How to turn off iTunes 8’s store arrows
If you use iTunes, you’ve probably spotted those little arrows in circles that appear next to certain columns in the currently selected track. When you click them, you’re taken to the album or artist on the iTunes Store:
If you remember, iTunes 7 and earlier gave you a Preferences option to turn them off. And rightly so – they clutter up the UI in my opinion.
However, for some bizarre (no doubt marketing-related) reason, Apple removed this option from the Preferences dialog in iTunes 8. Thanks guys. 😉
Fortunately, there’s still a way to turn the arrows off. Quit iTunes, open a Terminal window, and type:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes show-store-arrow-links -bool false
Now relaunch iTunes. The arrows will be gone. To turn them on again, type:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes show-store-arrow-links -bool true
Not so fast…
Before you turn the arrows off, though, you may be surprised to learn that they do, in fact, do more than just take you to the iTunes Store.
This post on macosxhints.com contains a couple of comments which taught me something new: You can actually Option-click an iTunes Store arrow to find stuff in your library. Option-click a track name column or album column arrow to get a list of all tracks in an album; Option-click an artist column arrow to view all tracks by an artist.
So those arrows are actually useful after all! In fact, by changing another hidden preference, you can swap the behaviour of clicking/Option-clicking:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool true
Now clicking the arrows takes you to the album or artist in your library, while Option-clicking jumps to the Store.
Obviously, you can revert back to the original behaviour by typing:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool false
And there you go! The hidden delights of those little arrows.
October 3rd, 2008 at 12:36 am
well written, helpful info… thanks!
October 9th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
You’re welcome Ted – glad it helped!
November 26th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
How about a way to turn off the “just for you” section in the iTunes store?
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:37 pm
@Kurt: I’m not seeing the “Just for You” section at all in my iTunes store – maybe Apple has scrapped it?
May 12th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Hi. Is this only for OSx as I don’t get any extra info right clicking on the arrow, I just have the same options anywhere on the song.
I have read somewhere else how to get rid of the store arrow in Vistas itunes.
May 18th, 2009 at 8:43 am
@Paul: See http://www.tipstrs.com/tip/7974/remove-store-arrows-in-iTunes
September 21st, 2009 at 10:37 am
Thank you!
I recently upgraded to an Intel Mac, trying to put everything back the way it was on the three year old version of iTunes which I was perfectly happy with was driving me nuts. Those arrows had to go.
September 21st, 2009 at 10:42 am
@John: No problem, I’m happy the tip worked for you. 🙂