Wednesday, June 17, 2009

TIPS & TRICKS: How To Stop iTunes From Launching When iPhone Is Plugged In

The iPhone battery leaves me wanting more. Some day we won't even worry about battery life. For now, I find that I have to charge pretty regularly. I don't think I can get through a full day of pretty regular usage without charging. Because of the short battery life, I always keep the charging cable with me. However, I don't keep the USB to AC adapter with me. Usually, I'm near a computer with a USB port to help charge the iPhone.

In this process, one minor annoyance is that iTunes insists on launching when the iPhone is plugged in. Since, I don't always plug into the same machine that I normally sync with, I wanted to find a way to keep iTunes from launching when I plug into other machines for charging purposes. Googled it and couldn't find a quick answer.

Here's the simple way to do it. Remove the iTunes Helper application from running on startup. In Mac OS X, go to System Preferences > Accounts > Your User Account > Login Items and remove the iTunes Helper Application. The next time you login to your profile and plug in your iPhone, iTunes will not launch. I haven't tried it on a Windows machine yet, but I know that there is an iTunes Helper Application there too. Just remove it and iTunes will not launch.

Hope this helps with this slightly annoying problem. Happy computing.

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