Filed under: Terminal Tips
Terminal Tips: Modify iTunes arrow links
Do you know those little arrows that appear in iTunes when you have a song selected? You know, the ones that appear just after the title of the song, artist, and album and link to the iTunes Store when clicked? Yeah, those! Well, if you want the arrows to link to your iTunes library instead of Apple's induced store (and another impulse purchase), then just type the following command into Terminal (found in Applications > Utilities): defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool YESTo change things back to normal, just replace the YES in the above command with NO. As some commenters have pointed out, you can temporarily reverse this hack by pressing option and clicking on the arrow.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gus Jenkins said 11:11AM on 9-02-2008
...Or, you can uncheck "Show links to iTunes Store" in the iTunes preferences
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Aaron said 12:40PM on 9-02-2008
That preference turns off the arrows all together. This hint will make the arrows link to your iTunes library instead of the iTunes store.
Peter da Silva said 4:44PM on 9-09-2008
Unfortunately, as of iTunes 8 you CAN'T remove the damn buttons.
Redhead said 11:23AM on 9-02-2008
@ Gus: Your way to fast with your comment ;-)
I just fired up my iTunes, i knew this could be done easier but you allready spread the word!
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geddy76 said 1:22PM on 9-02-2008
Your = You're
to = too
allready = already
I'm just saying....
madgunde said 11:27AM on 9-02-2008
Of course, it's probably useful to mention that you can get the same action without changing anything by holding Command when clicking those arrows. I happened to notice the terminal command talks about inverting the links, which led me to believe there was a secondary action that was triggered when a modifier key was held down. I'm guessing if you apply this modification, then that holding Command and clicking the arrow will take you to the iTunes store.
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Galley said 11:34AM on 9-02-2008
It's the Option button.
TIm said 3:18PM on 9-02-2008
that is a wonderful tip thanks ( the one with the option key ), for the generel tip I also used Secret Pref. Pane.
By the way, that also works fine in Windows using the STRG key.
Best
T.
Alex Muller said 11:44AM on 9-02-2008
Secrets.prefpane does the job nicely
Linky: http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/01/manage-secret-preferences-with-secrets/
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sjkhuth said 11:47AM on 9-02-2008
That's probably the most useful tip for iTunes I've ever read, thanks!
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Ben@rokmotion.com said 11:56AM on 9-02-2008
Why do this when you can go into iTunes, Preferences and then under General uncheck 'show (->) Links to iTunes Store' ?
Surely that is easier than using the Terminal command, and quicker too!
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WS said 3:06PM on 9-02-2008
Do you even READ?
blur4760 said 12:44PM on 9-02-2008
Doing it over the preferences will remove the arrows altogether. Doing it via terminal will keep the arrows but they will point to your library. So when you click the arrow when hearing a song by a certain artist, you can see what other songs you have by the same artist instead of seeing what songs iTunes offers by this artist.
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infodriveway said 3:19PM on 9-02-2008
if one were to apply this trick, then holding down option and clicking will take you to the iTS.
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jonnyblazed said 4:15PM on 9-02-2008
cool tip!
just out of curiosity- is there a way to link the arrow to where the file is exactly located in the finder? i have all my songs in a separate bulk MP3 folder, and when dealing with duplicates, rather than left clicking a song to show in finder there should be an easier and quicker way to get to it....
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Callum Alden said 3:33AM on 9-03-2008
that's incredibly useful, thank you.
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JB said 4:39PM on 9-03-2008
For those of us not fortunate enough to own a Mac yet, is there a way to do this in Windows?
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Mario said 12:55PM on 9-10-2008
http://blog.ocramc.com/2008/09/itunes-8-hide-genre-in-browseritunes-store-links-on-windows.html
daeltar said 5:24PM on 9-09-2008
To completly disable links use:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes show-store-arrow-links -bool FALSE
Reply