media keys not working properly on Big Sur

I solved it by going into System Preferences -> Security & Privacy, Scrolling to "Full Disk Access" and adding Music to the app list.

I didn't know why, but this fixed the problem for me.

please can you try this: going into System Preferences -> Security & Privacy, Scrolling to "Full Disk Access" and adding Music to the app list.

Can you try this: going into System Preferences -> Security & Privacy, Scrolling to "Input Monitoring" and adding Music to the app list.

I am having a similar issue. Not only are the media keys not working on my (Apple Wireless) Keyboard, but on my Touch Bar as well. Only way to control Apple Music is directly using the app.

If Music.app has not yet launched, hitting the PLAY/PAUSE button on the keyboard will launch it, but otherwise it does nothing.

I'm having the exact same issue as ehmjay.

The media keys don't control Music.app at all, and the Now Playing widget in Control Center shows nothing.

Hitting either Play/Pause on the keyboard or on the Control Center opens Music.app, but from there on, nothing happens.

I read that sometimes Chrome hijacked the Media Keys and prevented them from working elsewhere.

I disabled it by going into the flags:

chrome://flags/#hardware-media-key-handling

This fixed the issue for a bit, however it once again started happening. I've restarted the computer, reset the PRAM, and SMC and neither helped.



The other Media keys: Launchpad, Exposé, Brightness, Volume work as intended.

For some reason Music.app needs complete access to the internet for the media keys to work . So, if you use any network extensions to block some internet traffic, make sure the Music.app is whitelisted or is allowed to connect on load.

I had a similar (and perhaps related) play/pause problem with YouTube on Safari.

Neither the spacebar nor the onscreen play/pause button did anything.

Hitting the F8 key cleared up the problem.

Tastiest hack I've seen in forever. You're huge.

Wow, this worked for me too. Thank you!!