Apple released macOS High Sierra to the public back in September, bringing notable changes such as Apple File System, Safari 11, and more. https://newmon878.weebly.com/blog/best-professional-dvd-authoring-software-mac. One change that’s proved to be more of an annoyance, however, relates to the media keys. No longer do they control just media apps like iTunes and Spotify, but rather they control any sort of video and audio playback.
Poor calibration by Apple and bad decision making for not giving us a choice to change it. I think that app called Mac Media Key Forwarder should to a trick, search for it on GitHub. Original Poster 2 points 9 months ago. Thanks for the reply, however I should've mentioned that I was on Windows 10. Change Media & Purchases preferences for your Apple ID on Mac. On your Mac, use Media & Purchases preferences to change the transaction and purchase settings associated with your Apple ID. You must be signed in to App Store or Apple Books to have access to Media & Purchases preferences. Jun 04, 2020 Disable Chrome’s Hardware Media Key Feature. Google Chrome supports keyboard media keys and the feature is undoubtedly helpful for most. What spoils things is the fact Chrome “listens” to your media keys all the time that the browser is open. This happens regardless of whether you have the app in focus or running in the background.
If you’re like me, that’s come as more of a bother than a real feature, but a new third-party tool aims to restore media keys to their previous glory…
Spotted by Stephen Hackett over at 512 Pixels, a free Mac app named High Sierra Media Key Enabler is incredibly useful if you too have been bothered by High Sierra’s new attitude toward media keys.
Essentially, as you move around High Sierra, the media keys follow you. If you watch a video on YouTube, the media keys become associated with Safari. Even an autoplay video ad can trigger the switch, something that can be incredibly annoying if you leave iTunes running throughout the day for podcasts and music.
High Sierra Media Key Enabler, developed by Milan Toth, fixes these woes in an easy to use third-party app. The app literally has one purpose: locking the media keys to either iTunes or Spotify. This means that if you open a YouTube video or any other form of media, the keys will still control iTunes or Spotify. Once you’ve downloaded and opened the app, all the woes you were having with
They changed the behaviour of the media controller keys, they no longer control iTunes, they control the video playback in safari. This pissed off a lot of people including me, so I just created a menu bar app to proxy media key events to iTunes/Spotify while Apple fixes this. It doesn’t support Touch Bar yet, only physical buttons.
One thing to note about this app is that it does place a small play symbol in your menu bar, but this can easily be removed with an app like Bartender, which hides unwanted icons from your menu bar.
High Sierra Media Key Enabler currently only works with physical media controls – not on the more recent Touch Bar controls.
This is certainly a simple app, and one that’s need for existence is somewhat jarring, but it’s a must have if you’ve become annoyed with how High Sierra handles media controls. Download it here.
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If you’re having issues with your keyboard media keys not working in desktop apps when the Chrome browser is running, this post is for you.
There is simple, but not-obvious way to stop Chrome ‘stealing’ your media keys when the browser is open. You don’t need to download or install anything, and the trick works on Windows, maOS and Linux systems alike.
Best free music mixing software for mac. Google Chrome’s hardware media key handling feature (to give it its full name) is pretty handy, especially if you use streaming sites like Spotify Web, Netflix, BBC iPlayer, etc frequently.
But it’s also pretty annoying when you press pause/play/next/previous buttons to skip a track in a desktop app like iTunes, only for nothing to happen at all.
Although this “feature” is enabled by default you can disable it, and here’s how.
Disable Chrome’s Hardware Media Key Feature
Mac Media Key Forwarder Apps
Google Chrome supports keyboard media keys and the feature is undoubtedly helpful for most.
What spoils things is the fact Chrome “listens” to your media keys all the time that the browser is open. This happens regardless of whether you have the app in focus or running in the background.
And this is precisely where the annoyance creeps in. You only want desktop apps to respond to keyboard media key presses, not your web browser.
Thankfully there is a simple, built-in way to disable the feature if this behaviour isn’t one you want.
To stop Chrome being able to intercept your media keyboard shortcut do the following:
- Open a new Chrome tab
- Visit
chrome://flags/#hardware-media-key-handling
- Select ‘Disabled’ from the menu on the right of the page
- Relaunch Chrome as prompted
That’s it!
You will now find that Chrome no longer responds to your keyboard’s media keys on ANY website that usually supports them, e.g., Spotify Web.
Mac Media Key Forwarder
If you decide you want the ability back you can repeat the steps above but this time select the “Enabled” option instead of “Disabled“.
Mac Media Key Forwarder Application
In summary:
Mac Media Key Forwarder App Free
- Websites in Chrome can respond to keyboard media keys
- Websites can respond even when Chrome isn’t ‘in focus’
- The feature can impact on regular desktop apps
- You can disable the feature via the
chrome://flags
page