SOLUTION: The media keys IN iTunes are for some odd reason (or maybe a bug) internet bound. No internet means they don't work in iTunes but just fine for every other Media Player etc. I will contact Apple and ask if I have the time in the near future. If something substantial is said I will update this post.
Hi everybody,
so I ran into this problem on a car trip today but I can track it back to 2 scenarios that probably caused it. More about that later.
Since macOS (High) Sierra there were a few problems with the media keys... and they are pretty popular as I found out on Google.
Whatever, from time to time my media keys would not work anymore.
Steps like
-NVRAM/PRAM reset
-SMC reset
-Safe Boot Mode for fixing
-Resetting Keyboard shortcuts
-Checking and unchecking how function keys are used etc.
worked for me at that time, but not anymore.
When l'm at my desktop and press the >= (Play) key, iTunes opens up normally. But after that not one key, be it << (Previous), >= (Play) or >> (Next) works anymore. I can simply not use them.
BUT, if I use VLC or MediaPlayer to play a movie or music file I can use my media keys just fine to control them (VLC / MP) even if thy are in the background.
I think this is normal macOS behavior to bind the last used media program to the media keys.
So, I confirmed that my media buttons are not broken, I tried many things I knew or Google told me and am now at the point where I believe that it might be a serious OS problem that I can only fix with a fresh installation of macOS
I hope someone in this forum maybe knows a fix to my problem.
Some other stuff I noticed:
In the Notification Center a Widget named "Now playing" exists. If I press it's play button it also opens iTunes but can't do any more. If I start playing a song in iTunes it also doesn't show me this in the widget. This let's me believe it may be a more serious software problem.
Now about what I think maybe caused the Problem:
1) I updated to the newest macOS Mojave 10.14.4 . Before this I did not have any problems. I always am sure to have the newest stable software releases. So it wasn't a huge software jump that maybe could have caused a problem.
2) A few days ago I connected a bluetooth Keyboard to my MacBook. It was a Mouse + Keyboard combo that connected to a USB antenna that I plugged into my MBP. During the setup of the keyboard Layout (where you have to press a few buttons so Mac can identify the Layout) there was a weird glitch and the setup failed... did not try it again after that.
Every help is much appreciated, thanks to you all! Good day!
Specs:
macOS Mojave 10.14.4
iTunes 12.9.4.94
MBP (Retina, 15", Mid 2015)
- i7 QuadCore, 16GB RAM, 512SSD, AMD and Intel Graphics Card
Hi everybody,
so I ran into this problem on a car trip today but I can track it back to 2 scenarios that probably caused it. More about that later.
Since macOS (High) Sierra there were a few problems with the media keys... and they are pretty popular as I found out on Google.
Whatever, from time to time my media keys would not work anymore.
Steps like
-NVRAM/PRAM reset
-SMC reset
-Safe Boot Mode for fixing
-Resetting Keyboard shortcuts
-Checking and unchecking how function keys are used etc.
worked for me at that time, but not anymore.
When l'm at my desktop and press the >= (Play) key, iTunes opens up normally. But after that not one key, be it << (Previous), >= (Play) or >> (Next) works anymore. I can simply not use them.
BUT, if I use VLC or MediaPlayer to play a movie or music file I can use my media keys just fine to control them (VLC / MP) even if thy are in the background.
I think this is normal macOS behavior to bind the last used media program to the media keys.
So, I confirmed that my media buttons are not broken, I tried many things I knew or Google told me and am now at the point where I believe that it might be a serious OS problem that I can only fix with a fresh installation of macOS
I hope someone in this forum maybe knows a fix to my problem.
Some other stuff I noticed:
In the Notification Center a Widget named "Now playing" exists. If I press it's play button it also opens iTunes but can't do any more. If I start playing a song in iTunes it also doesn't show me this in the widget. This let's me believe it may be a more serious software problem.
Now about what I think maybe caused the Problem:
1) I updated to the newest macOS Mojave 10.14.4 . Before this I did not have any problems. I always am sure to have the newest stable software releases. So it wasn't a huge software jump that maybe could have caused a problem.
2) A few days ago I connected a bluetooth Keyboard to my MacBook. It was a Mouse + Keyboard combo that connected to a USB antenna that I plugged into my MBP. During the setup of the keyboard Layout (where you have to press a few buttons so Mac can identify the Layout) there was a weird glitch and the setup failed... did not try it again after that.
Every help is much appreciated, thanks to you all! Good day!
Specs:
macOS Mojave 10.14.4
iTunes 12.9.4.94
MBP (Retina, 15", Mid 2015)
- i7 QuadCore, 16GB RAM, 512SSD, AMD and Intel Graphics Card
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