If you use the iTunes rating system for managing your songs a lot, you are probably aware with the limitation involving half-stars. iTunes only allows you to select between 1-5 stars; no halves. So you can’t have a rating like 3 1/2, for example. It’s quite bizarre that Apple hasn’t added this basic feature to iTunes yet. What’s even more bizarre is the fact that iTunes does have this feature built-in; it’s just not enabled by default. Nevertheless, it’s super easy to enable it, and all it needs is a simple Terminal command. To enable it, open up Terminal and type in the following command: (You can copy and paste, but I recommend that you type it in to familiarize yourself with the command line)
defaults write com.apple.iTunes allow-half-stars -bool TRUEAnd believe it or not, that’s all you need to do! If you already had iTunes open, quit it, then open it up again. The effects will now be obvious. Now, when you drag your cursor, the rating with now increase by .5, rather than 1 star per increment. This allows you to have more specific ratings, and gives you more control over your library. If you ever want to disable the half stars, simply replace the “TRUE” in the command with “FALSE.” Keep in mind your ratings will be affected, and will revert back to their non-half star ratings if you disable the command.
Quite honestly, I have no idea why Apple doesn’t have this enabled by default. It’s works seamlessly, and looks great. Do you think Apple should have this enabled by default? Let us know in the comments down below! If you have any other Terminal commands that you love, be sure to let us know about those too! And don’t forget to follow us on social media for more updates!
