How to Disable the Play/pause Button on Your Mac so It Won’t Open Apple Music
Whenever I accidentally press the Play/Pause button on my MacBook (F8), the device launches the Music app and automatically starts playing the song. This irritated me for a while. When I’m working on an external monitor, I tend to hold the MacBook’s lid at a sharp angle, and I’m not always looking at the keys I’m pressing when this happens, so suddenly stopping music can be a real drag. I also don’t like the music app on Mac – it’s slow, doesn’t always work reliably, and even freezes sometimes. That’s why I prefer to use Apple Music from my iPhone or HomePod instead.
This annoyance led me to look for a way to prevent the Play/Pause key from starting music, and it turns out there are several ways to do this.
Use a music trap app
Music Decoy is a lightweight and simple utility that prevents the Play/Pause key from starting music. To do this, it launches a process with the same name as the stock Music app, which tricks macOS into believing that Music is already running. Hence the name – Music Decoy. The app is a free download and doesn’t do anything extra, meaning it doesn’t impact system resources.
The problem is that this will completely disable the Music app. You won’t be able to use Apple Music on Mac while Music Decoy is running. I don’t mind this, but it might be a deal breaker for some. The benefit of this app is that the Play/Pause key continues to work for all other apps.
Disable the Play/Pause button completely
You can also disable the Play/Pause key completely using a terminal command. On your Mac, open the Terminal application and run the following command:
launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.rcd.plist
Now try pressing the Play/Pause key to make sure it is disabled. The key should not work in any application. If this is too extreme for you, you can undo the change with the following command:
launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.rcd.plist
There are trade-offs in both methods, but I prefer using Music Decoy because it retains the usefulness of the Play/Pause button and eliminates the annoying music app.