noTunes is a macOS application that will prevent iTunes or Apple Music from launching.
Simply launch the noTunes app and iTunes/Music will no longer be able to launch. For example, when bluetooth headphones reconnect.
You can toggle the apps functionality via the menu bar icon with a simple left click.
↫ noTunes GitHub page
Apparently, this is such a common complaint that an application had to be made just to gain some semblance of control over what some people still refer to as “their” computer. For both macOS and Windows, there’s a giant industry – you can’t really call it a cottage industry anymore at this point – of tools, applications, and fixes just to deal with or avoid all the user-hostile, anti-choice garbage Apple and Microsoft shove into their respective operating systems.
As a Linux user – and recent OpenBSD convert – I find this absolutely wild. Following any Apple podcast, or reading any Windows website, makes it so clear just how many hoops these people have to jump through and how many weirdly-shaped holes they have to contort into just to be able to gain some vague semblance of ownership of their own hardware. I’m not judging – we all have areas in our lives where we do this, they just differ from person to person – but it’s still confronting to see it so clearly, all the time.
I have this installed. As a musician that uses logic, protools and other recording software for music creation, iTunes is the bane of my existence while trying to listen to my own music I’ve mixed down into mp3’s or mp4’s. People don’t think about it, but every time iTunes sucks up your music in the Apple vacuum, it converts it to some horrible AAC low lossless mono format. Fun fact, as a drummer that plays live to backing tracks (mp3 files), when I click on a track in Ableton or PreSonus, iTunes promptly opens right in the middle of a performance on my laptop to “help me” convert them to AAC in iTunes. I’d say that this little menu widget is awesome, but actually I just question why I can’t uninstall iTunes all together.
Apple, seriously? I thought it was the pro musicians OS. This is so disheartening. I don’t want the Microsoft AI crap they just announced and was considering got back to Apple, but I just don’t know.
iTunes hasn’t been installed by Apple on Macs since 2019, 5 years ago. Perhaps you should update your OS?
If clicking mp3 launches iTunes or the Music app and you don’t like it, right click any mp3 in Finder, Get Info, choose a new default app, tick the box to apply to all mp3’s.
If you don’t mind your hardware/software sending files to iTunes/Music but don’t like the lossless compression, change it via Music > Settings > Playback.
If iTunes/Music launches when you download an audio file through Safari, set the Safari preference Safari > Settings > General and untick the option to launch “safe” files.
To uninstall iTunes, drag it from Application folder into the trash.
MacOS is full of wildly shortsighted decisions, with a serious arms-race between Apple and developers looking to keep some semblance of productivity in the OS.
I don’t know if you ever brought it up, but with M-chip macs they have “System Integrity Protection” which means you essentially have to ‘root’ your mac to install some functionality apps. Looking to make Finder usable? Totalfinder requires root. Want a more functional/alternative dock? Requires root. Alternative window managers? Gotta root.
It makes me wonder exactly how long apps like noTunes will be “allowed” before Apple decides whatever loophole they’re using is part of a secure path that needs locking-down.
While I agree with what you’re saying, I find the equivalence “disabling “SIP” and “rooting the device” false or misleading.
It is a convoluted process, but the OS itself allows disabling SIP, there is no hacking/cracking involved to get that level of control.
I develop a program for macos for money, and I can’t tell you how much I hate that OS (love the M1 device itself). Combined with an IDE from JetBrains, I spend most of my days fighting with the tools I’m supposed to use.
>”which means you essentially have to ‘root’ your mac to install some functionality apps”
What does this mean – like rooting a phone? Why would your computer not already be fully accessible? This makes no sense.
Somewhat. SIP locks access to several system directories making them untouchable and makes some bundled apps read-only. You need to restart your machine, go into the terminal before it boots, and run commands to disable it if you want to install/run certain applications. The technicalities are different (Like Serafean mentioned) but the basic idea is there.
It’s done for security, so nothing can affect ‘core components’ or Mac apps.
The problem is that the apps are so incredibly basic you need to extend them if you’re using Mac for… Real work. But there’s no sanctioned way to extend them, so apps like Totalfinder need to mess with the system. Now with the extra layer of ‘security’ it’s an all-or-nothing choice, and it does require a high level of technical confidence.
Kver,
I really don’t use macs often, but one of our clients used macs and we went through exactly what you are describing. When users feel compelled to grant all-or-nothing permissions to software that shouldn’t have it, it may be a sign that the OS has a granularity problem. Both users and developers can benefit from interfaces that are designed to be extended. Nobody wants to use hacks, but in some cases we’re not left with a reasonable choice and users may end up having to use hacks to get around the limitations.
SIP is there to protect people from the type of viruses/worms that overtook Windows years ago through COM etc. by preventing software from changing core system software provided by Apple.
Totalfinder are injecting their own code into the Finder application to make it do what THEY want it to do. Who knows what unusual quality issues that could cause, so Apple are in their rights to block access. If a Mac becomes unstable due to a Finder modification, end users won’t automatically think “Gee, maybe it’s something to do with software I installed years ago and have forgotten is not the default finder” and it reflects badly on apple that their software is buggy.
Totalfinder have the option of writing their own file browser rather than injecting code into Apple’s, that wouldn’t require SIP being bypassed.
They describe their SIP modification requirements on the website. “In order to add or change some features of Finder, we use a technique called code injection. This means we add some additional code to the Finder program whilst it is running to do what we need.”
urkrobshaw,
Unless you are proposing the IOSification of macos, then you need to concede that the choice should be left to owners at the end of the day. Owners deserve a right to override apple on their own hardware.