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How to stop iTunes from launching when using Keyboard media keys

Hi,

I love the media keys on my MacBook and Apple wireless keyboard for playing, pausing, changing tracks etc with iTunes, but there are other than can utilize the media keys, like Spotify for instance. However, if I have iTunes closed, when I hit the Play key, iTunes will automatically launch, and will intercept any subsequent presses of just the play/pause button. Is there a way to stop this annoying behavior? I haven't found anything in the Keyboard shortcut system pref.

thanks.

black MacBook (Santa Rosa), 2.2Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 160GB HD, 4GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.5.8), 16GB iPod Touch, 2G 1GB iPod Shuffle, 4G 20GB iPod

Posted on Aug 20, 2009 5:51 PM

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Jun 14, 2013 4:51 AM in response to warpkanal

Thx. While it does keep iTunes from starting when I press "play" on remote, sadly it doesn't make it control Vox. Strange because remote works in iTunes, VLC, etc. Enabling/disabling remote support/hw buttons in Vox preferences makes no difference at all - media keys work, remote doesn't, that's it 🙂

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Oct 25, 2013 1:39 PM in response to mikelis

I've grown tired of my headphone remote controls not working on my laptop, but when went to undo mmfix I got the error "bad file"... I just tried the recently posted signed "rcd", however I don't see any change what so ever; my headphone remote controls still don't work.


Is there any way I can

  1. Undo mmfix
  2. Prevent iTunes from launching on "play" button
  3. Get headphone remote controls
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Oct 25, 2013 11:39 PM in response to Stephen_MD

For (2) did you try bodhirocking solution?


"Well since the rcd got corrupted or can't be launch because of codesigning issues, we can disable the launch request for the app using:


launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.rcd.plist


I got this terminal command from: http://gavinroy.com/disabling-default-itunes-launch-behavior-with

"


This still works for me, even in Mavericks!

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Nov 1, 2013 4:50 PM in response to juanjdlt

This seemed so promising, but I guess it only works for Vox because my headphone controls still don't work. I'm actually considering whether or not I should pay a programmer to make a utility for this. (some code available here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7772976/detect-headphone-button-presses-in-os -x)

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Jan 8, 2014 6:57 PM in response to William Brawley

Oh, my beloved Wacom tablet!


iTunes keeps launching by itself when I have my Wacom Intuos connected to my Mini 2011 and this behavior disappear as soon as I disconnected it.


Solution: I applied this patch and everything works fine now: https://github.com/thebitguru/play-button-itunes-patch

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Jan 16, 2014 10:26 AM in response to William Brawley

Here's the solution:


With Spotify open and selected, press the play/pause button. It should play/pause Spotify. Now when you switch to another app, the media buttons remember you're wanting them to power Spotify.


Do the same thing with iTunes if you want to control iTunes the same way.

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Feb 26, 2014 10:10 AM in response to William Brawley

I don't know if you guys resolved this issue or not, but I found a solution: http://www.thebitguru.com/projects/iTunesPatch


"This is a patch for removing the default OS X behavior of always starting iTunes when the play button on the keyboard is pressed. This feature can be useful for a lot of users, but it can also be annoying if you are using VLC or other similar programs that support the media keys.

The

Patch.command
script will patch the Remote Control Daemon to prevent it from starting iTunes whenever you press the play button on the keyboard or an external remote control. This will only prevent iTunes from starting, all other functions (like play/pause while iTunes is running) will continue to work as before.

Lastly, this program will backup the original file in case if you would like to restore the original functionality."

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Mar 23, 2014 6:39 AM in response to brarss

The patch works allright, but when I fiddle with the settings in VLC, it is going back to the previous state. Doing the patch again deals with that.

On the side: It is a pity that there is no way to let the Apple remote control VLC in a more proper way other than play/pause. All other functions are crippled/not working/buggy.

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How to stop iTunes from launching when using Keyboard media keys

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