# No support for reading windows explorer ratings in m4a / mp4?

**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/no-support-for-reading-windows-explorer-ratings-in-m4a-mp4/15671
**Category:** General Discussion
**Created:** [April 20, 2014, 8:42pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/no-support-for-reading-windows-explorer-ratings-in-m4a-mp4/15671 "2014-04-20T20:42:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 16

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### Author: ![MrSinatra](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/mrsinatra/32/5574_2.png) [@MrSinatra](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MrSinatra)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2018, 3:04pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/no-support-for-reading-windows-explorer-ratings-in-m4a-mp4/15671/16 "2018-11-11T15:04:15Z")

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So it's been 4.5 years since I first reported this issue. At this time, it seems that mp3tag can neither write nor read the custom m4a xtra atom that windows / wmp is using to store ratings.

My first two posts in this thread cover the issue thoroughly.

Hopefully having one column for the rate atom, and one column for whatever the window's xtra atom is, will be a workaround that mp3tag can implement. It's similar to this issue:

> [@Popularimeter Tag Fails in 2.48c](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/af-popularimeter-tag-fails-in-2-48c/11847/42):
>
> Because I think the issue is similar in that it involves multiple columns and ratings, I wanted to be sure this was listed here in this thread, b/c it would make sense to fix all of this at once: [https://community.mp3tag.de/t/no-support-for-reading-windows-explorer-ratings-in-m4a-mp4/15671](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/no-support-for-reading-windows-explorer-ratings-in-m4a-mp4/15671) Thx. EDIT: I also want to add that all apps I know of, now write the same exact 5 POPM values for the 5 whole stars, which makes ratings handling easier, namely 1, 64, 128, 196, and 255. I got MM to confo…

What I would do with my mp4/m4a files, is use mp3tag to first delete any ratings that may be in the window's xtra atom, and then use mp3tag to copy all my rate atom ratings to that xtra atom. (Redundant but necessary to show the same rating value in both windows, and various apps)

I think it would be smart for mp3tag to include an option for users where mp3tag automatically keeps the two fields in sync on _any_ given writes, and allows the user to pick which atom should be given higher priority. I would suggest the rate atom be the default.

Thx.

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