ITunes 12.2 - Ratings Shortcut

I find that my SizzlingKeys app (by yellow mug http://www.yellowmug.com ) still allows me to rate songs after upgrading to 12.2

A very frustrating removal.

Good Luck

I had just started using the shortcut too, so annoyed that its gone. May have to start using sizzling keys if they confirm update for the new version.

Same here. I mostly use my Mac for music and have set keyboard shortcuts, as rating songs is something I do a lot, sometimes up to 40-50 times a day. I don't know why File > Ratings was bothering them so much that they had to remove it. I hope they bring it back 😟 in 12.2.1.

10.10.4 + itunes 12.2. Tried SizzlingKeys (thanks for the reference) works well. The only thing still missing is bulk updates, this is where you select multiple assets and change their rating in bulk.

So found a work around but still don't understand why this one menu item was removed.

if you right mouse click on your selected items then use the shortcut key that you've previously defined the shortcut works. This doesn't really solve the problem of why they took it out of all menus. Maybe because they feel the "like or heart button" is the evolution of ratings. I have grey areas in my likes the 0-5 rating system fulfills that area.

Thanks for the effort, but that is generally the whole point of keyboard shortcuts: that they work without having to click or right-click.

To give you an idea of how I use this shortcut, I do work on my Mac and play my iTunes music while I work. When a song I like or dislike comes up, I quickly press cmd-Tab to go to iTunes, press cmd-L to go to the currently playing song, then press the shortcut I have assigned to 1 star, 2 stars, etc. All this without having to look for the cursor and click or right-click on anything. Many of us out there work a lot with keyboard shortcuts, not only on iTunes.

Now, if I am going to use any clicks or right-clicks, I don't need to right-click, then press my shortcut; I might as well click the Rating stars I want with just one click (after I've located the song).

However, it's nice that you noticed that they did not remove Rating from the right-click menu; it doesn't make sense that they removed it from the menu bar, but not from the right-click menu. Which leaves me some hope that they didn't mean to remove it from the menu bar in the first place and might bring it back in version 12.2.1.

you should try sizzling keys. I do the same as you listening to music as I work and rate songs as I hear them. The only exception is I never leave the app I am in. No need to cmd-tab into iTunes and all that. Just hit cmd-option-ctl 0-5 (my choice of short cuts) and the song is rated. Barely even breaking step during my programming.

Cheers

Hi, thanks for the response. Sounds amazingly handy. Do you know any free alternative?

Nevermind. You gave me the idea to search for more apps and I just searched the Mac App Store with 'control iTunes'. It came up with a few that I am going to try right now. 🙂

Yeah, i'm having the same issue with iTunes 12 too. Please add the ratings back to the menu bar!

I was frustrated by this as well. So I quickly made a few applescripts, one for each rating.

You can just put them in the scripts-folder and make shortcuts for them, so it works exactly like it did before.

If anybody wants them:

http://djbolo.be/Scripts/Rating%201.scpt

http://djbolo.be/Scripts/Rating%202.scpt

http://djbolo.be/Scripts/Rating%203.scpt

http://djbolo.be/Scripts/Rating%204.scpt

http://djbolo.be/Scripts/Rating%205.scpt

http://djbolo.be/Scripts/Rating%200.scpt

^ Awesome. That helped a lot. It's been a while I added customs scripts to iTunes. Here's a link for some more... http://dougscripts.com/itunes/itinfo/shortcutkeys.php

Great scripts. Thanks for doing the work and sharing it. 🙂

A solution spelled out here uses the native customization short cut function of OSx to do this. Doesn't help me (Windows user) but may help someone else. The post below references iTunes version 12.4.

http://www.mcelhearn.com/rate-itunes-tracks-with-keyboard-shortcuts/

relevant snipit in case Apple doesn't like external links

"Here’s what you do. Start in the Keyboard pane of System Preferences. Click Shortcuts, then select App Shortcuts. Click the + button, and, in the dialog that displays, choose iTunes. In the Menu Title field, enter ★. (You can find this in the Character Viewer on OS X; search for “star.” Or just copy it from this article. This character is called, fittingly, Black Star.) In the Keyboard Shortcut field, enter the shortcut you want to use."

Ed