[Fix] Multimedia Keys Stopped Working in Spotify, iTunes After Updating Google Chrome

The solution given in this tutorial will help you in fixing following issues:

• Multimedia keys are not working in Spotify, iTunes and other media playing software
• Chrome.exe is showing on Windows 10 Lock Screen inside a dark black fly-out rectangle with playback buttons such as play/pause/next/forward

PROBLEM SYMPTOM:

You listen to music using Spotify, iTunes or any other media player desktop software program in your Windows computer or Mac and you control the playback of media files using multimedia keys present on your keyboard. You play, pause, stop songs and select next/previous songs using multimedia keys.

Everything was working perfectly since months or years and suddenly, the multimedia keys stopped working in Spotify, iTunes or other media playing software. Now none of the multimedia keys present on your computer keyboard works to control the playback in these software. You are unable to use multimedia keys in any media player program.

UPDATE: Our readers have also reported another problem which is related to this issue and solution. If you are using Google Chrome browser in Windows 10 and a webpage is playing a video or audio clip and you lock your device (WIN+L), the Lock Screen shows Chrome.exe rectangular fly-out with play/pause/next/forward buttons.

PROBLEM REASON:

Don’t worry! You are not alone.

This problem occurs due to Google Chrome web browser. If you installed or updated Google Chrome version 74.0 or later, you’ll start facing this issue.

Google Chrome takes over or hijacks the multimedia keys of your PC keyboard. So whenever you press the multimedia keys, they only work in Google Chrome and not in other media software programs like Spotify, iTunes. This problem occurs when Google Chrome is running in your computer even if it’s minimized. Google Chrome blocks multimedia keys from working in other apps.

Actually Google Chrome 74.0 and later versions come with this new feature called “Hardware Media Key Handling” which enables users using media keys to control the active media session on web pages. So now you can use multimedia keys on YouTube or other websites to play, pause, stop, forward, backward, mute videos or songs in Chrome.

So the actual culprit is Google Chrome behind multimedia keys not working in media players.

And that’s the reason behind Chrome.exe showing on Lock Screen in Windows 10.

PROBLEM SOLUTION:

The fastest and easiest solution to fix this annoying issue is to close Google Chrome and then use Spotify, iTunes or other media playing software. If Google Chrome is not running, it’ll not take over the media keys and you’ll be able to use the multimedia keys in other apps.

I know it’s not a practical and permanent solution. Sometimes you want to listen music while surging web.

Fortunately, Google Chrome comes with a preference to completely disable/turn off this new functionality and you can present/restrict Google Chrome from hijacking multimedia keys.

You can disable this new feature and make multimedia keys working again in Spotify, iTunes and other software programs with the help of following steps:

Following solution will also fix Chrome.exe showing on Lock Screen in Windows 10:

1. Open Google Chrome web browser and type chrome://flags/ in addressbar and press Enter. It’ll open the advanced configuration page.

2. Now type media keys in the “Search flags” box.

It’ll directly go to following option:

3. Select Disabled from the drop-down box.

Google Chrome will ask you to restart the browser. Click on “Relaunch now” button to restart Google Chrome.

That’s it. Now open Spotify, iTunes or any other media playing program and play some media files. Now try to use multimedia keys and it’ll work fine without any issue.

PS: If you want to enable the feature again in Chrome in future, select “Default” option from the drop-down box and restart the browser.

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