iPad starts playing music in my bag!

Thanks for the keyboard tip. I'm a student and it is super embarrassing when my iPad just starts playing the Grateful Dead, or Queen, or a recording of another lecture, or a podcast of Car Talk, etc during a lecture or, even worse, an exam!!

I actually had a double whammy the other day. I had the intensely annoying "Try again in 60 minutes" and the iPod started playing and I couldn't turn it off! (I used the outside switch to put the volume down.) It tends to start again at full volume even when I set the volume all the way down on the iPod.

I really like the instant on feature of the iPad and it seems unfortunate to have to disable it - I wonder if someone has made/will make a light weight molded case for the keyboard so that the F8 button can't be pressed?

I have the same problem with my iPad 2 64GB. However, there have been several instances where the music comes on when my wireless keyboard is on my desk two feet away from my bag holding the iPad. Nothing is touching the keyboard keys, and I have a hard case cover on the iPad so I can't imagine that it's buttons are being touched and commands activated.

I also don't understand why I can't just turn the volume down on the iPod. I've tried to reset it when it starts playing music. Even though I have the iPad on silent mode, the music still blares every time--even if I turned it down last time it started playing. Also, once it starts playing, the display is always on the home screen.

Can you please any updates or suggestions? Thanks.

I have the same problem and it didn't start until I started storing my ipad in a new case that also holds the keyboard. I think the keyboard is the link. It is the only way I can see how bumping a button (or a key in this case) will activate the ipod.

I tested this and sure enough, you can turn your ipod on from the keyboard even with the ipad cover closed. The keys on the keyboard are vulnerable to being activated when in a tight fitting bag (I have the iPad wallet from Waterfield Designs- very cool). I thought I had my keyboard powered down but apparently I didn't.

I've had my iPad for almost 3 months and this problem didn't start until I got the bag last week. I would bet that everyone else who has this problem also has a keyboard linked to it.

I'm going to road test this idea and I will be sure to retract if I find out I was wrong. So, no more news from me will be good news.

Okay, there have been enough posts that Apple ought to chime in anytime. My ipod has started playing randomly and I could attribute it (possibly) to my keyboard being knocked. But last week, at 4:00 in the morning when the house was dead asleep my ipod started blaring the Saw Doctors at high volume. It woke the whole house. My Apple bluetooth keyboard was downstairs on the coffee table and the iPad was upstairs charging. I do not have any music alarms set as was suggested in posts elsewhere as a possible culprit. Now I go to bed with the battery cover taken off the bluetooth so that I know the keyboard is disabled. This is a very annoying and unprofessional bug that Apple needs to fix!

Jnoslop-

With a few exceptions, Apple does not read these forums. To let Apple know there is a problem, enough people need to report it using feedback at <iPad Feedback>.

I don't think anyone mentioned that you can stop the music player function by removing the iPod from the Active Apps list. If you double-click the iPad's home button, recent Apps will line up along the bottom of the screen. Scroll across and find the iPod icon. Press and hold until it starts to wiggle. Then press the red minus sign to remove it from the list.

This won't keep a wayward keyboard from starting it again, but should stop the middle-of-the-night serenades.

Fred

I seem to be the newest addition to this problem. In my case, no pun, I was backing up my iPhone4 and my iPad was on my desk. No apps were on. As soon as I was done sync'ing and backing up my iPhone i was going to do the same with my iPad per general maintenance.

While backing up my iPhone all of a sudden my iPad started playing a Robbie Robertson song.

I checked my iPad to see if the iPod app was running and it wasn't! Like I said, no apps were running so I have no clue how music was playing. I do have a couple clock apps, but they are set to go off in the morning and it is 11PM AND my clock alarms are set to alarm sounds not my music.

I launched iPod app and saw that the song in question was "on" and when I pressed pause it stopped.

Then I plugged my iPad into my Mac to do it's backup/sync. All apps were off and in the middle of the backup/sync the same song started again. And I had to launch iPod to stop the song and then quite iPod app.

This has never happened before to me.

The only thing new tonight was that I downloaded Craigs List Pro with notifications that has push capability and...

I noticed that I had the Robbie Robertson album in my playlist checked to be on my iPhone (not iPad) and the same album checked under the Music tab so it was checked twice. I unchecked it in the playlist during my iPhone backup/sync. The same album is checked under the music tab for my iPad, but not as a playlist item on my iPad.

Very weird ghost in the machine...

I have the same problem and the keyboard can't be the culprit. I don't own one. Any other suggestions?

I have had my iPad (work-issued) for several weeks now. I bought a wireless keyboard and an incase origami keyboard case that also works well as a stand. However, the iPad has blared music at inopportune times (in the office, in the subway, etc.) so many times now that I have resorted to Plan B - removed all music, etc. from iTunes, so my iPad is empty. This is not an ideal solution, and something that should be rectified by Apple if the device is supposed to be what all expect.

Regardless of whether the bluetooth keyboard is unsynced or not (I am not sure why powering down the iPad, or unsyncing bluetooth each time, etc., are rationale ways of dealing with this as the iPad should be an "always-on, instant-on" device - that is its utility). The problem appears to lie in the iTunes functionality within the iPad itself - why accidentally pushing a keyboard function (e.g., F8) would start a random song (i.e., not the last that was being played - and no, I am a Luddite - I don't shuffle, but only listen to "albums" or my own "playlists" as "mixed tapes") at a volume level (highest) which I have never set to in the first place, is clearly a glitch. In all my years of owning an iPod, iPhone, or for that matter, any other music-playing device, I have never dealt with an issue such as this.

I trust something will be addressed so I can safely load my music back on to my iPad, and use it for the purpose it was built - multifunctional (work or play), convenient, and always-on - so that as long as it is charged, I can reliably count on it for any use. Until then, I feel a bit like I have a cool-looking Windows device - i.e., good for work, but with personal limitations...

FYI. To fix the problem I just turned my wireless keyboard off and wil sell it on eBay. Maybe I'll try a trip the the genius bar first.

Alpha: all I know is that I never had this problem until I got a wireless keepboard and it stops when the keyboard is off or not around. But you could still be right if there's a setting that gets set for the keyboard and causing the problem.

Personaly, I'd go to a Genius Bar. It's free and they'll solve it and then you can share it here. Thanks.

Steven

This has been happening to me as well. I resorted to moving my music into a folder on the home screen so it could be activated. It still happens though. I do have a keyboard, but I doubt that's the problem as it was happening to me before I got the keyboard - and just happened after I had disconnected the Bluetooth.

I guess I need to go to the genius bar as well.

@Carrie-T

That is odd. I only experienced the problem after buying the bluetooth keyboard. When it is on and close enough to my iPad, if I hit a key, it seems to set the music to play.

When I turn the keyboard off, the problem stops.

For me, it is clearly related to the keyboard. So I'm wondering.. do you have any other bluetooth hardware running that is close enough to your iPad? I assume your iPad (or iPhone?) needs to recognize the bluetooth device to make this happen.

Do you have any other bluetooth devices besides the keyboard?

To everyone reading this with this problem, I would highly recommend making a Genius Bar appointment and bringing the Apple device that is randomly playing music along with your keyboard and demonstrating it for a tech there. I think this is the only way to resolve this is to get Apple directly involved.

Hope that helps. If you do... and get a resolution, please advise this thread so we all know.

This shows up with some frequency, and it is always the existence of a bluetooth device. Keyboard, and somtimes speakers or headphones. All keyboards and some headphones and speakers have a control to start music at the push of the right button. It is not a bug, but part of the design.

Turn off the device. Pull the batteries if you have to. Or totally turn the bt radio off in the pad, and only tuen it on when you want to use it.

I READ THROUGH ALL OF THESE POSTS AND I CAN'T FIND THE NAME OF THE PERSON WHO HAD THE CORRECT SUGGESTION, BUT KUDOZ TO HIM/HER. I have an iPad2 and an apple wireless keyboard. I just started carrying my apple wireless keyboard in an origami case (which i love the functionality of it serving as a stand/work station for my iPad) and music would begin auto-playing from my backpack. I have a ridiculous playlist of songs i have sung at karaoke bars before, so being in a business meeting and having Kenny Rogers's "Lady" playing is embarassing for a 41 year old male (ok singing that song at a karaoke bar is embarassing as well). I read through all of the proposed solutions, and turning off bluetooth on the iPad each and everytime you go to transport it in a bag would be way too cumbersome. I tried the solution suggested of powering down the apple wireless keyboard so that the F8 button when accidentally pressed by the force inside my backpack would not activate the music player on the iPad2, and it works brilliantly. Hold the power button on the apple wireless keyboard down for about 3 seconds - first the tiny green light will come on, and then it will go off. To test this, I put my iPad2 in sleep mode without powering down the keyboard, hit the F8 button and sure enough, phantom music playing. I powered the apple wireless keyboard down, put the iPad2 to sleep, hit the F8 button and no music. Hit many keys and no music. Put both hands on the keyboard and pressed all of the keys and no music. Pressed the power button once to power up the apple wireless keyboard again, pressed F8 and phantom music playing again. Life is good. Someone posted they deactivated their bluetooth and the music still played? That sounds like a different issue. For those of you with an apple wireless keyboard that you transport in a bag with an iPad2 in sleep mode, powering down the keyboard is the best solution so that the F8 key does not autoplay.

My wife and I each bought a new iPad. I had no wireless keyboard, but my iPad started playing a radio station in the middle of the night while asleep in it's bag. Tonight we bought wireless keyboards. In the store, my wife's iPad started playing music when it was asleep in it's bag, and the Apple so-called expert at the Apple store told her to turn the iPad completly off. This is a totally stupid solution. On the way out of the store, my iPad started playing music in the bag as well. I'm going to complain to Apple about it.