Can't get rid of ratings (stars)

[snowleopard]

I am using MM Gold (Current version) and had a list of 1700 songs out of 8200 that were rated 5 stars. I now want to remove the 5 star rating and start over. I go to the 5 star list, select the songs, right click them and change the rating to "un-known". MM updates the files. The stars are gone.

I exit MM to close it out. Then I go back into MM and the library refreshes and all the stars are back.

I don't know what is going on.

[MMFrLife]

I go to the 5 star list, select the songs, right click them and change the rating to "un-known".

Try it like this:
Select all > properties > set star ratings to unknown and make sure box next to it is checked (actually look at it, and make sure it's checked).
> ok > wait until MM has processed, but don't restart immediately.

Play around a little with it. Briefly play some tracks (both changed files and other files unrelated to issue) by moving around the tree a little. Then restart.

[Lowlander]

Are you making the changes in the My Computer node (with the files not having been scanned into the Library)?

[snowleopard]

I was updating it by going to "Music">Rating> and clicking on 5 star to pull the list up. I will try going into properties and see what happens and I do see the check box. I will let you know if it works.

[snowleopard]

Ok, I did the properties thing and put the check in the box and updated them and I am still getting all the stars. Something is not working right. I do get the message that the files are being updated, etc. it goes through them.... rescan.... stars are still there.

[nohitter151]

It sounds like the tags are not rewritten when you make the change to the ratings. That could be because it's an unsupported file type or because MediaMonkey lacks the necessary permissions to alter the file tags. Then, when you close and re-open MM, it triggers the startup scan which imports the tags back into the MM database.

[snowleopard]

My library is all flac files that were ripped from the original cd's through MM. I am not sure how they are un supported?

[Meander]

@ snowleopard

I'm taking an interest in this as I'll soon be ripping a batch to FLAC for the first time. One thing I have been alerted to is that FLAC tags are the same as Vorbis comments. FLAC writes to these and id3 tags. So I'm surmising that, when you reset the ratings to unknown, the changes are made to the id3 tag by MM. On restart, though, MM recognises the flac file and (correctly) displays the vorbis comment - in this case the rating that you'd thought had been changed.

If I'm right on that, then either the MM devs will have to address the issue in some way, or you'll need to use another tagger to sort it out. If you do that, make sure to use the File Monitor for updating changes to the library. (Though I'm not sure that's working properly at the moment, either. Anyway.....)

GL

[snowleopard]

Thank you, I forgot that flac files store information in a different format. Is there a MM addon/ script, Database editor that I can use to wipe the ratings from the flac files that will reflect that change in MM? I need these ratings cleared.

[MMFrLife]

Really? That behavior is a strange one on me. I write to and clean flac files all the time (including rating field) and the changes stick just fine regardless of start/restart. I even recently changed some ratings to unknown and it did it without a hitch.

MMW 4.1.3.1707

[Lowlander]

My assumption is the empty value being the issue, not the change in value. What MediaMonkey writes is described here: http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.p ... erties/4.0

I know in the past that any empty value wouldn't be written to the tag, any changed value would (this was done to prevent data loss). If this still is the case it could explain what is seen.

[nohitter151]

I know in the past that any empty value wouldn't be written to the tag, any changed value would (this was done to prevent data loss). If this still is the case it could explain what is seen.

That is not the case now, that issue was fixed years ago.

I think in this case OP is lacking rights to change tags on his files, since MM does support vorbis comments for FLAC and OGG files.

[snowleopard]

I have also tried the my computer option without luck, and I have to do it one album at a time (all the flac files are not in one directort) (My Music> Album>Songs) etc.

[MMFrLife]

You can remedy the one album at a time by temporarily creating a collection with 5 star property-condition-value if you're looking to change
"all" 5 starred files. If you are wanting to keep some 5 star rated files, you can set the collection to find "all" criteria, 5 star property-condition-value, and some other property-condition-value that will separate certain 5s from other 5s.

EDIT:
Sorry, you said "My Computer", I assumed that you were saying you were having a problem with one at a time in "Library"

[nohitter151]

I have also tried the my computer option without luck,

This further confirms that MM cannot edit your files, likely due to a Windows permissions issue. Make sure that the files are not read only and also that your Windows user account is the "Owner" of the files. Google can help you if you don't know how to do these things.