT32, but even though Macs prefer "Mac Journeled", it should still see the thumb drive.

If you still don't see the drive on your desktop after a restart, then launch Disk Utility in your Utilities folder which is nested in your Applications folder. A easy way to access this app from the finder is to type COMMAND+SHIFT+U. Tis will open the Utilities folder and then you launch the Disk Utility app.

When you launch Disk Utility you'll see a list of drives and volumes on the left side. You should see the thumb drive listed there and be able to select it. DO NOT reformat the drive. Click "Verify", "Repair". Hopefully this will get it to mount.

After all that I will note one thing. I have seen friends over the years say, "the drive won't mount!" When all along it was sitting on the desktop. They either didn't recognize the name of the drive or couldn't see it because there were a jillion other icons confusing them.

Good luck!

"Vegasears" had this spot-on. Thanx to all.