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[fitbrit]

Hi all

Short version: MC (at least version 17) is automatically updating library from tags as soon as a library is restored. I'm restoring the library in an attempt to fix a huge tagging error by running Update Tags from library, but the bad data seems to populate the MC library fields before our eyes before we can run the UTfL command.

Long version: I was working on somebody else's library via remote desktop. Due to a laggy connection, when I was fixing a typo in an artist name, over 2000 files got their [artist] field renamed to Adele, on the NAS. The tags in the files got renamed too. We did not notice this until many days later. so could not 'undo'. Even worse, this was after the files had been imported for the first time on a new computer, so there were no library backups to revert to.
However, there was another PC on the network that had MC (version 17) and its library pointed to the same files. The library fields in that instance of MC is still correct.

I had the idea that we could fire up that MC 17 and then select all files and update the tags from the MC17 library, which still had the correct artist tags. Unfortunately, there is something weird going on. As soon as we open one of the libraries, the [artist] field is being updated in the library to match the tags in the files. So it becomes a battle to select all the files and run Update Tags from Library before the library itself is changed. There are almost 18000 tracks in the library, so updating the tags takes about an hour over the network. After one run, only half the files that were Adele were changed back to what they were supposed to be.
I'm assuming that MC was trying to update the tags from the library while simultaneously the library fields were being updated from the tags!
I'm in the middle of the second run of doing this.

Is there a way to prevent MC17 from updating the library from tags once a new library is restored? I didn't think it would do this, but it is, and it's annoying in this case. If this behaviour no longer exists in MC20 or 21, then it's not really a problem, as I can reopen the "good" library (which I have made read-only) in the MC20/21 PC and fix it from there.

[blgentry]

Automatic reading of tags to update MC's library is controlled by:

Options > General > Importing and Tagging > Update tags when file info changes

If you turn that option off, I would expect that behavior to stop.  One would think that if you took the files offline, you could update that setting, then bring the files online and you'd be good to go.

Also, I'm assuming that some part of the path name or file name of these affected files contains the artist name.  How about using Fill Properties from Filename?

Good luck!  (and I mean it!)

Brian.

[fitbrit]

Thanks, Brian!

In MC17 the option was "update for external changes".

But i didn't think it applied as I made no external changes. In fact I wanted to make external changes based on internal data. Well, I guess it should work now. I will let you know - just tried a third run, and it's looking promising, since the number of Adele tracks restricted itself to just a few.

[fitbrit]

All good now.