iTunes starts up whenever I connect my bluetooth headset

This question was first posted in 2010, it is now less than a month from 2018 and this remains an issue.

In nearly 8 years the only "solutions" are hacky workarounds, that is just sad.

We are talking about a simple ON/OFF switch for auto play here! I guess it takes courage to ignore such a simple fix for so long.

My bluetooth headphones have this great feature where when I take them off, it automatically pauses the media being played and when you put them back on it resumes. On my Windows PC and Android Phone this works exactly as you'd expect, no configuration needed.

BUT, on this awesome MacBook Pro, which I am forced to use for work, every time I decide to take my head phones off and then put them back on iTunes launches and starts playing music.

I'm an Apple customer since 1982. This is really bad. Shameful.

Users need to be able to disable the inane functionality of a blutooth change conection launching iTunes and interrupting the current audio.

Suppose that the current audio was really important? But Apple thinks a blutooth connection warrants launching iTunes, interrupting the current audio and making it really difficult to recover.

Recovery requires quitting iTunes and then shutting down and re-launching whatever app was playing audio before being so rudely interrupted. A user who is not well versed in recovering from the horrible effects of this functionality will likely be very confused (e.g. "What happened to the sound? what is this new window that has also rudely stolen focus after opening automagically?") and take several minutes to recover.

Do any Apple personnel understand how rude and stupid this functionality is?

Do you realize how bad it looks to not only have such rude and stupid functionality, but you're also going to great lengths to prevent people from alleviating their suffering from such inane functionality.

I've seen my problems solved by removing execution rights from the remote control daemon, by doing:

sudo chmod -x /System/Library/CoreServices/rcd.app/Contents/MacOS

After running this I was getting high CPU usage by launchd process. I reverted this, iTunes launched and CPU usage got back to normal. It looks like system tries to launch iTunes indefinitely.

So. This was a real crazy issue. You can try the Do Nothing app trick. Didn't work for me, but seems workable. I deleted iTunes, created the app, linked the bluetooth to the DN app, but when I reinstalled iTunes the same thing happened

But...

After this when I renamed the iTuneshelper in the package contents...Walla! No more issues. This had been bugging me for over a year.

Don't know if disabling iTuneshelper is smart, but it certainly solves this crazy issue.

Love Apple, Hate Apple. Sera Sera...

Hope this helps

Open the Finder

Right-click on the iTunes app

Unlock sharing at the bottom

Change sharing permissions for 'Everyone' to 'No Access'

Lock the sharing icon again

Fixed

PS - iTunes won't work until you undo this... no real loss since it's been steadily getting worse and worse since about 2012

Thanks. This is what I was finally forced to do, so at least for me, what felt like Apple's attempt to shove iTunes in my face -- and inability to address the issues raised by many here -- now means that I will use iTunes even less.

I have this same issue and it looks like Apple has yet to address this bug after 3 years now. This is stupid. I'm not going to disable all the benefits of iPhone/iMac interaction just to fix this stupid bug.

I try to uninstall iTunes butt it no possible because it's a part of OS.

I finally avoid iTunes from executing on my macbook pro by running the following command in Terminal :

sudo chmod -x /Applications/iTunes.app

Thanks for the tips. I removed execute permissions from iTunes. This is absolute nonsense. Too much arrogance Apple. Go back to your roots and work on the user experience.

Will use VLC to play itunes content from now on.

I find it astonishing that this even occurs... It annoys the **** out of me sitting with a headset, and taking it on and off because life around requires my attention. And every time I need to close iTunes after it has started to play the first song in my library.

At least there should be a simple box/switchto make this behaviour optional.

Ok so I threw together an applescript to deal with this. I'm using High Sierra. What this script does is rename the app before and after each use. This will prevent it from being automatically launched.

First, rename iTunes to iTunes_disabled. It must match this exactly (unless you also change it in the Applescript below).

In the terminal:

sudo mv iTunes.app iTunes_disabled.app

Then open Script Editor. Create a new script and paste in the following:

set appname to "iTunes.app"
set pwd to "yourpassword"
do shell script "sudo mv /Applications/iTunes_disabled.app /Applications/iTunes.app" password pwd with administrator privileges
tell application appname to activate
on ApplicationIsRunning(appname)
tell application "System Events" to set appNameIsRunning to exists (processes where name is appname)
return appNameIsRunning
end ApplicationIsRunning
repeat until not ApplicationIsRunning("iTunes")
delay 1
end repeat
do shell script "mv /Applications/iTunes.app /Applications/iTunes_disabled.app" password pwd with administrator privileges

Enter your password on the second line, between the quotation marks.

Save it to the Applications folder, and save it as an application. I named mine iTunez.

When you launch "iTunez", it will rename the iTunes_disabled application back to iTunes, and launch it. Everything will work as expected. When you quit, it will rename iTunes back to iTunes_disabled.

Hopefully this will help some people. I was also incredibly frustrated by this. Apple, if you're reading this, a simple option on what to do when connecting bluetooth headphones would be great!

Apparently Apple sees this idiocy as a feature, not a bug. I'd recommend using the launchd workaround rather than trying to make iTunes impossible to launch. It has worked for me for months now.

All I need is to know how to keep my Bluetooth earpiece from breaking up and having no audio. Three different earpieces, 2 Mac minis, still have the breakup.

I couldn't agree with this comment more. There are so many arcane aspects of modern Apple OS that the whole platform is reduced to nearly useless. And my house and my business is filled with Apple products.

How the mighty have fallen.

If you find a solution to this most annoying problem, please let the world know. Other solutions to well documented problems would be welcomed too.

Apple aren't listening here. Use Feedback - iTunes - Apple.

tt2