Introduction: How to Enable Half Stars in Itunes

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Being obsessive on how i organize my thousands of songs in Itunes, I found that the wimpy 1-5 star ratings weren't cutting it. So I found a way to rate them a half. This is very useful if you like everything rated EXACTLY how you want it.



*Disclaimer... this SHOULDN'T cause problems with your Itunes. If you do everything right, it will be fine.

NEED:

1. Itunes (duh)
2. A computer (either mac OR windows, separate instructions for both)
Mac users go to step 6...

Step 1: Windows Instructions

If your computer is running windows, use this set of instructions.
If your computer is a Mac, use the OTHER instructions. (skip to step )

First off, don't have Itunes running whille you do this. You can, BUT you'll have to restart Itunes in order for this to take effect.
Just to be safe, close it anyway...

Now, find the ItunesPrefs.xml file.

Usually (in Vista) this is at
C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME HERE\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes

In XP, this is at
C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USERNAME\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes

Replace YOUR USERNAME with your computer user name (duh)
The application data folder is usually hidden in windows so you'll have to type this in the explorer bar.

The folder looks like this-----------

Step 2: Open the .XML File

Right click on the ItunesPrefs.xml file
hit Open With,
then WordPad.

Why WordPad and not Notepad???
Notepad has a tendency to not display .XML files quite right.

You should now see this----------------------------------

Step 3: Scroll Down and Paste

Scroll down to where you see a line that reads:

<key>User Preferences</key>
<dict>

Below this line, but above the next line, type

<key>allow-half-stars</key>
<data>
dHJ1ZQ==
</data>

to be safe, just copy and paste it from this screen.

  • this "dHJ1ZQ==" means "true" in Base64.

Step 4: Check &amp; Save

Check where you have just pasted. It should look just like this now...

If it looks like that, then save this file and exit out of WordPad.

Step 5: Open Itunes

Open up your Itunes again, and you should now be able to rate things as half stars!
This also works on rating your albums.

The only thing bad about this is that you can't see the half stars on your ipod. It displays them as a whole number. But it does, however, recognize that 4.5 star songs are less than 5 star, which makes them work with the smart playlists.

Congratulations, you now have half stars.
Simply click and drag in between the regular stars to access these new stars.

For Mac users, check out step six.

Happy Rating
-MusicNinja17

***Please Rate and Comment.... thanks***


Step 6: Enabling Half Stars on the Mac

To enable half stars on a Mac, first, close Itunes.

Then, you have to open up Terminal

(Located at /Applications/Utilities....somewhere in there)
and once it's open, type in

defaults write com.apple.iTunes allow-half-stars -bool TRUE

Hit enter, and then close out of the terminal.
Then, open Itunes

Simply click and drag in between the regular stars to access these new stars.

Congratulations....you should have half stars!