OS X 10.5.7 Firewall and iTunes - 'Allow or Deny' bug

[celtikmind]

After a message from iTunes telling me to change the firewall settings when I use AirTunes, which I did according to this, I always get an annoying prompt.

It happens each time I start iTunes and gives off a Vista-like character saying 'Allow or Deny'. Apparently this is due to the OS X firewall being enabled and in conflict with iTunes in some way.

Some other posts I found around the 'interweb' on this claimed that iTunes shouldn't be added in the Security, Firewall panel of System Preferences.

I had no recollection of adding iTunes to that panel, but went and checked just to be sure. And there it was, iTunes had magically appeared by itself in 'Set access for...'.

I removed it and tried to start iTunes again. No prompt, good I thought, fixed it. Restarted iTunes a second time just to be sure and boom, 'Allow or Deny' was back.

How can I stop this merry go-around between iTunes, AirTunes and the OS X firewall?

It's annoying as hell having to see that prompt every time I go into iTunes since I have an iPhone as well, making the iTunes visits extra frequent. Can anyone help share some light as to why iTunes keep re-adding itself on the Security, Firewall panel again and again, thus making the 'Allow or Deny' prompt reappear?

Thanks!

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

This used to happen all the time to me, I ended up disabling that firewall, since it's pretty useless.

 

[celtikmind]

This used to happen all the time to me, I ended up disabling that firewall, since it's pretty useless.

Thanks, it's what I have done for now as well. It's weird it won't work either way.

Do you use any other security instead or just leave it as is?

 

[*LTD*]

Disabling the firewall might be a solution, but it shouldn't be. It should work behind OS X's firewall with no problems. Like it does for nearly everyone else. And useless or not, having it turned on can't hurt. It's there for a reason so it should be used, not that we really need to use OS X's firewall at this point.

I'm out of ideas for now. I know how frustrating something like this can be.

Dumb question, but I'll ask anyway: what exactly did Apple advise you to do?

Mind you, Airtunes might be the culprit here. I guess you've already tried disabling it? Have you asked the Airtunes devs about thus problem? It could be that Airtunes wants to connect to your iTunes all the time (I assume it's supposed to) but it's not able to do so correctly.

Third-party apps that leverage iTunes and other OS X apps by "connecting" with them, don't always work or end up doing weird things. For instance, I have that issue with Growl and Mail.app. I had to uninstall and forget about Growl entirely because it always crashed Mail.app. even when I uninstalled it automatically Mail.app was still crashing. I had to manually hunt down each file and get rid of it.

 

[celtikmind]

I would like for the firewall to be turned on, of course. Thing is I have a Bang & Olufsen stereo with great speakers just across the room connected to an Airport Express. It seems rather meak for me resorting to the laptop speakers just because the OS X firewall and iTunes can't settle their differences. That or taking down the firewall...

After some more testing I can say with certainty AirTunes is the culprit here, one way or another. If I switch the speaker setting in iTunes to 'computer', iTunes doesn't bug me the next time I start it up. As soon as I select my AirTunes-speakers the next time, it does however. I guess that's when it also adds itself to the security panel.

Don't know what to do really. Didn't get any further beyond finding out there's the "com.alf" and I still don't know what that is, only that it wants authorization when iTunes prompts.

Apple? Heh, that guy was pretty clueless to anything technical and couldn't give me any real advice. Eventually he claimed they knew about it and were working on it, but I honestly don't think he ever understood what I was talking about. I did find something along those lines in the Apple forums where someone had gotten the same answer... They're working on it. Don't remember the date but it wasn't recent so I'm not holding my breath.

Thanks for the tip about Growl. I guess I'll have to do some more testing.

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

Thanks, it's what I have done for now as well. It's weird it won't work either way.

Do you use any other security instead or just leave it as is?

I've been using IPFW, which is the other firewall built into OS X, but it's hidden and allowing all traffic by default. I configure it with Waterroof.

 

[*LTD*]

Google: airtunes itunes firewall (no quotes, just the terms)

Seems iTunes 8 doesn't play nicely with Airtunes . . . and this might still be the case.

I'm not sure whos fault it is, Airtunes or iTunes. But removing Airtunes will likely solve the issue. Get in touch with the Airtunes developers on this. They might be able to help.

Anyway, see this thread for ideas:

http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/2214