Prevent Photos, iTunes, etc. opening when new device is connected

Question

Sometimes it is necessary to use my mac to install apps being developed on to other people's iOS devices, meaning that it frequently has new iOS devices plugged in. Whenever I plug in a new device 2 things happen that I would like to avoid:

The Photos app opens, offering an import of their photos. This is obviously a potential privacy issue which I avoid by swiftly quitting the Photos app before it loads (thank goodness it's so slow!)
iTunes starts up (if it wasn't before) and offers the latest version of iOS (currently 8.4.1). This is pretty unuseful for me 2 reasons:
- I am not going to be updating someone else's device
- Some of our test devices are purposefully kept some versions behind.

I would like to prevent both of the above, and, if possible, still have wi-fi and USB syncing, but that's not required.

I realise this is a fairly common question, but I feel mine differs because:

I have tried using RCDefaultApp to fix the issue
I have tried all the options using the Image Capture and iPhotos apps
Nothing I find seems to cover the iTunes-offering-updates issue

I have had this issue for as long as I can remember, but still have it on the latest version of the 10.11 beta.

Steampunkery · Answer 1 · 2015-08-24T23:22:51.807

1

The Photos problem could be solved by typing the following into a Terminal defaults write com.apple.Photos shouldAutoLaunch 0 and defaults write com.apple.Photos canAutoLaunch 0

You can stop iTunes from opening by going to System Preferences>Users & Groups>Login Items and remove iTunes Helper from the list.

edited Aug 24 '15 at 23:22

answered Aug 23 '15 at 16:28

Steampunkery

143
6

The photos solution is required per-device, which means I need to wait for the app to open, untick the box, then close it, which is often enough time for some photos to load. This is the same for the iTunes solution provided. – Joseph Duffy Aug 23 '15 at 16:31
I believe this is the only way without using the command line. – Steampunkery Aug 23 '15 at 17:09
I am happy to use the command line. Do you know a solution that would use the command line? – Joseph Duffy Aug 23 '15 at 17:12
No, but I can find one relatively quickly – Steampunkery Aug 23 '15 at 17:16
Got hung up at the shore....working on it now.... – Steampunkery Aug 24 '15 at 21:31
let me work on Photos – Steampunkery Aug 24 '15 at 21:50

Prevent Photos, iTunes, etc. opening when new device is connected

1 Answers1