Head phones with builtin microphone and library controls: Possible issue with iTunes?

By Hubert, 27 December, 2014

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hi everyone,
I've recently noticed something that I think could be a possible issue with iTunes and headphones with builtin microphones and controlls. Whenever I touch the place on the wire where the headphones are connected to the mac, my Mac seems to out of nowhere play my iTunes library, even though I didn't open iTunes or pressed any of the controls on the headphones.
I was wondering if this is an issue of some sort, or something that Apple intended to happen?
Is there anything that could be done about this as it's getting a bit annoying.
Regards
Hubert

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Comments

By Piotr Machacz on Friday, January 9, 2015 - 01:49

Your headphone wire seems to slowly be dying. So when you touch it you cause a short which is misinterpreted as pressing the play button. As for its behaviour by default it opens iTunes and start playing (you'll get the same thing if you press fn-F8 on your keyboard which also presses play.). I did a quick search and managed to find this
https://github.com/thebitguru/play-button-itunes-patch
HTH

By Hubert on Friday, January 9, 2015 - 01:49

I was thinking it could be the wire, however, this is a brand new headset and the wire is quite strong so it can't be dying. Is there a way of changing how the touch of the wire is received by the system so that it doesn't open iTunes?

By Carlos M Contreras on Friday, January 9, 2015 - 01:49

It seems that the headset are defective. If they are new, they should be under warranty. What you are describing is not normal behavior, and maybe some wires have problem inside the cord. Are they made by Apple, or any other reputable brand? You should replace them as soon as possible, before they cause some damage to the mac.