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Old 12-14-2014, 07:01 AM   #1
Elwynd02
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Metadata download doesn't overwrite all existing tags

Wotcher!
I'm hoping I've just missed an option somewhere, or perhaps this is a bug? I'm going through my library and redoing the metadata, by bulk downloading all the Authors beginning with A, then B etc (and reviewing each one). To keep track of where I'm up to, I started by adding an 'unsorted' tag to the whole library, using the 'edit metadata in bulk' option. Then, as I download and review each item, I'm removing that tag, sometimes keeping and sometimes changing the others. The theory is, once I've finished each batch, I'll end up with a few rejections that still have the 'unsorted' tag, which I'll have to do one at a time, but the majority will now have the 'unsorted' tag removed, all the tags replaced with the ones I chose during the review.

Except, after the batch has been reviewed, completed and written, they ALL still have their 'unsorted' tag. I had thought that the download bulk/review method would REPLACE the tags with the new ones I chose, but it seems to have ADDED my new ones. For example, I was reviewing data for a book that had tags 'Romance, unsorted'. The suggested tags were rubbish, but Romance was the right answer, so I clicked the icon to use existing tags (ie bringing the data from the right hand side to the left side of the review screen), then deleted out the 'unsorted' tag. In this case I accidentally added an extra e to the end of Romance, so my tag field said 'Romancee'. After the bulk changes were applied, the tags on that item are 'Romance, Romancee, unsorted'.

Tell me I'm being a thickie, and that there's a setting for this! I'm only up to the Bs...

Thanks,
Elwynd
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Old 12-14-2014, 07:22 AM   #2
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If you want to overwrite all tags, simply delete all tags first, and then do the download. You can remove all tags in bulk using the bulk metadata edit dialog.
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Old 12-14-2014, 07:54 AM   #3
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I don't want to delete all the tags first, for several reasons:
1 - The downloaded tags are very rarely what I want (it's the rest of the metadata that's most useful, especially series info), but my original tags are usually right, so I'd want to keep them anyway. I'd have to redo all that for each title if I removed them all first.
2 - I also use tags to indicate other stuff, like ones where the format is bad or I'm missing a book in the series - a tag to tell me some other action still has to happen, unrelated to metadata.

It seems pretty odd, to have the bulk download/review feature replace all the fields with the data you select - except for one field, where it appends instead of replacing (and without telling you that's how it works). Eg, if you change the author, it doesn't ADD a second author (oh golly, does it??), it replaces the author field with whatever you select. I hope.

I can work around it, I suppose, by removing my 'unsorted' tags before I begin, then as I review each book, add a 'sorted' tag. The ones I rejected won't have a sorted tag, so I can do them one by one. Then at the end I can remove the 'sorted' tag from them all. But that seems a pretty clunky way of doing something in a feature that is otherwise lovely and intuitive and super helpful, so much so that I assumed it was just a setting I'd missed.
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Old 12-14-2014, 08:07 AM   #4
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I'm totally confused. What are you asking for? Overwriting all existing tags is exactly the same as removing all tags first and then downloading.

In the metadata review dialog, if you click the left arrow between the tags fields, the tags on the left are replaced by the tags on the right. If on the other hand you right click the arrow, you have the option of merging them instead of replacing them.
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Old 12-14-2014, 10:01 AM   #5
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They're not the same thing at all. If I remove all the tags first, then when I look at an individual book in the review stage, I don't get to choose between the old tags and the suggested new tags, I get a choice between nothing or the downloaded tag. I see the confusion. I mean, I want it to overwrite all the tags on this individual book, with all the tags I choose (for this individual book). Like it does with title, or publisher, or author.

I expect it tag my book with whatever I put in the left hand side. It doesn't behave like that though. For example, if I have a book with 3 tags, and in the review stage I remove one of them, it keeps all 3. If I have a 'test' tag on, but the metadata suggests 'Fantasy' and I go with the suggestion without changing anything, eg just click Next, I end up with both 'test' and 'Fantasy'. That's why I now think it's a bug: what I put in the left window is not what it ends up tagging when it writes them. I wonder if I'm allowed to post pictures in here? I can demonstrate with screenshots.

I see the merge option you're referring to, and that behaves as I'd expect: it takes both the old and new tags and puts them ALL in the left side. But the other option is also merging them.

I'm on version 2.11, I see there's an update. Will update and try.
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Old 12-14-2014, 10:04 AM   #6
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Version 2.12: same deal
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Old 12-14-2014, 10:14 AM   #7
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I cannot replicate that. The tags on the right completely replace the tags on the left for me, when clicking the left arrow.
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Old 12-14-2014, 11:00 AM   #8
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Try this, to replicate:
1.Take 2 books and give them both these two tags: fantasytest, test1.
2.Do a bulk download of metadata for the two books.
3.Click to review the downloaded metadata
4.On book 1, click the arrow to bring across the old tags (fantasytest, test1). This will correctly overwrite what is in the left box, but this hasn't tested the problem yet.
5.Now, in the left box, remove test1, so you're just left with fantasytest in the left box
6.Click next to go book 2.
7.For this one, just accept whatever the download suggested for the tags, ie don't try to put the existing tags on it. The left tag field will show whatever the download suggested. (If you typed in a completely different tag instead, eg test2, this would also demonstrate the issue.)
8.Click next so it writes the data on those two books.
9.Look at the tags on the books. For me, book 1 still says "fantasytest, test1", and book 2 says "Romance, Adult, fantasytest, test1". (If I'd typed in test2 instead of any other tags in step 7, it would say "fantasytest, test1, test2".)

Last edited by Elwynd02; 12-14-2014 at 11:05 AM. Reason: minor tweak to remove ambiguity
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Old 12-14-2014, 11:03 AM   #9
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Oops, I left out the point. The point is, the left box is perfectly correct, but that isn't what's being written when it saves.
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Old 12-14-2014, 09:26 PM   #10
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Ah, I think I know what you are saying. You mean that the tags that you are left with after the review process are merged into the existing tags. That is by design. Bulk metadata download does not overwrite existing tags, it merges them, regardless of whether you review them or not.

I suppose I could add an option to have metadata download overwrite rather than merge tags, but at least to me, the use case is not compelling enough. Patches are welcome.
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