iTunes just starts up by itself and it plays 1st song on my list

I was inspired by the board and started looking at console. That led me to "Geektool" which I have recently installed. I had a couple scripts to generate a display on my desktop showing playing song name, artist and album name.

After disabling Geektool I was finally able to shut down iTunes without it restarting automatically.

I initially didn't suspect Geektool because after installing the scripts I didn't have issues for the first couple weeks. And then I did. Go figure.

Good luck to all trying to solve this incredibly annoying issue.

Proofrock

It could be your IR port, which normally receives signals from the Apple Remote.

Another remote in your house may be sending the 'play' signal, which will open iTunes, if it isn't already open, and begin playing. I believe you can turn off the IR port in the General section of Security in the System Preferences to test this theory.

I've been having the same issue. Looking for a way out...

Well, it wasn't the IR port, but it ddid stop for about four hours today after taking the following steps:
1. IR port turned off
2. iTunes Widget unchecked (even though it wasn't active on the dashboard before, i thought it might make a difference to uncheck it)
3. turned off airport
4. There were some connections in the network prefs for parallels - deleted
5. turned on the firewall
6. turned off printer sharing
7. turned off back to my mac
8. turned bluetooth discovery off
9. updated flip4mac, reclaimed control of WMV files
10. turned off a program in the system prefs called MacFUSE

4 hours of no launching and thought i'd fixed it, but then it came back, launching every minute or two after quitting. Back to leaving it open for now.

Hi,
I bought a new core i5 macbook pro a couple of days ago and started getting this problem about 2 hours ago and didn't know what was happening. Everything was disabled, including taking the battery from the remote out, yet itunes was still starting up.

I just found something but not sure if it's the cause of the problem. My audio cable was not connected properly and when i moved it, itunes would start up again, and kept moving it and kept starting up, and while open, i would move it again and it would play songs. I disconnected it and plugged it back in, tried moving it and it would not start itunes. I think this has to do with the port supporting the apple earphones with remote on them. Lets hope this fixes it and if so, hope it helps others.
Luis

Scorpio, you totally called what was going on with my system. Turns out the iMacs also have smart 1/8" speaker jacks, like iPhones and the macbooks? My speakers are older and the connection was shifty - messing with the plug makes iTunes launch and stop/start.

Hooray! Mystery solved.

I believe this is the solution. I just bought a new (non-Apple) monitor and the audio cable is a bit dodgy. Just making sure they are completely and properly seated--and then not moving the mac or the monitor--seems for now to have solved the problem. Thanks!

I have the same problem.
Itunes starts unsollicitedly playing intermitently the first song on the list and restart as soon as I shut it down. Same on all user of the machine.
Any idea, drives me crazy!

My iTunes starts by itself but doesn't begin playing anything. I constantly find it Open after any system restarts. I seldom do restarts but we've been having a lot of thunderstorms so I've been shutting down often lately. But I frequently find it Open even if I haven't restarted my iMac.

This all started w/ my upgrade to OS 10.6 from 10.5. I'll often be using Aperture and find the system response slow. I check and iTunes is Open. It often doesn't respond to just the Quit command and I need to Force Quit to get it to stay off for any length of time.

Next thing I know, I look and iTunes is Open again. This wouldn't really be a problem, and I don't notice until it's slowing the system down, but I don't always have the hard drive where I keep my iTunes Library plugged in. I use a dock for HDs where i switch out hard drives for different purposes. Usually I've got my Aperture Library drive plugged in.

Once it Opens itself it starts downloading Podcasts etc. which I've subscribe to and iTunes starts it's own new Library on my internal drive. When I do plug in the iTunes HD the Library rebuilds itself.

Force Quitting is the only way I can keep iTunes closed for any length of time.

I'm having the same problem. I had it when I first got my Macbook Pro last November. The Apple Store fixed it by finding some bad code and removing it. Now, suddenly, it started up again last week. And I'm quite far from any Apple Store just now... I can't help but think it's connected to installing an iTunes update recently, or maybe another of the updates? I considered reinstalling an earlier version of iTunes but I can't find 9.2 now (I have 9.2.1).

This time it's slightly different from the previous problem I had. Then, the music would start and stop as I was typing. This time, it starts up on its own and stops on its own, even if I'm not typing. It's making me crazy.

TRY THIS TO SORT THE PROBLEM

I had this problem, for about 2 weeks it opened and closed itunes by itself. when i played music it would pause and then play again, all of the symptoms previously described. Caused major grief.

I have no programs like lastfm, etc.

I found that the cause of this problem for me was the audio output jack at the back connecting external speakers. I found the cable was being ever so slightly pulled when i used a wired mouse, so moved the cable clear and made sure that i plugged it back in the jack properly and I havnt had the problem even once since.

IM guesing its because imacs have special headphone jacks like ipods, meaning they can sense when you have pulled the headphones out.

What solved the problem for me was deleting Last.FM (the app) and doing a Disk Utility repair... No problems for the past day! Fingers crossed... xxx B

Ok. Problem came back after a few hours. ;-/ I downloaded the new iTunes 10.1 update just moments ago and I have been listening to the same song uninterrupted (and it's not stopping and starting, iTunes isn't reopening when I close it) so MAYBE this update addressed this issue? I hope so. "performance and security enhancements" could mean anything! Oy! Has anyone else downloaded this today and had any luck with it resolving this issue?

Scorpio,
My wife's iMac had the same problem (which started just recently) and it was driving us crazy, we couldn't find any particular pattern or trigger that could cause it. Until now, your theory is spot on: we jiggled the speaker cable, and sure enough it launched iTunes!

I unplugged the speakers, re-plugged it back in (making sure there was nothing tugging on it that may make it jiggle), and now the problem is solved. We'll soon replace it with a new cable to be sure.

Thanks for the help!
-dZ.

Thank you thank you THANK YOU!!

It was driving me nuts, but it is indeed related to the audio jack. I was listening to the radio on an elgato EyeTV using an oldish audio cable running to my stereo. iTunes kept restarting and playing the first song which was rather annoying (to put it mildly).
Since it happened after turning on home sharing, I wasted a lot of time researching if HS was the cause. After reseating the cable the issue vanished, and fiddling with the audio jack causes iTunes to start immediately, so I'm positive that's the cause of the issue.
Someone should flag your post as the answer.