iTunes 8.2.1(6) randomly starts playing music

I have the EXACT same problem as everyone in this thread. iTunes on my mac just starts playing music out of nowhere, so I keep the volume down. Does Apple have ANY fix?

Try removing the plug from the headphones jack and replacing it. Saw this in an earlier answer and it worked for me. This has been happening to me for years. Was wondering why this issue wasn't being addressed. Now that I know it is a hardware problem, not a software issue, it makes sense to me. If Apple admits its a hardware problem they might find themselves in a type of recall. Costly and embarrassing.

Yea, I had this problem and it's caused by my headphones. Some headphones have buttons you can push to hang up with when you're on a phone. When plugged into a Mac, one click activates iTunes and another starts playing music. My headphone became a bit fidgity and this is why my iTunes randomly starts playing. This could be the same problem with you guys.

I had this problem for a couple of months to. Turned out to be a song which I added to preferences>users&groups>current user>login items. I do not know how I did that. After I removed it, Itunes didn't start playing this song any more after rebooting my Imac.

I hope this will be helpfull for all of you.

I have also experienced this issue, as stated above (related to iTunes 11.0.2), and I have seen this while operating it under both Snow Leopard (10.6.8) and Mountain Lion (10.8.3).

I've cleared the cache and prefs, repaired permissions (all with Onyx), rebooted, and yes, I even replaced the cable connecting my external speakers to my audio jack. After ALL these steps have been completed, this is the longest iTunes has gone *without* randomly opening on its own and playing something from my library (and as of this writing, 9 minutes of peace and quiet.)

We'll see how long she holds.

Mid-2010 21.5" IMac

3.2GHz Core i3 / 4GB RAM / OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3 / iTunes v11.0.2 (26)

The same exact thing happens to me. It also adjusts my volume, and sometime makes it go up or down without me pressing anything. It usually does this and then starts randomly playing a song on iTunes.

This has just started happening to me. As a temporary solution, I started using a different program, but iTunes now opens by itself and starts playing and pausing tracks. Happening every couple of minutes on average. Pretty ridiculously awful.

I had this happen for the first time today and this is also the first time I have used my current set of headphones in this laptop. After closing iTunes all I had to do was wiggle the headphone jack in the computer and it launched iTunes and played the first song it saw. Wiggle it again and it pauses, wiggle again, it resumes. This clearly seems like a physical hardware problem that shouldn't be happening. It won't happen every time I try it but it happens often enough. Definitely need a fix for this as I am enjoying my new headphones and like having them plugged in.

This has been happening to me and doesn't appear to be hardware related. If iTunes is open it can happen. No hardware need be connected. And its opening on its own sometimes, at least I think it is. I'm starting to have to log whether it is open or not. Crazy and annoying. Came on full blast last night a 3am woke my guests up!

I just noticed that it is happening now that my phone is plugged into usb. Everytime i get a txt or a phone call. bizarre.

this also recetly started happening to us on our iMac. most random times of day and early morning

This has been happening to me as well and it is so annoying.😠

iMac 21.5-inch, Mid 2011

Processor 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory 12 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 (11G63)

iTunes version 11.0.4 (4)

I tried this out and found "wheel" on mine. I removed it and so far, so good. Thanks for the good tip.

I just started experiencing this same problem but I have never had Home Sharing enabled. I don't think the "wheel" user is the culprit behind it. It seemed hardware related at first, as repeatedly touching certain trigger points on the Trackpad would make it cut in and out on occassion. But this doesn't always activate the music. I've literally been doing nothing, having zero contact with any hardware, and have had the problem randomly pop up.

It's especially annoying because just when you think it's not going to come back, it does. Sometimes a few minutes... sometimes a half hour...

It is the NSA messing with you. It only happens when you have Safari open to a Glenn Greenwald article covering Edward Snowden NSA leaks.

There are a few things that can cause iTunes to start playing seemingly 'without cause'

Here's a few I know about:

1. If you are on a mac with an infrared (IR) sensor, then a remote (either for a Mac or for an Apple TV) could be causing your mac to play (this was my case - my computer was receiving the "play" command from the Apple TV remote when my mom played or paused a show on the Apple TV.

2. If Home sharing is turned on (on Windows or Mac), then some device (like an iOS device) could be giving the computer the command to play via the WiFi network. Disabling Home Sharing from Settings should fix this problem.

3. The 'play/pause' button on your keyboard could be malfunctioning. If you're using a desktop computer, changing out the keyboard may fix this problem. If you have a laptop, that's a little more difficult. If it's a Macbook you should take it to the Apple Store and see if they'll fix the button for you.

There are probably other problems, but I thought this might help some people.

Hope that helps and God bless!