Media Keys Do Not Work For iTunes

Question

Created Sep ’17

Replies 38

Boosts 1

Views 110k

Participants 40

Since updating to the High Sierra beta, the media keys (skip backward, play/pause, skip forward) do not seem to be working with iTunes anymore. They do however work in Safari to control the playing and pausing of video content (e.g. YouTube).

iTunes Version: 12.6.2.20

macOS: 10.13 Beta (17A358a)

Any ideas would be helpful!

Answer 1

jonfox OP

Sep ’17

I'm having the same issue. Very frustrating...

Answer 2

Alexander1891 OP

Sep ’17

Yes, I have the same issue. I thought my mac is broken but no. I'm really annoyed. Apple should fix this ASAP. I just want my media keys to work as usual.

Answer 3

Krizzpl OP

Sep ’17

Yes, I'm having the same problem.

macOS ver: 10.13 Beta (17A362a)

Answer 4

JeanPa OP

Sep ’17

Same problem, very annoying.

Answer 5

bekirserifoglu OP

Oct ’17

Here is a modest solution.

https://bekirserifoglu.wordpress.com/2017/10/01/solutionworkaround-for-mac-os-high-sierra-unified-media-buttons-playpause-next-and-previous-track-problem/

Answer 6

Stokestack OP

Oct ’17

File a bug report.

Answer 7

Januka OP

Oct ’17

I managed to fix this issue by

1. Restarting to Safe Mode

2. Test Media keys Safe Mode with Itunes (They Will work as expected)

3. Restart to normal mode.

Answer 8

johnskoglund OP

Nov ’17

This issue seems to be fixed in macOS 10.13.1 (17B48) 🙂

Answer 9

maverick808b OP

Nov ’17

I don't think this is fixed just yet. It seems to work for a while after a reset but then the keys just stop working at some point and don't start working again until the next reset.

Answer 10

sikosis OP

Nov ’17

Seems some idiot at Apple decided that "let's make the media keys only work with the *active* window rather than just iTunes"

It's super annoying when you press Play to listen to music and then some random YouTube video in one of your Safari tabs just starts playing instead.

Answer 11

ChipRodgers OP

Nov ’17

Same problem here. This is so annoying. Why doesn't control ever return to iTunes? I've had to restart my laptop to get control back, but then a few hours later, it's lost again and I have to do another restart. Seriously? Hello @Apple??

Answer 12

Martyn Chamberlin OP

Nov ’17

I'm on macOS 10.13.1 and this problem exists for me too. I use Apple Music throughout the day and not being able to start and stop my music without having to go to the iTunes App is debilitating. I’ve filed a bug report about this.

Answer 13

mharper OP

Dec ’17

I had the same problem.

This morning I updated to 10.13.2 and it appears to be fixed.

Answer 14

CindySosa OP

Dec ’17

I had the same problem :(

Answer 15

leroydouglas OP

Jan ’18

It seems there should be a way of making a change to the plist—I am just not clear on the exact verbiage needed.

(of course SIP needs to be disabled first)

/System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.rcd.plist

Answer 16

Alexey S. OP

Feb ’18

The solution worked for me

How to keep media keys fixed to iTunes with macOS High Sierra | 9to5Mac

Answer 17

jjaaffaarr OP

Mar ’18

you're a legend...

Answer 18

aissa OP

Apr ’18

On keyboard settings just select "All controls"

Answer 19

iJamesSaxon OP

Apr ’18

Nope. 10.13.4 that's what my preference was already set to. No dice.

Answer 20

muenalan OP

Apr ’18

Same problem here.

Answer 21

eject83 OP

May ’18

Open System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> Keyboard

Uncheck the F7 and F8 options

Your media keys should work as usual

Answer 22

jimmgrimm OP

Jun ’18

Nailed it! Thank you!

Answer 23

SuperGenius OP

Aug ’18

This doesn't work. As soon as you use the keyboard once, the system reverts to this non function again.

Answer 24

eKirill OP

Oct ’18

Hi! My problem was solved by removing Google Play Music application from Google Chrome. It intersepted media keys pressing somehow.

Answer 25

nseggs OP

Sep ’20

Reviving this old thing to complain that the issue is now even stranger in the Big Sur Beta. Originally the Media Keys controlled iTunes and were great. They worked every time. Then the issue this thread addresses came up: Media Keys input was just handed off to whichever app was in the foreground at any time. That was silly because the foreground app would already have its on-screen controls (and likely the spacebar) available to it for play/pause. Now in Big Sur, the behavior is even worse.

If I open Music and play some music, then open Safari -> YouTube, play a video, and hit the Play/Pause key, the video will pause. BUT, if I then bring Music back to the foreground and hit the Play/Pause key again, control REMAINS with the YouTube video. It's so frustrating.

There have been multiple 3rd party apps which have come and gone dealing with just this one obnoxious behavior. Now, after years of the "most recent foreground" behavior and no word from Apple, it has been updated once again and makes less sense than ever.

I wrote my own app which intercepts those key presses and forces them to Music (more or less a rewrite of a small section of the MadMediaKeyForwarder project here: https://github.com/milgra/macmediakeyforwarder), but I would much prefer just a toggle or some setting in macOS which makes these keys anything close to useful again.

Even just an explanation as to the reasoning or expected behavior of these keys would be great at this point. Ideally they could just be priority-mapped to certain applications or something.