Why does iTunes automatically rate certain songs with outlined/hollowed stars?

Because it waits for you to rate them. It is a rating sytem based on what you put, which translates into the top rated list. Would you rather it rates every single song 5 stars? Empty means no rating.

If you have rated an album 5 stars (Check under the album artwork), it will automatically rate the songs to correspond with the rating you gave the album.

If it’s an outline it means it has no rating. If it’s rated it’ll have black stars. If you want to rate something just click on how many stars you want to give it. 3-star worthy? Click on the third star.

I know what you mean, and I’m not sure why it happens. It happens automatically to the individual tracks when you rate the album, but I suspect if you give the same rating to a number of songs in an album, it will ‘suggest’ the rest.

It doesn’t mean that the song has no rating, because when you order your playlist by rating, the empty stars are ‘worth’ just as much as filled in ones.

I dont think X0II0 and dverhey have got the point of your question. I also have this problem but it only affects two of my albums… they are not fully black stars like if you had manually rated them and they are not blank either. The stars have an outline permanently across the two albums like they do when you hover your mouse over a song but. Some of them I have rated…. they are fully coloured black stars. But then EVERY other song which i have not rated has outlines of stars, all of them on 4 star. I’ve tried rating them as nothing but it doesnt let me. and they do show up in my top rated to the person that said it didnt. it offers no help on itunes support for this and the only way round this I can think of is to rate the ones you do not want as 1 star. I have tried rating the album it still jumps back to 4 hollow stars. so ha your all wrong!!!! please help

‘havnt got the point of your question’ i meant to write

You used a double negative, so your correction is wrong.

Here is the solution:
Go to Grid View. Find the album with the hollow starred tracks and double-click it. You will probably see a rating under the album cover on the left. This is what creates the hollow star ratings on the tracks. Simply change the rating under the album cover to none and it will remove the hollow stars from the track ratings.

Thank you! I too have been tortured by this problem and could not find any help (when I googled the issue some months ago). I used the Grid View and found the option. Thanks LostEmperor.

@Julzgoody Welcome to Fluther!