iTunes Auto-Open

August 10, 2004 8:41 PM

Here's what I think will be a softball question: My iTunes auto-opens several times each day. I've looked in the HELP section, scanned for some sort of OPTIONS feature, but I'm drawing blanks. Why does it auto-open, and how can I stop it? Thanks (no more inside).
posted by davidmsc to computers & internet (13 comments total)

Mac? PC?
posted by gramcracker at 8:45 PM on August 10, 2004

Do you have an iPod? Is it plugged in when this happens?
posted by o2b at 8:58 PM on August 10, 2004

Also, are you using a Konfabulator widget that controls iTunes, or some other iTunes controller? Many of those will unintentionally launch iTunes as they go about their periodic business, as they are sloppily written to assume that iTunes is always running.
posted by ulotrichous at 9:03 PM on August 10, 2004

You're not using a launcher app like LaunchBar, QuickSilver, Butler, etc., right? You may accidentally be triggering one of the keystrokes for an iTunes feature.

Assuming this is a Mac, here are some more places to check:

- System Preferences > CDs & DVDs

- System Preferences > Accounts > [your user] > Startup Items

- /Library/StartupItems

- Open up Terminal. Type "crontab" (no quotes) and return. See if there's anything in that file. (To back out of there, hit the escape key, then type ':q' (no quotes) and hit return.

If you remember how long ago this started and what software you've added since then, you've got a shot a tracing it back to a culprit that way. Especially look for files added to any of the Library folders since then.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 9:13 PM on August 10, 2004

PC, WinXP. No new software that I can recall since installing iTunes. No iPod. No external musical devices.

Sorry, gang -- I honestly thought that this was something much simpler! Thanks for trying so far...I haven't given up.

(hugs AskMeFi)
posted by davidmsc at 9:37 PM on August 10, 2004

Shot in the dark: are you running Audioscrobbler? I've had problems with it starting up iTunes without my actually telling it to.
posted by Johnny Assay at 9:59 PM on August 10, 2004

Negative, Johnny Assay.
posted by davidmsc at 11:01 PM on August 10, 2004

what is happening on your computer when the application launches?

PC heads in the audience, is there any way to determine which file suffixes are keyed to open in iTunes? I'm wondering if some weird web content in like an ad or something is accidentally triggering iTunes for some reason.
posted by willnot at 11:38 PM on August 10, 2004

Do you have a firewall like zonealarm that tells you when apps are trying to access the internet? It might be handy to tell when Itunes is trying to access the internet and open. You might be able to determine what and why from when. Just a thought.
posted by damnitkage at 3:40 AM on August 11, 2004

It's possible that you're clicking (or something in the background is trying to open) a link to the iTunes Music Store, like this. iTunes will open when this happens and load the music store.
posted by revgeorge at 6:12 AM on August 11, 2004

I think willnot's on the right track- check your File Types in the Folder Options control panel. It's long and tedious, but look for the iTunes music note icon, and make sure there's nothing random associated with it. If something like a MIDI file is mapped to iTunes, your web browser may be redirecting those requests there, and iTunes doesn't know what to do with them, so it just launches and sits there.

Of course, this isn't the worst way to deal with embedded MIDI ;)
posted by mkultra at 6:46 AM on August 11, 2004

If you're comfortable digging in the registry, you can search in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT for "itunes.exe" to see what types of files are associated with it. It's possible that iTunes has been associated with some other file type you open, so that when you open that type of document Windows sends it to both programs.
posted by yarmond at 2:09 PM on August 11, 2004

On my machine (OS X, but your problem might be something similar) several apps open iTunes all by themselves. Limewire and Toast are the most common to do so. I've never understood why Toast does it, but whenever I press 'burn' for an audio CD up comes iTunes.

Does it open in response to something or just randomly? Is it in the system tray all the time or totally shut down?
posted by shotsy at 5:15 PM on August 11, 2004