Ipod/Itunes star ratings

ApexMirage

I'm trying to sift through my collection of crap to find a few gems by listening to them on the subway, where I can actually pay attention to the song instead of having it playing in the background at home.

I'm using my Ipod's star rating system, which in theory works great - Problem is these dont seem to port over to Itunes when I plug the iPod back in.
It seems like a no brainer to have them transfer over, what's the point otherwise? I didn't try assigning rating in Itunes and see if they port over to the Ipod, because I'm not about to click the wheel twice for every song I listen to. I need the ratings on my PC anyway for when I burn CD's or sort through them en-masse.

Is there something I'm missing? Other options?

edit: I've done the pen & paper thing for a while, and it's very tedious with a winter jacket/coat/gloves/terrible penmanship/fumbling the Ipod.

ASimPerson

Star ratings in iTunes carry over to the iPod. I usually just listen to the built-in "My Top Rated" smart playlist (automatically contains all 4 and 5 star songs) but I realize this is sort of opposite of what you want.

ApexMirage

That's kinda dumb. Are the star ratings embedded into the songs or stored in a separate file?

blakfeld

Side question: I've seen the star ratings for years, but what the fuck does it actually mean?

ApexMirage

I'm using them as a rating system for how much ass it kicks. They're user created and can measure whatever you want.
They don't really 'mean' anything afaik.

ASimPerson

I believe iTunes stores most, if not all, its meta-data in a separate XML file on your computer. I would guess this sync'ed with your iPod as well.

blakfeld: You rate songs you like highly and vice versa for the ones you don't.

MichaelLC

Apex - when you say the stars don't come over, do you mean you don't see them update in the Rating column in your library?

As ASimPerson said, you have to set up a playlist to use the ratings. If your iPod is set to "manually update" vs. "sync all" (or whatever it's called) the top lists may not sync correctly.

ApexMirage

Erm hold on, I have to set up playlists in Itunes? Playlists are the only thing I use on the Ipod itself, but not Itunes. I figured that accessing those playlists from Itunes as the Ipod is plugged in should have the star ratings available?

And yes I meant I can't see the ratings in the Itunes column.

And there's no way in hell I'm using sync all with a 80g Ipod when I've had one horrific accident too many when I first had it.

exis

ApexMirage wrote: »

And there's no way in hell I'm using sync all with a 80g Ipod when I've had one horrific accident too many when I first had it.

It's not going to transfer unless you sync. What exactly are you worried about with sync all?

If you really want to avoid sync all you could just sync the 4 and 5 starred songs on your iPod by just syncing the "My Top Rated" auto-playlist (you shouldn't have to set it up). But that carries the same drawbacks if not all of the tracks on your iPod are on your PC.

Pheezer

The star ratings are maintained in the library metadata file. It's in XML format. The iPod will be maintaining its own - you would need to have syncing enabled for changes to the metadata on the iPod to carry back to the PC.

If you're extra clever you could probably write a script to do this for you and then you wouldn't have to turn on syncing.

Personally I just use manually update and I don't care if the songs on my laptop don't have the same ratings info they have on my iPod.

EggyToast

If you don't use sync, your iPod is "dumb," meaning that it simply carries the music that is also in iTunes.

If you sync, your ratings, playlists, smart playlists, and more, will transfer BOTH directions.

I've used sync ever since I got my iPod and realized it's how I set up the thing. Over the time I've owned it, I've noticed that iTunes has gotten progressively better about not wiping shit out -- if there's discrepancies, it warns you. If iTunes were to become corrupted and no longer recognize your iPod, you simply go into iTunes and check the box that says "Disable automatic syncing for iPhones and iPods" in the Devices tab.

However, once you sync, iTunes becomes the dominant library, meaning that your iPod is simply a direct copy of it. Unless you're fucking with your iPod on someone else's computer, it's pretty straightforward.


But yes, as your setup is currently, your iPod is a separately library from your iTunes. If you want to get your star ratings into iTunes with your current setup, you would need to copy the music from your iPod back to your iTunes manually.

If you sync, it just updates the little xml file.

EggyToast

ApexMirage wrote: »

I'm using them as a rating system for how much ass it kicks. They're user created and can measure whatever you want.
They don't really 'mean' anything afaik.

also, yes, I've got a buddy who uses the stars to determine how frequently he wants to hear it. 1 star is like once a year or something -- 5 star is almost every day. He then has a couple nested Smart Playlists set up in iTunes.

I taught him a trick so you don't get duplicates in your smart playlist, too -- add a rule that says "Last played :: Is not in the last :: X days" and once iTunes or your iPod realizes that it's been played, it takes it out of the playlist so something else will take its place. Which is a convenient way to have a set of, say, 50 or 100 tracks that's always different, since if I'm just listening to music I typically want to hear stuff I haven't just heard yesterday.

ApexMirage

I've got more music than my Ipod can hold either way, I cant exactly sync more than it can hold (?)

I actually do use it on more than one computer, and I've heard too many horror stories about wipes =(

And the only reason Itunes is even installed on my PC is for the ipod itself, I'm not exactly a big fan of it. Setting up the library from scratch for this much music would take way more time than I'm willing to spend anyway... Is there no way to copy the xml file and have be recognized?

ASimPerson

You can tell iTunes to only sync certain playlists, checked songs, etc.

EggyToast

If you have all of your songs set up on the iPod, and it is the "library of record," you could essentially just erase everything in iTunes (saving only things that aren't on the iPod), and then use one of the many applications that lets you copy music off of iPods (iTunes only moves purchased items off of iPods).

iTunes will recognize all of the tracks (since it uses the same tagging system as the iPod), all your star ratings, and so on. Not sure about playlists, though.

Anyway, that's if you want to go through the trouble. I actually so enjoyed using iTunes, due to its library functionality and smart playlists, that I've ripped my CD library (around 400 cds) twice over. The first time, I ripped everything into high quality OGG, on Windows for Winamp). Then I got a Mac (before an iPod) and since there was no easy way to transcode everything and keep the tagging, I just reripped everything.

Depends on how much managing your music is worth to you. To me, having a good system that lets me find exactly what I want, and also supplying my daily music needs automatically, was worth the initial setup hassle. If it's not that way to you, then you're using your MP3 player like most people do -- as just a way to carry around your tunes.


And yes, when your iPod is set up to sync, you can tell it to do everything, or only specific things (playlists, songs, video/photo), like ASim says. It's controlled in the tabs when your iPod is mounted (the ones that say Music, Movies, etc.)