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[prof.trance]

I'm wondering what happens when you make some changes in track metadata (like altering something in the name of a track, fixing capitalization, spelling errors, etc.) in MC when you're dealing with an album that is stored as one FLAC file and one CUE file.

I have "update tag from library" always on, but, of course that does not re-write the CUE file - the track info in the CUE file stays the same as originally, yet MC keeps my changes made in the program whenever I open the program again.

Where are those changes kept? And, most importantly, will they still be there if I have to restore my library from a backup or if I move my library to a new location?

[blgentry]

MC's metadata and organizational information is all stored in it's own internal database.  There's a directory under it's main area (which is under your Library directory on a Mac) which contains dozens of database files.  This is physically where MC keeps the information about your library including all metadata, playlists, etc.

This database information is backed up in full with every library backup.  Library backups are automatic, or (as you almost certainly know) can be run any time you want.

Any time you restore these backups, the entire database is restored.  So all of your manually edited metadata will be restored whenever you do a library restore.

I'm not very experienced with CUE files, but they seem to be a little bit problematic for MC.  You have observed that MC does not seem to write metadata back into CUE files.  Others have reported unusual behavior also.  This has lead me personally to distrust CUE based media files with MC and to not recommend that others use them.

Again, I do not have experience with CUE files myself.  THis is based upon trouble reports like yours that I have seen over the years.

The good news for you seems to be that they work for you and you have made edits that persist in your library setup.  Plus, now you know that library (database) backup and restore work for this metadata.  All good news!

Take care,

Brian.

[prof.trance]

I agree with your recommendation - .cue files can be problematic, but they do come with many downloads (especially some large classical collections). I've had to split more than a few .flac files because of errors or sometimes non-standard characters (I see when I open them in a text editor) used in them that make them unreadable by MC, resulting in a one large track album until the corrected .cue is re-imported. Even then, one is at the mercy of the creator of the file for metadata (track names, artists, composers, etc.). Also, there's the issue of MC re-scanning them every time one runs an import, extending its' duration. Unfortunately I didn't realize this until late in the game. At least I can hope that the editing I've done in MC will be there when I restore. Thanks...

[blgentry]

If you want to be more sure, create a new test library to play with.  When you create it, it will be empty.  Now, DON'T import anything.  Instead, cancel the auto import.  Then restore a recent backup.  Your test library should now look just like your main library, including any metadata you have edited for songs that are part of CUE structures.

When you are done, you can delete the test library and be confident about your backups.

Brian.