Q: iTunes starts up whenever I connect my bluetooth headset

apparently they also found a way around this to annoy the fk out of us... this workaround doesn't work around anymore

Sue Apple...that's about where I'm at with this issue. Apple has a stake in this music game, but I should be able to use whatever music provider I want...without them injecting their own music solution on me. This is back to the days of MS and IE...where IE was tightly integrated into the platform. I should not HAVE to be forced to use their applications for everything. I'm tired of it. Apple isn't about the ecosystem anymore. They're about making money...and these are tactics to force you to explore their options over others.

Every...single...time...I connect my BT BeoPlay 8 HP to listen to spotify or pandora....iturnes gets turned up and AUTOMATICALLY starts playing! what crap is that?!

I did not realize that this board was "user to user," but I did wonder why Apple never chimes in.

I admit to not reading about these boards before posting; in hopes of setting to rest any further misconceptions, please reply with a link to where I might do so.

Thank you!

Steve

Thank you!

I have a new bluetooth headset that pauses and resumes each time I take them off or put them on.  Today is the first time trying them to stream music from a web site and found the issue that many others have described. 

A quick scan of this thread showed a few solutions, but I did not quickly find a solution like the one that I threw together this morning.  Here it is:

Using your favorite editor, create a file called iTunesSniper.sh with the following contents.  I put it in a bin directory that I have off my home directory.

while [[ 1 -eq 1 ]]; do

d=`date`

killpid=`ps -A | grep iTunes$ | tr -s ' ' | cut -d'?' -f1`

rc=$?

if [[ ${rc} -eq 0 && ! -z ${killpid} ]]; then

  kill ${killpid}

  echo "${d} killed"

fi

sleep 1

done

make sure that the file is executable.

chmod +x iTunesSniper.sh

Run the script from the terminal window.  Every second it will check for the iTunes process and when it finds it, it will kill it.  It will print the date and time each time it kills the pid.  When you don't need it's help anymore, ctl-c will exit the script and iTunes will run without having to rename anything or change any permissions.

bin$ ./iTunesSniper.sh

Tue Aug 11 10:05:45 CDT 2015 killed

Tue Aug 11 10:05:46 CDT 2015 killed

Tue Aug 11 10:05:47 CDT 2015 killed

Tue Aug 11 10:05:48 CDT 2015 killed

Tue Aug 11 10:05:55 CDT 2015 killed

I hope that this helps.

I just got a new bluetooth headset and had the same problem. Now I come across this thread which is 5 years old. I think I'm going to buy a wired headset instead and keep this bluetooth to use with my phone.

Shame on Apple for not solving something so simple!

In honor of your fix, here is a possible one-liner adaptation:

while :; do pkill iTunes$ && /bin/echo -n "killed at " && date; sleep 1; done

After hours of trying various workarounds for this, I found a solution which works:

You can either:

     1. Use an app to disable the iTunes play/pause hotkeys (which also disables this bluetooth auto-start functionality.

      The app can be downloaded from this link: http://redth.codes/itunes-media-hotkey-disabler/

     2. Make the same changes yourself using terminal:

     To disable the functionality:

     To re-enable it:

Hope that helps!

Thank you Will248, this worked for me!

Finally, this is a solution that worked. I'm running OS X  10.10.5 (14F1021)

What an unbelievably infuriating situation.  I added it to my .profile file.

Thank you, BillHahn, Well organized! This method work for me, it is on page 4. By the way I am using 10.9.5

This worked for me: delete the iTunesHelper application from Apple->System Preferences->Users & Groups->Login Items

I know you wrote this over a year ago, but THANK YOU SO MUCH. Your terminal method is the only one that's worked to rid my life of iTunes. I can finally connect to my LG bluetooth headset without iTunes stealthily launching itself/blasting Adele's "Skyfall" (the first track in my library :P) at my face. You're my hero, applesmbissues!

A simpler solution: put your laptop or desktop to sleep; activate the bluetooth device and itunes will not be seen by it.

I use my iphone to play my Spotify Premium on a Bose Minilink; putting the laptop to sleep worked perfectly.

Yep, I can confirm the above.  The issue is NOT with iTunes.  Rather, the issue is with a process called iTunesHelper that launches on startup.  Preventing this process from starting at bootup (or even just manually killing it using Activity Monitor) will prevent iTunes from automatically launching when you connect a Bluetooth audio device.  Thanks for the post above.

EDIT: Crap, never mind.  I'm still having the same issue even with iTunesHelper disabled.  It just takes 10 seconds longer....