Media Keys Do Not Work For iTunes

For me, this iTunes media keys issue started only a few days ago. I thought back and remembered that I had installed Spotify on my Mac. So I've just uninstalled Spotify and my media keys are back for iTunes. Phew! Easy fix for me, I hope this helps. There's clearly a clash with the controls for these two media applications.

Hi, have just unchecked "Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys on external keyboards" & it works again!

In my case it still messes with Safari's music controll for video content for example. Every time I hit Play/Pause on my Magic Keyboard with num pad (wireless) it shows speaker icon next to URL, but it won't control the Music app running in background. Even the checkbox for controlling function keys is unchecked. I'm running Big Sur but it did the same on Catallina as well.

Hi I have this exact issue. In my case the play and skip buttons don’t work for itunes at all however do work for other media. My solution for making it work for itunes has been to open youtube play a video with mymouse and then pause it with the keyboard play/pause button, quit youtube with command + Q, open itunes and play a song, then pause the song withthe keyboard and all three keys will return to normal.
this however is only a temporary fix and can be frustrating without iternet, I am exploring more permanent solutions but so far have had no luck.

Hi, I have the exact same issue with iTunes (Music as Apple call it now). I tried the workaround suggested by @TaniwhRowan but didn't work for me. Anyhow those buttons are working well for YouTube.

I found the following third party, no longer supported app has done the trick and gave control back to iTunes. Was driving me bezoomny.
macmediakeyforwarder

The media keys seem to be bound to the last application that was playing something. So clicking Play in iTunes will automatically bind them to iTunes again.

I feel there should be an option to manually bind the keys to one specific application.

This problem still exists on macOS Big Sur 11.3.1 with Apple Music 1.1.4.110. The keys for play/pause, next and previous track work fine in Spotify and Pocket Casts for example, but don't work in Apple Music. Does anyone know what can cause this problem with media keys?

UPD. I've tried MacMediaKeyForwarder but it wasn't working for the first try for some reason (was “not responding” in Activity Monitor). I deleted it and then installed again, and it started working. So, it actually helps solving the problem with media keys.

I've just started having a similar problem since I updated to 11.5.1 I think it is has something to do with Apple Music not registering as a media source. The little media icon that appears in the menu bar does not show for the Apple Music app, but does for other media such as you tube in a browser and Spotify. I looked around in the preferences and there is nothing there. Very clueless about how to fix on my end :/

Having the same issue here. This has been intermittently occurring for the last year and a half, and drives me absolutely nuts. When the play/fwd/rev buttons stop working, it defaults to the space bar to play/stop. It's silly how this is a massive bother to me, but what am I supposed to expect after spending thousands of dollars for a beautiful MBP??? I certainly would expect a software bug fix within a month or two, which is entirely reasonable!

Okay, this is going to sound crazy but here goes.

I have had this issue for months. It didn't appear after any specific updates, I don't have any chrome extensions (the most common explanation), and I have been unable to fix the issue after numerous restarts, resets, re installs etc etc etc.

I just gave up and said to myself, hmm. I wonder if there is a way to check whether this very specific set of keys somehow broke all at the same time. I googled "keyboard key tester" and clicked the first link. My skip and pause keys IMMEDIATELY came back online. I can't believe it. After so so much playing around, this fixed it.

I'm posting this here to hopefully help someone, and would also be incredibly curious if it works for anyone else.

This is the link I used: https://en.key-test.ru

I'm having the same problem, too frustrating.

This is a great solution in October 2022