How to stop iTunes from launching when using Keyboard media keys

*Problem solved:* http://lifehacker.com/5651055/

You will probably need to re-run this scrips when you update your os, i.e. 10.6.4 -> 10.6.4

Pressing Alt + Shift + Pause (or other media keys) seems to stop iTunes from opening.

Or, for some strange reason, just Shift + Pause when your desired application has focus!

Message was edited by: ultrapasty

Dear Apple
Please fix this soon or I will be switching vendor.

Best Regards,
Nick
xx

I followed your instructions, and now, itunes NEVER opens, even if i click on it.

i need something to to stop it from launching when the media key is pressed, not completely shut and never start.
now it does not start at all.

The culprit here is the Remote Control Daemon, it lives in

/System/Library/CoreServices/rcd.app

To simply disable it, open a terminal window and type

sudo chmod a-x /System/Library/CoreServices/rcd.app/Contents/MacOS/rcd
killall -9 rcd

To re-enable it,

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

Then log out and back in. (I couldn't get iTunes to respond again without logging out and back in)


you will now be able to use your media keys with any app you want. You won't be able to use them with iTunes, however. (odd, huh?) The problem appears, to me, to be that rcd uses AppleScript to communicate with the various Apple apps it controls (Quicktime Player, Quicktime PlayerX, DVDPlayer, Aperture, iPhoto, iTunes, and Keynote) ( warning technical stuff to follow) If you view the strings contained in the executable you can see it explicitly launching iTunes

strings /System/Library/CoreServices/rcd.app/Contents/MacOS/rcd

You will find the following, if you look for it,

tell application id "com.apple.iTunes" to launch

which is not present in the 10.5 version of rcd.app (yes, I checked)

Just for giggles and grins I opened the executable (/System/Library/CoreServices/rcd.app/Contents/MacOS/rcd) in a hex editor and munged the launch command above. I logged out, then logged back in. I can now use my media keys without autolaunching iTunes AND I can still use them with iTunes when it is open.

In summary, someone at Apple deliberately altered the Remote Control Daemon to launch iTunes when using the play/pause button. It would be trivially easy for them to fix, either by disabling it or making it a configurable option.

Not sure if you guys have talked about this yet but this will fix it. I hate iTunes and I don't mind going this far.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1224

Also, if you don't want to do that, try doing just the steps that remove the iTunes helper from the startup items. I think that might cause it to stop doing stupid things with my play button.

Hi guys,

This workaround might already be discussed here earlier, but here it is as a reminder for new thread readers:

Just open QuickTime without opening any files with it. This prevents the media keys from launching iTunes automatically and they still work with the active app like the Spotify.

I liked the simplicity of this workaround, although its not the real thing.

Since I consider Apple responsible for this stupidity with the remote control daemon, I sent my feedback to them. I think everyone should do it to increase the number of complaints: http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Br,

AnttiN

Hi,

Is anyone here familiar with what functionality the 'rcd' daemon supposed to provide? I have come up with a patch that can remove this "feature," but I need to test that rcd continues to perform the other functions.

Please contact me directly at http://www.thebitguru.com/contact_me if you have any ideas or can help me with this.

Thanks!

I just finished publishing a patch that prevents iTunes from starting when you press the play button on the keyboard. Check it out at the following URL.

http://www.thebitguru.com/blog/view/357-New%20Patch:%20Play%20Button%20iTunes%20 Patch

I only have one Mac so I haven't been able to test it out on multiple computers, but this should work on systems running 10.6.5.

This just in:

http://en.onsoftware.com/stop-itunes-from-taking-over-media-keys-on-mac/

However, the app will not launch on my mac, possibly because it does not support 32 bit intel macs.

I'll be trying out yer fix, thebitguru 😉

I've just installed it on mine, and am happy to report that it does work on 62-bit though, so at least there's an easy fix for some of us.

Hopefully something as easy for 32-bit will appear for everyone else.

@Mimble Which one did you use? MMFix or the patch that I released?

@thebitguru: Sorry, should have clarified. I used the MMFix, saw it on the results list first.

My original patch possibly worked only with OS X 10.6.5. Last night I figured out a better way to apply the patch without relying on a pre-supplied diff. What this means is that starting with version 0.7 the patch should work with pretty much all versions.

If you are interested, check it out: http://www.thebitguru.com/projects/iTunesPatch