iTunes audio device selection

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Level 1

8 points

iTunes audio device selection

If I change audio devices while iTunes is active, it will remain playing on the audio device it was started with and not change. This is a pain in the butt as it takes 5+ min to restart iTunes on Windows devices (which is another issue).

For example, I'm listening to iTunes on my Win11 computer via it's normal speakers. I turn on and select my headphones. All sounds now come through my headphones EXCEPT iTunes. It stays playing on the speakers and no setting will change this. iTunes needs to be restarted each time to change it's audio device. It does not matter that the iTunes 'Edit > Preferences > Playback > Play Audio Using > Windows Audio Session'. It will not change from one audio device to another despite it seemingly should do.

Is this the same way it works on a Mac device? Or just that Apple fixes to Windows OS iTunes is on the back burner with the gas turned off.

Windows

Posted on Nov 10, 2024 3:33 AM

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Answer 1

JAE042 Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 11, 2024 1:38 AM in response to JAE042

I may have sorted this out. When you start iTunes it looks to see what Windows audio device is active and plays sound. But iTunes is not written well enough to recognize the switch in audio device . So you're options are to close and restart iTunes (waiting 5-10 min for it to launch) to get it to work with the new audio device, stop listening to music until you restart iTunes or go back to the original audio device you were using. .

That's some bad coding. Or it could be that fixing this for a Microsoft product is on the bottom of the 'never to do' list.

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