How to play music files from Dropbox without local storage on iMac?

I'm setting up the Music application on my new iMac to use a folder on Dropbox for the Music Media folder, but I'm stuck as to how to do this.


Things I've done so far:

  1. I've started a trial with Dropbox and I'm using the Dropbox desktop app.
  2. I've pointed Music to the Music Media folder I created on Dropbox by selecting this path: /Macintosh HD/Users/myname/myname Dropbox/myname/Music Media. I'm unsure if this is what I was supposed to do; however, I didn't see how it was possible to select an online location.
  3. I imported a song into Music and it does appear in the Dropbox folder, but it only plays if the file is set to Make Available Offline; if I select Make online-only, it does not play.


Clearly, having to have the files take up space on my iMac defeats the point of using Dropbox.


How do I get Music to play the files stored on Dropbox without the need to have the file to be set to Make Available Offline?



[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Feb 8, 2025 07:26 AM

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Feb 8, 2025 07:38 AM in response to TartanTrumpet

Music is not designed to play nicely with Dropbox, iCloud Drive, or any other third-party cloud based storage system. If you want the ability to store your library in the cloud and stream content on demand then Apple Music or iTunes Match fits that bill. When using either service it is still a good idea to retain a copy of your original files on an external or network drive.


I would suggest creating a library entirely on an external drive (see Use multiple libraries in Music on Mac - Apple Support), load up the media, subscribe to one or other service (not both, Apple Music is a superset of the iTunes Match service), allow your content to be matched/uploaded, then switch to a new empty library on your internal drive and enable Sync Library to access your content in the cloud, after which you remove the external drive and keep it safely somewhere for backup or restore purposes.


tt2

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How to play music files from Dropbox without local storage on iMac?

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