How to stop the Music app opening by itself on Mac

Press play with nothing playing and Music opens again. Here’s how to make it stop.

Short answer

macOS has no setting for this. MacFixes closes Music when it opens on its own — and leaves it alone when you open it yourself.

What macOS gives you

There’s no switch in System Settings. When nothing else is playing, the play key hands the command to Music, which launches it.

1
Add the fix
Open MacFixes Settings → Sound and add “Stop Music opening by itself”. Fixes are off until you add them.
2
That’s it
If Music opens without coming to the front within a couple of seconds, MacFixes quits it. Opening Music yourself works as normal.

This is one of 28 fixes in MacFixes.

Something else your Mac won’t do? Request it — we build it.

Yes. Open it from the Dock, Spotlight or the Applications folder as usual and it stays open.

No.