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[dfortney]

Since around 6+ releases now the media keys are no longer 100% reliable with MC20 and it often randomly launches iTunes instead of capturing the keys first.  Anyone who has experienced this issue knows how much of a hassle it is to have to then open both ui's and stop both players for example to answer the phone usually when you least want this to happen.  Fortunately I have found a way to disable iTunes from ever capturing these media keys...

to disable:

> sudo chmod a-x /System/Library/CoreServices/rcd.app/Contents/MacOS/rcd
> killall -9 rcd
 
to re-enable:

> sudo chmod a+x /System/Library/CoreServices/rcd.app/Contents/MacOS/rcd

all this does is make the rcd process non-executable so next time osx tries to launch it it won't. Enjoy!

[JimH]

Is it this problem?
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=95463.0

Read down for the solution.

[dfortney]

no it is not the same issue.  basically before around 6 releases ago the media keys on the mac wireless keyboard (play/pause, fwd, rev) used to work flawlessly every time while MC20 was open and not cause iTunes to get launched when trying to play or pause music from MC20.  ever since it properly captures the key maybe 30-40% of the time almost randomly and the other 60-70% instead iTunes gets launched to start playing a song when really I was trying to pause MC20 normally to answer a phone call.  It is a bad experience in this case as now not only the original song is playing but also another song is also playing via iTunes at the same time.  I end up fighting with both interfaces to open them up to hit the pause button on each before being able to answer the phone.  It is frustrating but disabling iTunes handling of the media keys completely fixes iTunes from accidentally launching.  Unfortunately it still doesn't make MC20 more reliable in responding to the key presses, sometimes it does sometimes it doesn't.

[Hans Dampf]

I only know this problem with both, VLC and iTunes opened. With my tethered keyboard and MC (Mac with, MC in newest software versions) nothing strange comes up using the media keys.

What I can confirm is, that sometimes the media keys, including volume control, do not work at all.

[avpman]

Hopefully, not far off topic but is JR 20/Mac supposed to automatically make use of the media keys on the Mac keyboard? Or is there something which must be set in JR or the Mac before JR does so?
Thanks for your help.

[bMinor]

What I can confirm is, that sometimes the media keys, including volume control, do not work at all.

+1
same here

[Dr Tone]

I can confirm they aren't working with MC20 anymore.

[avpman]

They work but inconsistency.  At first I thought it had to do with whether or not MC was maximized on the screen because they began to work as soon as I restored down MC. But I couldn't get them to fail again when I maximized MC. There doesn't seem to be a consistently repeatable way to fix/break the key responses.

I did disable iTunes from using the keys by using the code in the OP's post. Before doing that iTunes would always launch whenever I hit one of the media keys.

open a terminal window and type the following commands:

to disable iTunes using the commands in dfortney's post:

> sudo chmod a-x /System/Library/CoreServices/rcd.app/Contents/MacOS/rcd
> killall -9 rcd
 
to re-enable:

> sudo chmod a+x /System/Library/CoreServices/rcd.app/Contents/MacOS/rcd

Peripherally related to this post, since my primary goal is to use the media keys via IR, I am going to try this USB/IR receiving device and see if I can consistently activate the keys (via software) using an IR remote.
https://flirc.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203689115-What-is-Flirc- It's right around $23 at Amazon. I realize it's not a viable solution for the problem with the physical keys. But maybe it can help point the devs in the right direction.

[dfortney]

if anyone solves this issue please post here... i am in dire need of reliable working media keys for MC20