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elmnt Author

Level 1

27 points

iTunes keeps opening by iteself

I've been Googling this for a while. I keep seeing the same offered solutions, and they're not working:

1. I don't have any conflicts in my Login Items

2. I don't have any related widgets causing a problem

3. "Open iTunes when this [device] is connected" is UNCHECKED for ALL my iOS devices

4. "Sync with this [device] over Wi-Fi is UNCHECKED for ALL my iOS devices

Every solution I've seen so far claims one of those, above, will solve it, yet iTunes keeps opening. I have to Force-Quit it 3 or 4 times in a row to get it to close. It opens again about 15 to 20 minutes later EVERY TIME.

This started after I updated my iPad to iOS 5.1.1 (9B206)

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Greg

iTunes-OTHER, iOS 5.1.1, MacBookPro running 10.6.8

Posted on May 30, 2012 11:49 AM

Best reply

elmnt Author

Level 1

27 points

Posted on Jun 1, 2012 4:08 PM

Update: I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with an Apple support person, to no avail. The LAST thing he had me try was to remove the .plist file from the Preferences directory (forcing iTunes to create a NEW .plist file when it was opened again).

iTunes did not "zombie open" after that file was removed. But once I opened it manually, then closed it again (after iTunes had created a new .plist file, having been opened), same old behavior.

The Apple support person concluded that there was "something corrupt" in the .plist file. I don't agree, since the behavior just starts all over again once I open iTunes manually again (after having removed the .plist file). It's just creating a basic .plist file each time. There really couldn't be anything "corrupt" in it, each time.

My personal conclusion is that there is some bug in iOS 5.1 that they haven't figured out yet. Typical of Apple, when there is a pervasive bug, they just claim to not know about it until they fix it. Then they'll say "Oh we found a bug and fixed it in this update," instead of saying "We know of the bug you're all experiencing, and we're working to fix it." They don't do this because it makes them look bad ("We're not sure what it is, and we're trying to fix it, etc.")

This has been my experience with Apple anyway. So this is still pretty FCKD, and remains unfixed...

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53 replies

jmarshal

Level 1

4 points

Jan 1, 2013 7:11 PM in response to elmnt

I had this problem as well on a Mac Pro running OX Lion. I don't use iTunes at all on this machine since I sync my iphone with a MacBook Pro.

The temporary solution was to find iTunes in the Applications folder, choose FILE > GET INFO in the finder, change access for 'everyone' to 'no access'. So iTunes stopped opening but I also couldn't use it at all since the system could not access that folder.

Permanent solution: After looking around quite a bit, I saw people making references to something in Dashboard opening iTunes. Sure enough, I open Dashboard and there is a widget called 'Red Alarm Clock' telling iTunes to open. I think it was activated by an accidental keyboard shortcut combination at some point. After deleting it, iTunes no longer continually opens. Finding the solution to this seemed a lot more difficult than it should have been though.

Jan 5, 2013 3:10 PM in response to elmnt

In case anyone else is googling why itunes keeps opening by itself, I found my issue. I had installed a screensaver that would display the name of the current itunes track. iTunesCantComplain. Sadly if itunes isn't open when it kicks in, it causes itunes to startup automatically. Switched back to a picture and it's fine...

Jan 25, 2013 5:53 AM in response to elmnt

I was experiencing the same problem:

- iTunes crashing very frequently, usually when opening preferences

- iTunes repeatedly asking for my ID and password (6-8 times)

- when iTunes crashes or I quit it, it immediately relaunches itself

The solution I found was:

(1) delete all .plist files associated with iTunes in the Preferences folder:

- in Finder, hold option key and select the Go menu, then select Library

- navigate to Preferences

- use the in-folder search bar to find everything that contains "iTunes"

- delete all of these file (I prefer to first back them up, just in case)

(2) Download a fresh copy of iTunes from http://apple.com/itunes/, and reinstall it

For me, this cleared up all of the problems, which I assume were caused by a corrupted preference file.

Jan 29, 2013 5:35 PM in response to Daniel Sroka

Update: a few days later, iTunes started going wonky again, crashing and rebooting itselt. I realized it happened right after I downloaded some songs from Emusic using their Downloader. The downloader automatically syncs the files with iTunes (adding them to the library), so I wondered if this was a potential cause.

So I trashed the pref files again, and reinstalled iTunes. Everything was fine. Now I tried using Amazon's MP3 downloader, which also tries to sync files with iTunes. Right after the sync, iTunes went wonky again. Coincidence? We'll see. I turned off both apps syncing feature, and reinstalled iTunes. We'll see how long it works for.

Jan 30, 2013 6:32 AM in response to Daniel Sroka

Update: iTunes still on a cycle of crashing, relaunching, repeat. Can't get it to NOT run.

Jan 30, 2013 7:14 AM in response to Daniel Sroka

Totally forgot that I have the Logitech Media Server installed for my Squeezebox radio. Checked their forum and sure enough someone else experienced this problem. http://forums.logitech.com/t5/MySqueezebox-com-Squeezebox/iTunes-crashes-and-res tarts-Squeeze-Box-Server-the-cause/m-p/754892

Turning it off -- seeing if this helps.

Mar 13, 2013 1:14 PM in response to elmnt

I got help from APL-CARE this morning and they were able to fix the issue for me. All we had to do was restart my iMac and we DID NOT CHECK the "Reopen windows and logging back in". That fixed it!

God this was drving me nuts! Hope this helps others.

Mar 25, 2013 6:39 AM in response to Demonhunter315

@Demonhunter315

That totally fixed mine. THANK YOU.

Mar 25, 2013 6:57 AM in response to copyWright

Great! Glad that helped. My iTunes started acking up again so I guess its time to reboot. WHEN IS APPLE GOING TO FIX THIS???!!!???

DJClimax

Level 1

4 points

Apr 10, 2013 12:24 PM in response to jonmarinello

I'm still having the same problem. Wanted to find out if there are any updtaes.

May 14, 2013 7:27 PM in response to DJClimax

It looks like this page has a lot of questions and no answers. My iTunes just started doing this today and it's driving me crazy. I don't even have iTunes Helper in my Mac so that can't be the issue. I'm in Lion 10.7.5 and have had the current version of iTunes for awhile. This started when I got on my computer today and has done it about 5 times. I had to force quit the app twice and I've restarted once. I tried everyone's suggestions on here that applied to my system but were all failed attempts.

Does Apple ever check the forums to see if bugs are fixed for anyone? It doesn't seem like it.

Waz27

Level 1

0 points

Jul 2, 2013 9:08 PM in response to Demonhunter315

Thanks for this - wish I had checked this first

Starfix

Level 1

0 points

Jul 12, 2013 4:37 PM in response to elmnt

SOLUTION! It's because your Blutooth is on. Just disable your blutooth and itunes will stay closed.

Aug 31, 2013 5:09 PM in response to stevene_me__

stevene+me I'm having the same problem (headphone jack noise causes iTunes to start up)... I see no solution.

samofsam

Level 1

0 points

Sep 30, 2013 6:48 PM in response to Demonhunter315

This fixed my problem, thanks! The problem widget was "Red Alarm Clock". To delete it I had to access the second Library widget folder as detailed here- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4792734?answerId=21195679022#21195679022

iTunes keeps opening by iteself