Show a “Now Playing” iTunes Notification in the Mac OS X Dock
Using a defaults write command, the iTunes Dock icon can be set to display a “Now Playing” song and artist pop-up that transitions in and out and music starts. It’s a nice addition, particularly if you’re playing songs from a shared network playlist and have iTunes hidden in the background.
Enable the iTunes song & artist Dock icon popups
Open the Terminal in /Applications/Utilities/ and type the following:
defaults write com.apple.dock itunes-notifications -bool TRUE
Now kill the Dock to relaunch it:
killall Dock
Start playing a song in iTunes to see the notification appear, it’ll disappear automatically and then reappear briefly anytime a new song starts.
If you decide you don’t like the notification, disabling the iTunes song popup is just as easy:
defaults delete com.apple.dock itunes-notifications
You won’t need to relaunch iTunes, but you will need to kill the Dock again.
This only works in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and later versions of Mac OS, if you try it in prior versions nothing happens.
The tip comes from Keir Thomas, author of Mac Kung Fu, we found it by way of TheNextWeb.
i get this when i try now…ive had this before but now with the update to 10.7.5 and itunes 11 this is what i get
unknown002608e1fba2:~ Kindle$ defaults delete com.apple.dock notification-always-show-image;killall Dock
2013-02-16 13:50:55.965 defaults[12707:707]
There is no (notification-always-show-image) default for the (com.apple.dock) domain.
Defaults have not been changed.
2013-02-16 13:50:55.967 defaults[12707:707]
There is no (notification-always-show-image) default for the (com.apple.dock) domain.
Defaults have not been changed.
Jamie
It won’t work anymore. Since like 10.7.5
Sorry,
Adolf
Has iTunes 11 killed this? Doesn’t seem to work.
HELP US BEN!!! ;)
I just noticed it stopped working when I updated to 10.7.5
For OS 10.8 users:
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/44720/itunification
Cheers.
I just noticed that MacUpdate has got technical difficulties, so here you’ve got another link:
http://onible.com/blog/2012/08/13/itunification-itunes-integration-with-notification-center-in-os-x-mountain-lion/
Have fun.
[…] versions of Mac OS X allowed you to see a “Now Playing” notification pop up over the iTunes Dock icon, the alert showed the song and artist name anytime a […]
Hi Everyone,
Here is a new version. A user on MacRumors (Icy1007) discovered a bug which prevents notifications from showing if the artist or song name starts with a square bracket.
I’ve also changed the hosting to MediaFire so that the URL will remain the same when a new version is released.
http://www.mediafire.com/?9h01wlo18ptly
Ben, how do I disable/remove “Now playing in iTunes” my mac?
Colin
Yeah love it. Only way to perfect it would be some kind of tweak to assign the lefthand iTunes icon to assign to whatever current album art is playing.
I agree. I have looked into this and unfortunately it is not possible because without editing some OSX core files, Notification Centre can only show the app’s icon. You can’t manually assign an image :(
WOW. Many thanks, can’t believe I found this site by typing a few key words.
I was really appreciating the display prior to Mountain Lion….
Thanks a lot, I am very happy to have discovered this within 10 minutes of my search !
Montreal, Québec
I can confirm, it doesn’t work in Mountain Lion :(
Confirmed as well :(
Sh*t! I really liked it and now I don’t have it anymore on Mountain Lion… Any other options??
I’ve come up with a solution for Mountain Lion which works pretty well for me. It uses AppleScripts and Terminal-Notifier (https://github.com/a…rminal-notifier) to display the track names as notification centre notifications.
Here’s a screenshot…
http://www.4freeimagehost.com/show.php?i=fe4766427530.jpg
I’ve put it all into a neat little application package for people to easily install and use themselves (see the instructions file inside the ZIP archive).
Here’s the link to the ZIP file containing everything you need.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5h9ebi25ecl45c8/NowPlaying.zip
Give it a go and let me know how it goes!
Works mighty well Ben, Now giving it a run and responds well in Mountain Lion!
Thank you.
Awesome,
Works perfectly and saved me time from making my own. :)
Hi Ben!
Thanks for the amazing solution!! It works like a charm!!
I’m really glad to be able to see these iTunes Notifications!!
Thumbs Up!
Thanks guys!! Glad to hear it works well for you too.
Please feel free to share it around :)
Hi Ben, how hard would it be to port this to an app like Spotify?
Hey,
Did this get removed? I can’t find anything you posted!
An awesome little tweak that I have enjoyed greatly. Unfortunately as of ITunes 11’s introduction yesterday, this no longer works.
Doesn’t work on OS X Mountain Lion!
Big fan of this tip!
Been using it since 10.7 Dev P build
Unfortunately it creates a big problem in 10.7.4 and 10.8
Finder crashes consistently when changing song.
It took me quite awhile to isolate the issue to this hack.
Just wanted to let everyone know
I’m running 10.7.4 and since I migrated to a new computer the dock crashes every time the song information is displayed. How can I fix it without disabling the notification?
Thanks!
[…] ImagesEnable iTunes “Now Playing” Information in DockPosted on April 16, 2012 in AppleThis Defaults change is an oldie, but a goodie. I have it set up on all of my Macs.« Dizzyup Wallpapers Updated to Include Retina iPad […]
Hello friends! You can not activate these notifications even Twitter application?
[…] which contains over 300 tips and tricks for OS X Lion. He’s the same guy who discovered the iTunes “Now Playing” notification tip and the Quick Look select text tip. Here’s the tip direct from […]
@ ro1960, I noticed that bug too. To fix it, try to make “clean” now-playing notification as described in this article, not notification with iTunes icon as optioned in comments by Alberto. Then you’ll come out with notification displaying only Artist – Song and correct album art dock icon. ))
[…] source : osxdaily […]
[…] sent in by Keir Thomas, the author of a new book called Mac Kung Fu and the guy who discovered the cool iTunes “Now Playing” notification that has since become popular on the Mac web. Without further ado, here’s the trick directly […]
[…] the music lovers out there, DockArt takes the “Now Playing” notification concept a step further and actually replaces the iTunes Dock icon with the currently playing albums […]
[…] killall Dock Via | OSX Daily […]
[…] killall Dock Via | OSX Daily […]
This is awesome!
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Does it require one to log in as Admin? It doesn’t work if I do it as simply a user.
You can add the iTunes icon to the pop-up too, if you want :)
Just type in terminal:
defaults write com.apple.dock notification-always-show-image -bool TRUE;killall Dock
To revert to the normal situation type:
defaults delete com.apple.dock itunes-notifications
and then
defaults delete com.apple.dock notification-always-show-image;killall Dock
Thanks for nice advice! Is it possible to display album art instead of iTunes icon?
It would be so sweet if this was possible.
I don’t think. Btw I don’t know how to do it ;)
Possible solution for this is plugin DockArt which replaces iTunes icon with album art. In combination with enabled notifications look great!
http://www.splook.com/Software/DockArt.html
I have DockArt installed and until GimmeSomeTunes is Lion-compatible, this tip makes for a nice replacement.
However, the art shown is the one of the previously played track, not the current one!
Any idea if this is fixable ?
That sounds like a bug or a fluke with caching, try relaunching iTunes? It’s also possible that the currently playing song has no album art, and so the prior songs cover is appearing.
I tried the relaunch and even the DockArt update before posting. Doesn’t help. Songs do have artwork and the behavior is consistent. It does sound like a bug.
To be completely clear: the correct artwork is shown in the Dock via DockArt, but not in the notification pop-up described in this tip.
does this trick work with other applications?
Does this only work on lion?
I’m the author of this tip and I discovered it while writing my book Mac Kung Fu, which contains over 300 other tips. I shared this tip with OS X Hints and it looks like its gained a life of its own since!
Take a look at the book: http://mackungfubook.com
I’m running 10.7.4 and since I migrated to a new computer the dock crashes every time the song information is displayed. How can I fix it without disabling the notification?
Thanks!
I’m on 10.7.5 and have the same issue..not working. :(
This hint wasn’t found by TheNextWeb, it was found by a user named Keir-thomas at MacOSXHints. they even say that in their article.
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20111118041933798
Good catch, although I came across it from the TNW feed.
sure, but I think you should at least give credit to the person who originally found the tip as well. #justsaying