My keyboard play/pause and forward/backward buttons suddenly do not work for controlling iTunes

Question

Level 1

22 points

My keyboard play/pause and forward/backward buttons suddenly do not work for controlling iTunes

Starting the other day, on both my home MacBook Pro and my work MacBook Pro, the keyboard controls for iTunes stopped working. The volume buttons on the keyboard still work.

At home, I use the laptop's keyboard. At work, I use an Apple keyboard connected to my Apple monitor via USB.

Any fixes for this sudden and strange change?

MacBook 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.6.3), 120 GB hard drive, 2.5 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Posted on Feb 19, 2015 10:07 AM

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Answer 1

norm123

Community Specialist

Feb 20, 2015 2:16 PM in response to Jeff Hunt1

Hey Jeff,

It sounds like the keyboard function keys settings was changed. Check in System Preferences > Keyboard and in the Keyboard tab there should be an option to “Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys” and that option needs to be uncheck so you can use the keys as they are shown on the keyboard.

How to change the behavior of function keys on your Mac

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT3399

Take care,

-Norm G.

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Answer 2

Jeff Hunt1 Author

Level 1

22 points

Feb 20, 2015 3:00 PM in response to norm123

Thanks, Norm. I did what you said, and the box was already unchecked. I tried checking and re-unchecking it, to no avail.

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Answer 3

norm123

Community Specialist

Feb 21, 2015 2:42 PM in response to Jeff Hunt1

Hello Jeff,

That would be the only thing that I could think of software wise that would cause that. It sounds like a deeper issue and you will want to contact Apple either over the phone or making an appointment at the Genius Bar at one of the Apple Retail Store. Take a look at the link below to get you started.

Contact Apple Support

https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action

-Norm G.

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Answer 4

sanjampet

Level 5

7,982 points

Feb 21, 2015 3:00 PM in response to Jeff Hunt1

Jeff Hunt1,

You can also try a SMC reset, follow the directions for a battery that you can remove yourself, or a battery which you should NOT remove yourself...whichever applies to your machine.

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) - Apple Support

Also if no joy you can try a NVRAM/Pram reset.

Shut down your Mac.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Option, Command (⌘), P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on your Mac.
Immediately press and hold the Option-Command-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears. Continue holding the keys down until your Mac restarts, and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

Resetting PRAM may change some system settings and preferences. Use System Preferences to restore your settings

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Answer 5

Jeff Hunt1 Author

Level 1

22 points

Feb 23, 2015 11:07 AM in response to norm123

Thanks. Before I do that, I'm gonna try searching discussions here to see whether anyone else is experiencing this. I still find it very strange that both my home MacBook (my own property) and my work MacBook (the property of my employer) started exhibiting this behavior at the same time.

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Answer 6

Jeff Hunt1 Author

Level 1

22 points

Feb 24, 2015 7:00 AM in response to Jeff Hunt1

I figured it out via another Discussion topic. The Google Music extension in Chrome, which I had recently updated and was synched on the browsers of both machines, hijacked my F7-F9 buttons.

Re: F8 (play/pause) key not working in iTunes in mavericks

The solution could've been more detailed, so I'll try here for other folks experiencing this issue.

Go to the Chrome preferences dropdown and choose More Tools > Extensions.
At the bottom of the page of Extensions, open Keyboard Shortcuts.
Click the "x" next to each of the keyboard settings for Chrome.

That should do it. Thanks for the help, all.

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