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iTunes not starting automatically

luckylisp

luckylisp

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 2, 2006
454
17
NY state
When I plug in my video iPod via usb iTunes no longer opens on its own, I have to manually start it. The box is checked for it to open with the connection of my iPod.

Oddly, another box now opens (never did before) with some folders contained on the iPod (photos etc., I believe, although can't be certain as I usually quickly shut it without looking) but the iTunes program itself doesn't open. Any ideas, please?
 
Here's a screen shot of the window that opens automatically when I plug my iPod in via the usb cable. It basically shows folders for what's on the drive.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/strangeways/window.jpg

Oddly, I never used to get this window when iTunes opened automatically. Now that is all that happens. It appears as though it's acting as a drive that I have set to handle manually, but I don't have it set up that way in preferences. I have it set to update songs and playlists automatically and to open iTunes when the iPod in connected. It's strange.

When I do open iTunes manually, my iPod shows up and updates fine, it just doesn't start on its own anymore.
 
Do you ever use your iPod as an external disk (or is it just for music)?

Do you have your iPod set to work as an external disk? ...Maybe it got enabled by accident. If you do not need/use this feature, you can disable it by:

1) Connect your iPod to your computer and open iTunes.
2) Select iPod in the iTunes source list.
3) Click the iPod options button in the lower-right corner of the iTunes window.
4) Un-check the “Enable disk use” checkbox, and then click OK.

I'm really not sure if this is the problem, but it's worth a shot.
 
I don't have disk use enabled, no, and I have never used it that way. It's baffling because it really is acting as though I do have it enabled too, when I don't. I'm trying to think when this behavior started, it might have started when I used the updater so I could use the volume limit control.

Anyway, I guess at this point I should just do as madjew suggested and reinstall iTunes. I'll see if that does the trick. Thanks for the replies. :)
 
this is easy to fix.

In iTunes, check to enable disk use.

Then in "My Computer" find the ipod listed as a drive and right click, go to properties.

Then under properties go to the Autoplay tab.

There should be a list of Autoplay options. Choose "Open iTunes" and voila!
 
Thanks for the replies. :)

mad jew - I tried resetting and it didn't solve the issue.
grockk - I don't want to enable disk use so that doesn't work for me, unfortunately. Although I did mess around with the settings and enable and disabled it and nothing seems to make iTunes start automatically for me anymore. Also, the autoplay setting seems to be for automatically having mp3's play in iTunes, I believe, rather then starting iTunes automatically when I plug in my iPod.

About reinstalling iTunes. I have all my music saved on the hard drive in my iTunes folder so that's all safe. Will I lose my playlists and other settings, I assume? Is there a way to save them?
 
You shouldn't lose playlists and playcounts by reinstalling iTunes. This data is kept within your My Music folder, in a folder named iTunes, which should be unaffected. If you want to back it up all the same, just make a copy of the iTunes Library data file and the iTunes Music Library.xml file. :)
 
I ended up choosing repair first rather then doing a complete reinstall and repair fixed it. :) Thanks again for the help!
 
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