Play button (media buttons) behavior has changed for the worse.

Absolutely agree, I just posted my own bit of feedback via the link you provied. Cheers!

That doesn't work at all

This only works for me until I meet a webpage with video. Then the keys control that freakin’ video again!

I have a similar problem but instead of pausing/playing youtube videos the button plays the sound from a video I was sent on iMessage that I have since deleted in an attempt to solve!

I keep leaving feedback at Apple but nothing changes. What a waste of time. This problem is simply awful.

I find myself hardly listening to music anymore on my Mac.

The little "reflex" program that someone wrote and I saw in this thread has absolutely worked for me so far! thanks to who did that! sorry I dont have time to search for your name now!

Thanks, I agree with you completely. Just reported again.

Thanks! Worked for me! Cheers.

For me you're tips didn't solve the bad behavior of the media keys. They still control what was started to play last. Any new solutions?

@Apple come on!!! Do something about this. We, the people are suffering!!

As a workaround I use the following:

1. Open the Preferences

2. Open the Keyboard

3. Enable "Use the keys 'F1', 'F2'" by ticking the box

4. Disable "Use the keys 'F1', 'F2'" by ticking the box

This seems to work for a little while, so not a permanent solution.

PS. I have the Dutch version of MacOs, so translations might not be 1-on-1.

Same problem. Incredibly annoying, since i always have iTunes playing in the background.

Watching something on Youtube just became ridiculously complicated, as now i have to pause the video right as it starts, bring up iTunes, click the pause button in the window and then go back to the video and resume it, and then make sure i close that Youtube tab if i want to resume iTunes using the media keys.

If 10mins later i want to watch some other Youtube video, i'd better just give up..

I could understand that some people like it this way (although i can't see why you'd take your hand off the mouse to hit the "shortcut" pause key, when a simple click anywhere on the video would've done it). But not having an option to stop this key remapping from happening is a serious oversight!

TO EVERYONE:

the solution proposed by KRSTC works, even if it involves the purchase (or the 45 days trial) of a small utility called BetterTouchTool. Following the instructions on the link he posted I was able to restore the *correct* behavior of the media keys.

Of course we all hope Apple will restore the old method, for that please follow the link someone else posted in this thread and send Apple your feedback about it. More people will do and more possibilities there are that Apple will do that. I already did.

Writing on these forum is not a solution (there could be one if an user finds one), as usually Apple doesn't read posts.

Well... actually I'm retiring my comment, after a restart the situation is back to the beginning, the ridiculous thing is that even a double tap on my airPods doesn't work anymore! because the airPods mimics the play/pause button behaviour and try to pause the current window content and not the current audio source. Most stupid thing ever.

Yep. Sent comment to Apple Feedback yesterday. Mine started working most of the time. Then yesterday it quit. All Function keys worked except the Play/Pause media buttons. But after a Restart, they began working again. I don't understand how something as rock solid as Function key programming has suddenly become an issue after years and years.