Album Ratings

Every now and then while in iTunes I will notice that some of my songs have an assigned album rating, because I will see the regular song rating and it will have the weird "clear" stars, instead of the regular filled ones. This is really annoying and I was wondering if it could be turned off. Most of my playlists are based on song rating, and the album rating forces unrated songs on that album to be given a song rating, meaning these random songs then appear in my playlist, that is supposed to be only 4 star songs or higher.
And before anyone says it, no I have not been assigning album ratings accidentally, because I purposely make sure the album rating column is not visible anywhere specifically so that this does not happen, as this is an issue I've had for several years. I've also gone through and mass-removed the album ratings from all songs a couple of times, so I know its not that the songs already had album ratings in their metadata when I obtained them, or any other silly excuse someone can come up with. I'm almost positive that it is iTunes somehow randomly doing this, or maybe its supposed to be happening, and it is just a poorly designed feature? Either way I really want it removed, because I'm tired of random songs appearing in my playlists, and I dont plan on rating every single song in my library to prevent this from occuring.

I am aware of a feature where songs with no rating, belonging to an album WITH a rating, will receive an automatic song rating. That is not the issue I am describing. Ratings assigned by iTunes are represented with hollow stars, as you described. My issue involves songs in my library being assigned a manual album rating, with solid stars, as if I assigned them myself, when I did not.
I am sure I have not done this accidentally - or anything like that - because, for this very reason, I have gone through my library - and all playlists - and made sure the Album Rating column was not visible. This means it is not possible for me to have assigned these album ratings myself. This is a continuous issue, as I have mass-removed all album ratings a couple times already.
I am trying to navigate Apple's site to find a link to email customer service, but I am not having luck with that, as my issue doesn't really fit into any of the predisposed categories they have outlined, and I can't find a generic email link; So if anyone has any insight on this, that would be greatly appreciated.

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Album ratings and smart playlists

Hello all,
I was wondering if anyone can help me with the new iTunes functionality. I am trying to create a smart playlist with album ratings between 0 stars and 5 stars (basically all albums) and limit the playlist to 4 gb. I am trying to just create a random list of albums to sync to my iphone. Everytime I create a random list it always truncates the final album to exactly match 4gb so there is always an album that is incomplete.
Can anyone think of a different way to accomplish this so you can get ALL complete albums? There must be a way. Sorry if I sound picky about this but I am an album guy, not a random song guy.

Hi there. Try the following:
iTunes -> Preferences... -> Playback -> Shuffle: Albums
Now take your smart playlist you created, and set the 4GB limiter selected by "random" instead of "album". Because we forced shuffling to be by album only, this "random" will select entire albums, randomly. I just figured this out a few minutes ago and it seems to work great.
If you want all albums, you can probably omit the album rating rule (you might need to set Kind to "MPEG audio file" or something to skip podcasts, etc.)
To refresh your list, select and delete all tracks in the playlist, or use the Reshuffle Smart Playlists script available at dougscripts.com/itunes. Or you could add a criterion saying that Last Played must be greater than a month, or so.

Any way to turn off "Suggested" Album Ratings?

I find that the current implementation of Album Ratings is pretty useless (iTunes 8.0.2). I'm OK with iTunes suggesting an Album Rating based on the ratings of songs on it, but not if it treats the suggested rating as an actual rating in Smart Playlists. I don't consider an album to be great simply because one song on it is great but iTunes does, and with over 1400 albums and 16,000 songs in my library, I don't have time to rate every single one.
I would like to use the feature to rate albums and create a playlist of my favorites to sync to my Touch, but I don't want, for example, the Power Rangers Soundtrack on my iPod simply because I rated the They Might Be Giants song on it a 5. That goes against the concept of ratings. Does anyone know of any hidden preferences that I can set via Terminal or any scripts that will turn off the suggested album rating feature?
Thanks!

I've yet to find one, and wish there was one just like you! I was also hoping there would be a way to rate an album as 0 stars to erase the "suggestion", but setting an album to 0 stars brings it back to the suggestion.
I've sent feedback about this but won't hold my breath.
I like the suggestion too but wish it would only pay attention to ratings I make implecitely or at least wait until three or more tracks are rated before making a suggestion in the mean time, of course that wouldn't work for everything. Oh well...

Album ratings and clear stars are ruining my playlists. Help turn them off.

I understand that if you give an album an album rating, it will give all unrated songs on that album clear stars based on the album rating. Because of this, I have not rated any of my albums, since all of my playlists are based off of the song ratings.
All of a sudden, now when I rate a single song, it puts clear stars in the album rating column, and ALSO assigns clear stars for all of the unrated tracks on that album. It is ruining all of my playlists.
Is there any way to turn off the album ratings, or turn off the clear stars, or do something to get rid of this, rather than going through manually and adjusting each song individually?

Is there anyway to make itunes recognize the difference between clear stars and filled stars when making smart playlists? This may work to make things work for me.
If you use "album rating" field in your playlist, it will use the clear stars that appear in that column. If you use "rating" field in your playlist, it should ignore the clear stars that appear in the "album rating" column.
As for an example of how things are not working right now, I have a playlist that is just unrated music, so that if I feel like rating some of the newer songs I added in, I can just load that playlist, and everything in there has no ratings. Now, some of the albums that are mostly unrated are not showing up in that playlist, because instead of all of the unrated songs being blank, they all have clear stars next to them.
When you say "unrated music", what precisely is the rule you use? When I set up a playlist with the rule "Rating is less than '1 star'", even albums with clear stars in the "album rating" field show up (as long as the individual track doesn't bear a rating, obviously). But when I change that rule to say "Album rating is less than '1 star'", then as soon as I rate one song, the entire album is removed from the playlist.
And just to make sure I am being very clear on this, I have NOT used the album rating at all, those stars are clear as well.
Ok, I think this may answer some of the questions in my previous post. I infer that you are seeing clear stars in the "rating" column, not just the "album rating" column. Can you confirm this? If that's the case, then this is truly a mystery. I was hoping the problem was an innocent confusion between the "album rating" and the "rating" columns.

Getting rid of Album Ratings (white stars)

How do I get rid of all album ratings.
One used to be able to remove some of them using a grid and then choosing albums ratings on a pop-up menu - then setting to none.
In the appallingly crap iTunes 11, this doesn't seem possible.
Ok, it's official iTunes 11 is total rubbish for many reasons.

Go to the iTunes main library, right click on the track(s) with the artwork you wish to delete and select "Get info".
Click the "Artwork" tab, right-click on the image, and select "Delete".
Sync your iPod to reflect the changes.

ITunes 7.4 - Album Ratings??? How?????

Hi there,
Steve talked about in in the keynote but how do you rate albums in iTunes 7.4?

They're automatically rated, by averaging the ratings of the songs on them. Turn on the Album Ratings column to see them. You can override the auto-rating by dragging on the stars; they will then become solid instead of hollow. Drag the rating to zero to let auto-rating take over again.
Note that overriding the auto-rating will rate all unrated tracks on the album with that rating.

AppleScript to determine album ratings from song ratings and no. of tracks?

Hi
I am wondering if it would be possible to write an AppleScript to determine the album ratings for my albums in iTunes in the following way:
All of my music collection comes from CDs I have ripped. I rip the whole album and then delete tracks I don't like. The number of tracks in the original album is preserved in the Track # field, e.g. Track 1 of 10, etc. All multi disc albums have been given the same name, i.e. they are recognised as the same album with Disc Number preserved, i.e. Disc #1 of 2, etc.
The Album Rating would then be the sum of the rating of every song that is still in my iTunes Music Library divided by the total number of tracks in the original album (with multi disc albums counted as one album).
So, for example, if I had an one disc album which originally had 10 tracks, that I only kept two songs from, and one of these tracks had a rating of 5 and the other 3, the album rating would be as follows:
5+3/10 = 0.8
Ideally this value would then be written to the Album Rating tag in iTunes. I think the best iTunes can do is display half-star ratings, but I wonder if it will still sort the Albums by Album Rating based on the actual value of the above calculation, i.e. an album with Rating 4.52 would be sorted higher than an album with rating 4.48, but both would show in iTunes as having 4 and a half stars?
The next best option would be for the script to generate a text file of the Album Ratings sorted by rating with the highest first (in fact it would be good to have this in addition to the values being written to the Album Rating tags)
The difference between this script and the built in method used in iTunes is that iTunes doesn't account for deleted tracks, so in the above example the Album would be rated 4, even though 8 tracks had been deleted.
I hope this is clear and would be grateful for any help in getting this script together.
Thanks,
Nick.

Here's an improved version of the script that should fulfill your needs (the modifications are in blue). The script now sorts the Album Ratings (via Numbers.app) and save them to a text file on the desktop, with no rating greater than 80. As previously, you must choose at least one track.
--BEGINNING OF SCRIPT
*tell application "iTunes"*
--Make a list of all the selected albums:
*set theAlbums to {}*
*set theAlbumsRef to a reference to theAlbums*
*set tempList to album of selection*
*set thePreviousTitle to ""*
*repeat with thisTitle in tempList*
*set thisTitle to thisTitle as text*
*if thisTitle is not thePreviousTitle then*
*copy thisTitle to the end of theAlbumsRef*
*set thePreviousTitle to thisTitle*
*end if*
*end repeat*
*set numberOfAlbums to count theAlbums*
--Make a list containing one track for each selected album:
*set theTracks to {}*
*set theTracksRef to a reference to theTracks*
*repeat with thisAlbum in theAlbums*
*copy (track 1 whose album is thisAlbum) to the end of theTracksRef*
*end repeat*
--Set the album rating of each album contained in the selection:
*set theRatings to ""*
*set k to 0*
*repeat with thisTrack in theTracks*
*set k to k + 1*
*if k mod 25 = 0 then beep 1* -- for audio feedback
*set thisAlbum to item k of theAlbums*
*set numberOfTracks to 0*
*repeat with k from 1 to (disc count of thisTrack)*
try
*get (track count of track 1 whose (album is thisAlbum) and (disc number is k))*
*set numberOfTracks to numberOfTracks + result*
*end try*
*end repeat*
*set songRating to 0*
*repeat with R in (rating of tracks whose album is thisAlbum)*
*if R > 80 then set R to 80*
*set songRating to songRating + R*
*end repeat*
*set thisRating to round (songRating / numberOfTracks)*
*set album rating of thisTrack to thisRating*
*set theRatings to theRatings & (album artist of thisTrack & tab & thisAlbum & tab & (thisRating as text) & return)*
*end repeat*
*end tell*
--Save the album ratings to a text file (on the dekstop):
*set theTextFile to POSIX file (POSIX path of (path to desktop) & "iTunes Ratings")*
*open for access theTextFile with write permission*
*set eof theTextFile to 0*
*write theRatings to theTextFile*
*close access theTextFile*
--Use application Numbers.app to sort the text file by rating:
*tell application "Finder" to set NumbersWasOpen to (process "Numbers" exists)*
*tell application "Numbers"*
launch
*open theTextFile*
*tell table 1 of sheet 1 of front document*
*sort by column 3 direction descending*
*set theSortedRatings to ""*
*repeat with j from 1 to numberOfAlbums*
*set X to value of cell 1 of row j*
*if X = 0 then set X to ""*
*set Y to value of cell 2 of row j*
*if Y = 0 then set Y to ""*
*set Z to (value of cell 3 of row j) as integer*
*set theSortedRatings to theSortedRatings & X & tab & Y & tab & Z & return*
*end repeat*
*end tell*
*close front document without saving*
*if not NumbersWasOpen then quit*
*end tell*
*open for access theTextFile with write permission*
*set eof theTextFile to 0*
*write theSortedRatings to theTextFile*
*close access theTextFile*
theSortedRatings
--END OF SCRIPT
Please let me know if anything doesn't work as expected.
Message was edited by: Pierre L.

ITunes Match Replacing My Album Ratings

iTunes/iTunes Match is totally replacing all my album ratings with 3 stars. Even after I change the rating, after a while it'll again revert to a 3 star rating. Not cool. Thank god my song ratings are still untouched, but who knows.

I contacted Apple's support team regarding this problem. The following response solved my problem.
You can usually resolve most issues with iTunes Match by turning the service off and back on. Follow these steps for your operating system:
- Mac OS X: hold down the Option key and choose Store > Turn Off iTunes Match. Then, go back to the same menu and choose Turn On iTunes Match.
- Windows: hold down the Shift key and choose Store > Turn Off iTunes Match. Then, go back to the same menu and choose Turn On iTunes Match.

Auto album ratings breaks smart playlists - hollow stars

I've seen this discussed a few times but the given answers don't seem to work, maybe it has changed again in the new release of itunes (I'm on 9.1.1.12 on XP). I have a smart playlist of all the songs which have not been rated. Once I'd rated 19/29 of them they all disappeared as itunes had calculated an album rating (which is fine) but then applied that rating to all the unrated songs. In some views the songs are listed as unrated but the key thing is that the smart playlist thinks they're rated when they're not. Previous postings say to unrate the album but whenever I do that it just automatically rerates again. How can I create a playlist of songs that I have not yet rated?

Hi, welcome to Apple Discussions.
I've just had a look at this under V9.1.1.11 current Windows build (is yours 64-bit perhaps?) and, as far as I can tell, rating tracks (filled stars) will produce an automatic rating (hollow stars) for an album. Likewise rating albums will produce an automatic rating for each of their tracks. If you only rate some of the tracks of an album without explicitly setting an album rating then the remaining tracks should stay unrated. I can set ratings for all but one track of the album and the last will stay happily unrated. What rules are you using to determine what should be in your unrated playlist?
tt2

How do i get rid of album ratings

How do I clear a rating for an album in iTunes 12.0

If the issue is with the hollow star auto-ratings my scripts ClearAlbumAutoRating and ClearTrackAutoRating can be used to set a rating of 1% which displays as no stars and suppresses any auto-ratings.
tt2

Is it possible to transfer my personal song/album ratings to another computer?

So I have a school computer and I also have an iTunes, and last year I put lots of effort an rated every song. I do not want to re-rate every song again. Any suggestions?
Thanks

Hello there, Mr. Mandi.
The following Knowledge Base article provides in-depth steps for performing exactly that:
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4527
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Pedro.

Hollow star ratings

The album ratings assigned by iTunes are ruining my playlists. How do I COMPLETELY remove these ratings? They currently appear as hollow stars. I have tried to find assistance in the forums and in the help sections but without success. I see a few people have been able to make the hollow stars disappear by clicking to the left of the leftmost star but this does not work for me.
Thank you for any suggestions!

View as Grid
Doubleclick offending album (or Podcast)
Click to left of row of stars

Error in script to set album rating in iTunes

Hi
I used to use the following script to set album ratings of albums in my iTunes library. It used to work fine, but now it's not working. When I try to debug it I am getting the following error:
"Scripting component error."
on this line in the third block:
repeat with R in (rating of tracks whose album is thisAlbum)
I wonder if anyone can spot what the problem might be?
Thanks,
Nick
--Make a list of all the selected albums:
          set theAlbums to {}
          set theAlbumsRef to a reference to theAlbums
          set tempList to album of selection
          set thePreviousTitle to ""
          repeat with thisTitle in tempList
                    set thisTitle to thisTitle as text
                    if thisTitle is not thePreviousTitle then
                              copy thisTitle to the end of theAlbumsRef
                              set thePreviousTitle to thisTitle
                    end if
          end repeat
          set numberOfAlbums to count theAlbums
--Make a list containing one track for each selected album:
          set theTracks to {}
          set theTracksRef to a reference to theTracks
          repeat with thisAlbum in theAlbums
                    copy (track 1 whose album is thisAlbum) to the end of theTracksRef
          end repeat
--Set the album rating of each album contained in the selection:
          set theRatings to ""
          set k to 0
          repeat with thisTrack in theTracks
                    set k to k + 1
                    if k mod 25 = 0 then beep 1 -- for audio feedback
                    set thisAlbum to item k of theAlbums
                    set numberOfTracks to 0
                    repeat with k from 1 to (disc count of thisTrack)
                              try
                                        get (track count of track 1 whose (album is thisAlbum) and (disc number is k))
                                        set numberOfTracks to numberOfTracks + result
                              end try
                    end repeat
                    set songRating to 0
                    repeat with R in (rating of tracks whose album is thisAlbum)
                              if R > 80 then set R to 80
                              set songRating to songRating + R
                    end repeat
                    set thisRating to round (songRating / numberOfTracks)
                    set album rating of thisTrack to thisRating
                    set theRatings to theRatings & (album artist of thisTrack & tab & thisAlbum & tab & (thisRating as text) & return)
          end repeat
          display dialog "The album “" & thisAlbum & "” has a rating of " & thisRating with icon 1 buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end tell

problems like this are usually solvable by splitting up the line. It doesn't look like it, but there's a whole lot going on in that compound statement. try:
tell application "iTunes"
          set ratingList to (rating of tracks whose album is thisAlbum)
          repeat with R in ratingList
                    if R > 80 then set R to 80
                    set songRating to songRating + R
          end repeat
end tell

Elements 6 to 8 - lost tags and ratings

I was running Elements 6 on my old computer with over 6000 photos tagged and rated.... the computer died and I had the hard drive removed. I installed Elements 8 (trial version) on my new computer and copied over all the photos from my old drive. The photos copied over but none of the tags or ratings did. No, I didn't do a backup from Elements (bad, I know). So, I have access to all the files on my old drive, is the tag information stored anywhere? I found the old catalog file but Elements 8 doesn't recognize it. Should I remove version 8 and install 6 instead? or????
Please help!
Thanks!!

You need to recover the entire PSE 6 catalog folder and then convert the catalog from PSE 6 format to PSE 8:
1. Find the PSE 6 catalog folder on the old drive. It contains a file "catalog.psedb"; see this tech note for likely locations:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/402/kb402592.html
2. Copy the entire folder to the same location on your new C drive (it's not essential that it be in the same location, but it reduces confusion).
3. Start PSE 8, do File > Catalog > Convert, and select your old PSE 6 catalog to convert. You should now have all your tags, albums, ratings, captions, dates/times, etc. in PSE 8. If you run into any problems converting the catalog, see this FAQ:
http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/photoshop-elements-faq.htm#_Problems_converting_catalo gs

Itunes album rating missing

I recently got iTunes match and since getting it, all my album ratings have disappeared? Is there anyway to fix this without manually having to re-enter every single rating?

Yep, here too. Each time I unsubscribe my second machine and resubscribe to iTunes Match, my machine syncs with the cloud. And each time I get a different result: Albums missing, ratings missing or different to the master iTunes library. With my last sync I only get to see albums with 4 stars. Interestingly I have albums in there that have 3 or 5 stars on my other machine. A DISASTER!

Album Ratings

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