iTunes automatically starts playing when iPhone 5 (w iOS 7.0.2) is connected to car radio via an Apple cable

As an engineer who has invested in apple products and the framework for over 20 years, the fact that the only solution to this issue is to create a long blank mp3 called AAAA is embarrassing, pathetic, and frankly low quality in a way that I've never associated with any apple product or feature up until this point.

This is a simple switch.

I am a Google Play user on an IPhone 7. Every single time I would plug my phone in or use Bluetooth, my phone the annoying Vampire Weekend song. It would even randomly start playing while I would be listening to one of my playlists on Play. The only solution I have found is literally deleting Apple Music from my phone. I know this is not a solution if you use ITunes of course, but if you use another platform this seems to do the trick.

I was on here looking for a solution to this annoying problem and started laughing when I read some of the posts. Jackson 5's "ABC" was the first song in my library too. My daughters and I all screamed at the radio every time I plugged it in. I deleted the song from my library. Sadly, now I have to hear Abracadabra by Sugar Ray. The only solution I have come up with, is trying to remember to hit Shuffle in my library before plugging into my car stereo. I don't mind that music automatically starts playing, but I do mind that it's the same $@#*%$# song every time!!

I know it's been quite a while since you posted this, but I also ran into this problem (more recently), and I have done something that might help you and all of the other people who have been having this issue.

I have created a song that is 79 minutes of silence and called "AAA Silence" (search for that in the iTunes Music Store). Because--in my experience--the "autoplay" just starts playing the first song you have alphabetically, "AAA Silence" will start playing. So at least you won't have music playing, it will just be silent. And you'll have 79 minutes to start some other song.

I also made a web site, aaasilence.com, which explains it in a bit more detail.

Thank you for the kind advice.

This function is interrupting the normal operation of IOS.

This issue is more then the inconviniounce of having to handle the iPhone while driving.

Simply stated;

iPhone users require a common sense and safe solution to this problem.

Apple has created a hazardous situation by equipping the IOS with a mindless auto-start

function to do , of all things, play iTunes!

It is dangerous if not arrogant for Apple to assume that pushing a function that requires human interface

to disable it.

jm

Thank you for the kind advice.

This function is interrupting the normal operation of IOS.

This issue is more then the inconviniounce of having to handle the iPhone while driving.

Simply stated;

iPhone users require a common sense and safe solution to this problem.

Apple has created a hazardous situation by equipping the IOS with a mindless auto-start

function to do , of all things, play iTunes!

It is dangerous if not arrogant for Apple to assume that pushing a function that requires human interface

to disable it.

I feel held hostage by Apple. Their system literally overrides other audio I want to play via Bluetooth in my car! Other App starts to play, stops and on comes Apple Music AGAIN. Even though I have manually turned off music - even when Apple music app is off. How can they hijack my Bluetooth like this?

I have a Honda Jazz that works great using the USB port for playing music as an "IPOD"; I am terribly frustred by the fact that the same song starts playing everytime - when in fact I want to stream radio using the internet (as many others have noted).

HOWEVER, I have deleted all the songs from the library on my phone -- now when I plug the phone in, the dash display says "No Song" AND NOW there is no sound coming from any of the other applications including Waze. This means I have to have at least one song, have it start playing on the phone, switch screens to pause the song en then only will the GPS and the streaming radio in the car play music via the ipod device.

My only solution now will be to create on "song file" that has no sound, just to activate the IPOD functionality and have playback work in my car.

PLEASE PLEASE fix this!

I still have this problem, running iOS 11.1.1 on an iPhone 8 plus. I have NO music downloaded to my phone. When I plug into my vehicle's USB port, the iTunes library plays automatically. I don't want the library anywhere on my phone, but it shows up anyway. It apparently doesn't matter whether you have chosen to only download certain music on your phone (I tried that with my SE). If you do not choose a playlist and start the music that you have manually chosen, the whole library will begin playing. This also happens when I connect to bluetooth. I want it to stop. I left the music OFF my phone for a reason. I've found a lot of advice online for how to delete music from my library, but I don't want to do that. I purchased it, I want to keep it in my library. I don't want it to play on a device that I haven't downloaded it to.

I'm thinking this is closest to the issues on my 6s.

I've deleted all music and playlists from my phone via iTunes/PC. Even deleted all iTunes/iPhone backups from my PC.

"Settings>Music>Downloaded Music>Zero kb" displays in Music settings.

"Settings>Cellular>Music>off" displays in Cellular settings.

Disabled "show show apple music" in Music settings.

Reproduction:

1. Listen to Spotify on 6s. App is left open with current song paused.

2. Plug my phone into the USB of my car (Toyota Rav4 - 2015, or Hyundai Sonata - 2013).

3. iTunes begins playing first song listed in device? Cloud? iOS? (sorry, no idea what it's playing the song from).

4. Double-click home button to force-quit iTunes. App is not active and only pressing "pause" on vehicle's physical radio or disconnecting the USB cable from car or continuing to step 5 stops the music.

5. Switch to Spotify, play song, iTunes no longer plays.

With 11.0 or later (or when I first noticed), I found I was able to delete the iTunes app from my 6s. I removed the iTunes app from my phone tested this in both vehciles for a couple of days. Doing so, I found the auto-play of non-existent songs by iTunes ceased.

BUT, deleting the iTunes app caused a new and worse issue in that while using Spotify my FF/REV buttons no longer worked using the car steering wheel audio controls or FF/REV buttons on the physical car stereo (in either vehicle), but the controls still work using the buttons in the Spotify app.

Next, I re-installed iTunes and the exact issue described in the 5 steps above replicated itself and the exact same song started playing again automatically.

I'm lost on how to fix this extremely annoying issue which has been happening for several years as others have posted.

I have this problem also and it is so annoying, especially when I am in the middle of listening to something else. When driving this is a safety issue because you are distracted from the road trying to turn off iTunes.

Hey sdkatsh,

I have the same issue as well, it honestly is the most frustrating thing. I have a iphone 4s on 7.0.4, and the moment i plug the phone in using a usb (apple usb cable) to the car, it begins playing the first song in my itunes (music). I prefer listening to my music through soundcloud, however the itunes stops and overrides soundcloud. I dont know what to do, no matter how many times I press pause on the itunes song, and press play on the soundcloud song, it just overrides it and presumes playing the first song in my itunes list.

What can we do about this? APPLE NEEDS TO SOLVE THIS!!!!!!

I have the same problem with my iPad mini. iOS 7.0.4. Automatically starts playing the same song any time I plug into my car thru USB with my Apple sync cable. If I'm in Spotify, the itunes song will play at the same time. Not easy to stop, since iTunes doesn't appear to be open in multitasking. So I have to open it, navigate to Now Playing, and stop playback. Super annoying! I can't find any setting to disable this, and it only happens in my car.

I just want to chime in this is happening to me as well. Makes me want to throw my phone out the window every day.

Same issue here. Extremely distracting and frustrating. I hope to see a response with a resolution.