Keyboard Buttons Not Working With Update

It looks like when Apple released iTunes 7.1 they added a module to monitor and grab the commands from keyboards (and remote controls) to allow iTunes to process things like volume up, mute, next track, even when in the background.

However this caused a lot of complaints from people (including myself) because it meant other programs experienced nasty side effects (in particular the mute button became unusable). See this thread as an example (one of many on this topic in these forums) http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=4435537

From what you describe (I have not yet upgraded my Windows machine to iTunes 7.2) it sounds like Apple have removed this function and reverted to the behaviour of iTunes 7.0

With iTunes 7.0 I still found that volume, mute, etc. worked in iTunes when using keys (or a remote) but in that case only if in the foreground (sound was processed as a system wide control so it worked in the background as well).

Does Apple offer the iTunesKeyboardCompatibility dll for download anywhere? I upgraded to 7.2 and would like that functionality back without having to downgrade, if at all possible.

MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.9) Separate XP Pro on an Athlon 64

The keyboard functions work fine for me when I am in iTunes.

It does for me as well, as long as iTunes is the active window. I want to be able to play/pause/forward/backward while browsing or gaming without having to alt-tab like I could in 7.1.

Arguably, having iTunes accept keyboard (or remote control) commands while in the background, is stealing those keystrokes from the foreground application. In my case I typically have iTunes in the background (to act as a server on the network and to also download podcasts), but have Media Center in the foreground and obviously I want to be able to forward, reverse, pause Media Center. If I am trying to play a TV recording in Media Center, I don't want iTunes in the background unexpectedly playing a track.

Other people might also want to use similar programmes like Windows Media Player at the same time as iTunes.

Having another program in the background 'steal' these keystrokes is therefore 'a bad thing'.

In the case of iTunes 7.1 it did not just steal them, it caused them to register twice, resulting in volume controls jumping two steps at a time, and the mute button to instantly unmute itself.

While I can see that it would be nice to control iTunes in the background while say working in Excel, it (as implemented in iTunes 7.1) caused too many problems, and the plethora of complaints I referred and linked to in a previous message.

Seconded. I sorely miss this feature and want it back! I had downloaded a hack for this when using 7.1 and I'd rather not go back to running a helper app just for this.

Come on apple, fix the problem, don't punish those who used the feature!

Windows XP Pro

Ah, so this is a feature not a bug. Interesting. Now that you guys mention running WMP and iTunes at the same time, I can see how it would be an issue. Maybe the developers could give us a checkbox to enable this, as I really like the ability to have iTunes use the media keys while it is minimized.

Windows XP Pro

Aha. It is interesting to know that the absence of these keys is not a bug after all. I had been hoping it was because I sorely miss this feature. I think Apple should have some sort of option for the people who do want to use this. It is a pain to skip around in my music without the use of my keyboard buttons.

Well I was upset about this because I usually have iTunes running in the background, minimized to my system tray.
But, the only keys I used to skip songs, play/pause, etc. were the play/pause, previous, next and stop keys on my multimedia keyboard.
Those keys were designed specifically for doing just that with media players. And, for a good while, they worked with iTunes even when it was minimized to my system tray. But now, they don't work with it at all unless the iTunes window is open, and on top of any other windows. I even tried uninstalling it completely and reinstalling version 7.0, but it still wouldn't work like it used to. Version 7.0 or 7.1 is what I had installed when the keys were working like I wanted them to.

Any suggestions? or is it basically screwed until Apple does something else?

Maybe some of the following ideas will help those wanting to control iTunes in the background (I don't).

1. If you are running iTunes on a Mac (MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, or iMac) running Windows (via Boot Camp) then you can use the Apple Remote with iTunes (Boot Camp 1.2 drivers added support for the Remote). Therefore with initially iTunes in the background you can press the menu button on the Apple Remote to bring it to the front, and use the remote to control iTunes as normal. Furthermore, if you also have the Microsoft Media Center remote, you can still use the Media Center button to bring Media Center back to the front (pushing iTunes back in to the background) and then control Media Center.

2. The KeySpan Express Remote is a USB infra-red controller with both Mac and Windows software. I have not tried this on a PC but on the Mac, the software has a special iTunes mode to let you control iTunes in the background. Even if you don't use this special mode, it can still be configured have the equivalent of the Apple menu button to bring iTunes to the front and then let you control iTunes. See http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/urm17a/homepage.spml

Most of the time, I actually don't use iTunes to play music, but to merely act as a server. I use a Roku SoundBridge M2000 to play music (I have three of them around the house), and this can be used with a Mac or PC. There are also other similar devices available like the Sonos ZonePlayer or the SlimDevices SqueezeBox (or even possibly the Apple TV or XBox 360).

Note: If iTunes is already in the front then you can even use the Microsoft Media Center remote to control iTunes!!

Thanks, but your solutions are a little silly. It's not practical to suggest to people to go buy a remote to control a program. It's running in the background a foot in font of you, not on the other side of the room. Yes, controls do work when iTunes is the front program. But I don't just sit at my computer listening to music. I'm chatting, browsing webpages, typing an assignment while I listen to music. My iTunes is never in the front so it doesn't even matter that the controls work then.