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[lise]

I have 2 different libraries open on different computers.
Both libraries point to the same files.
On Computer A I removed the keywords associated with a particular podcast mp3.
I waited until MC said that the file had been updated (update tags is on).
On Computer B, I selected the file in the library and did Update Library from File (tags).
The keywords remain.
I double-checked that the file itself had a new modified date of today, and it did, just in case that is the basis on which libraries get updated from file tags.
I repeated with 6 other files and had the same result.
While it never worked with the keywords field (the field is set to save to tags), it did work with a Rating.

I'm running 15.095 on both computers. I didn't see anyting in the various histories of the updates that has addressed this.

Edit: I just did another test. If I manually select Update tags from library on a file I just modified, then on the other computer select update library from tags it works.  This leads me to believe that when MC says it is "saving tag changes" automatically when a change is made (this is selected in options), it isn't really updating the tag after all. So still a bug,  just a different one. Hopefully someone could reproduce.

Yet another edit: it worked fine with a single file for which I manually updated the tag from library, but when I did this for a batch of 6 files the update library from tags on the other computer still didn't work.  Very odd indeed.

[Alex B]

1. MC does not save file tags with empty values. When a field value is cleared the corresponding file tag is removed. This is by design.

2. MC never removes existing database field values when it reads file tags. It only updates the field values that can be read from the file tags. This too is by design.

... it did work with a Rating.

I can't reproduce this. When I remove the rating value inside MC the rating tag is removed from the file. When another MC instance reads the changed file it can't see a rating tag and thus the existing rating value is preserved in the library.

[lise]

Thanks Alex.
I didn't realize there was a distinction between a new, a modified and an empty tag value when it came to updating the library from the tags. Thus when I tested with the rating I had modifed the number, I hadn't cleared it all together the way I had cleared the keywords tags for the other files.

Hmm. Given this new information, I'm not sure how to keep two libraries in sync with regards to a segment of files that is shared by both libraries. The only way I can think of is to delete all shared files from one of the libraries and then re-import them into that library. That's going to be tricky.

[Alex B]

I can only think of two workarounds:

1. You could save a tag value like "remove this" whenever you want to clear a value. Though, then you would need to do additional tagging steps after reading the changed tags and it would not work with "Rating" or other fields that cannot store textual values.

2. MPL playlist export/import would update the receiving library correctly.