Lock specific metadata (Rating) fields so they cannot be written

[Damit]

I am sure this is something IMatch can do, but my searches in help and in the community did not produce results that answered whether it is possible to lock specific metadata fields for writing.  I find that the star rating often gets set without my intention and would like to lock it but still be able to edit all other fields. I am sure there will be time where I want to lock specific sets of metadata while keeping others open for editing. Please let me know if this is possible and how to accomplish this. Thanks!

[Mario]

I find that the star rating often gets set without my intention and would like to lock it but still be able to edit all other fields.

How can this happen?

Do you accidentally click into the rating bar in the thumbnail panel in File Windows?
You can disable the icons in File Windows with the The Icon Lock

When you accidentally set a rating in the Viewer or Metadata Panel or by pressing the wrong keyboard shortcut, use Edit menu > Undo to revert the change.

You can also use the pen icon in the MD panel to revert a tag to the "not modified" state if you must.

There will never be a feature that allows users to block tags from being written.

[Damit]

I don't know how it is happening but I assume it is how you posit, that I must be clicking the icons. An yes, the Icon Lock is exactly what I was looking for. Better yet is just turning the ratings off for the file window until I want to edit them.  I am surprised that searching "Lock" in the Help section did not find this section. Also, thank you for providing all the options for reverting changes . I did not realize that the pen icon (more of a pencil to me, but I digress) could revert the changes if it was greyed out. I was not using that correctly.

If the Icon Lock is on, it will only stop that which was changed with the icons from being written, not any other metadata changes made, such as those in the metadata panel, correct? I thought the lock would just stop you from marking the change, but I see I can still add ratings, they just don't write when I as IMatch to write the changes. That is a bit confusing, not sure why one would want to allow the changes to be marked when locked, but I am sure there is a reason for that.

Another option to stop files from metadata changes is to mark them read only.  That would block tags from being written.

[thrinn]

Do you accidentally click into the rating bar in the thumbnail panel in File Windows?
You can disable the icons in File Windows with the The Icon Lock

Mario,
the Icon Lock does not prohibit changing the rating by clicking on the stars bar. It locks the icons inside the thumbnail (for Pins, Dots, Flag and so on), but the rating bar is below the thumbnail and is apparently independent from the icon lock.

[Mario]

Yes. I thought it unlikely that a user clicks accidentally into the rating bar. And even if, a quick Edit menu > Undo  or Ctrl+Z undos the mistake.