Songs that I 'Love' are being reset

I recently encountered this problem myself. If I had to guess I'd say this problem stems from the fact that older iPods no longer recieve iOS software/firmware updates, so they can't handle the new 'Love' system. For some reason when the iPod syncs, it clears out that data instead of ignoring it. I think the only solution (apart from some kind of hacking) is using a newer device that still receives software updates. I could be completely wrong about this though, it's mostly just a guess.

There is an issue at the moment whereby iTunes changes song ratings, based on the rating given to other songs on that album. While it is credible that rating a couple of songs on an album as great, it possibly indicates that the album as a whole is good, it does not mean that I think any other track is worth rating. Perhaps this is part of that same error.

... And it is an error. Why anyone (who designs iTunes) would think that if I give a song a four-star rating, that this means that I think all the other individual tracks are also four-star is beyond me.

Hopefully, it will get sorted out in a future build of iTunes.

I noticed this myself...

It is as if the "loved" status is not actually recorded on the iPod so when it syncs with the iTunes Library, it overwrites the 'loved' status in the library

I think you have the cause right there. The Apple Music service introduced the "Love" (heart symbol) field for songs, and the older iPod design does not account for it, although I don't know why it would overwrite something it does not know about when synced. You can report the problem to Apple here (under iTunes)

https://www.apple.com/feedback/

I use the song Rating field, to give songs I like either 4-star or 5-star for Rating. I give all 5-star songs the heart (to communicate my favorites to the Apple Music service). I created a smart playlist that shows me all 5-star songs that do not have a heart. Its setup looks like this

So my work-around is to periodically go into that playlist, do a Select All, right-click selection, and Love.

Kenichi Watanabe wrote:

I use the song Rating field, to give songs I like either 4-star or 5-star for Rating. I give all 5-star songs the heart (to communicate my favorites to the Apple Music service). I created a smart playlist that shows me all 5-star songs that do not have a heart.

The problem with that is the one I mentioned previously; that giving one or two tracks a rating influences the album rating (which is not a problem in itself) but that in turn gives unwanted ratings to other songs on that album, and that is an issue. They might well be "greyed" ratings, but that still causes those unwanted rated tracks to end up in my Smart Playlists.

For example, if I rate a song as five stars and another a two star rating, that in turn can create an average album rating of (probably) a three stars, which in turn gives a three star rating to songs I specifically have not rated, because I dont like them. But those disliked songs will appear in my Smart Playlist of three star songs.

Is this not happening to you? The phenomenon has been seen by others, I responded to another thread on this subject a while ago. If I can find it I'll post a link to it.

The "grey stars" in the Rating field has not happened to me in quite a while. If I see this issue, I get rid of them by showing my Music library using the Albums view. I right-click on the album art "tile," and select Album Rating -> None. But it hasn't happened to me in probably more than one year. I have a lot of smart playlists that use the song Rating field in their rules, so I would notice if I was having the "grey stars" issue again.

Hi Kenichi,

See this thread: Erroneous album ratings (including a call to Kenichi) in the lounge

Phil

That would seem to be a significant bug. As Kenichi suggests recording the information somewhere else either in the form of a 5 star rating or a manual playlist will allow you to reset the information if it is corrupted.

tt2