[quote=Chondog post_id=454451 time=1546543955 user_id=93324]
I am asking about "bulk sync" as you referenced, particularly #1 ("this control enables sync of GPM track locations and hidden ID into your matching MM tracks") So, what does that actually do to the matching MM tracks?

Basically, up to this point (pre MM5), I've been trying to manually maintain the same tracks in both MM4 and GPM. However, my tags are only really cleaned up and maintained in MM. Thus, I don't understand what the syncing back to the MM library from GPM does to all of that information. I wouldn't want to overwrite "Rock and Roll All Nite" (in MM correctly) with "Rock and Roll All Night" (in GPM incorrectly). Does the process allow me to review each track it brings in from GPM to MM?
[/quote]

As I understand it, each of those numbered controls on my diagram control a different component of what we call a "sync".

MM already knows how to find your local tracks ... ie. it knows the path for each track
If you have a duplicate copy of tracks up in GPM, MM doesn't know the GPM "location" for each track ... this means MM cannot play the track from GPM ... and it cannot make a playlist which could be played against your GPM library

Control #1 allows you to import the GPM track "location", for all tracks where MM5 can tag match a MM track to a GPM track ... at the end of this process MM will know both the the path to your local version of the track, AND the GPM internal ID and path where Google has stored your track

the image I posted yesterday had #1 unchecked ... this was wrong, which maybe why you are confused ... I have updated the image.
[url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/6p9q1sh9t9lengv/GPM-to-mm%20sync%20control.png?dl=0[/url]

So with the controls set as illustrated above ... for tracks where MM can match GPM to local tracks, the MM db is updated; local tracks are updated with the GPM track locations .... NO extra tracks are imported into GPM ... NO .mp3 files are downloaded ... and your MM db and local tracks are NOT updated with tags from your GPM library

Control #4 is the one which triggers MM to update your MM db (and presumably you actual local tracks themselves also) with tags from GPM ... they haven't said which tags are updated

I don't imagine that I would ever use this ... and IMO it should come with a health alert.

I think that is for someone who has backed up their local tracks to GPM or Dropbox or One Drive, etc
Control #4 would allow them to restore their local tags from backup if their local copy ever got screwed up somehow.

I presume that is what it is for. .... I can't see the point of it for GPM though ... GPM is not like other net locations ... ie. an upload to Dropbox is just a simple file copy ... Dropbox don't screw around with what you have uploaded ... an upload using Googles Music Manager can reduce the size of the upload task by populating your library with Google's own copies of your tracks ... ie. not actual upload required ... it helps you, and probably helps them, because they don't have to store multiple copies of the same track ... and it looks like they try to make your GPM library more "useful" by upgrading your tags with community consensus tags ... most of the change I have seen is in the genre tags ... so a tag sync from GPM is not desirable IMO, because your GPM tags are a muddy soup, make from who-knows-what?

Also, as you say, you may have done re-tagging corrections to your local copy, which you didn't sync to GPM

btw, It is a different situation [u]if you used MM[/u] to do the upload, and syncing, to GPM ... in this case, he wrote the track, so you know that it is your file, with your atgs ... also GPM just store a basic set of track tags ... nothing fancy like Conductor or Involved People, etc ... but Ludek also uploads some, or all, of the extra tags ... so in this case a tag sync from GPM->MM may have a useful purpose if your MM db gets corrupted etc ... I presume that GPM doesn't mess with the files that he uploads, but who knows ??

I have never tested it ... I would want knowledge, and control over, which just tags he was syncing, before I even considered it.

Thanks for the very detailed response. Greatly appreciated and will help me going forward.

I am asking about "bulk sync" as you referenced, particularly #1 ("this control enables sync of GPM track locations and hidden ID into your matching MM tracks") So, what does that actually do to the matching MM tracks?

Basically, up to this point (pre MM5), I've been trying to manually maintain the same tracks in both MM4 and GPM. However, my tags are only really cleaned up and maintained in MM. Thus, I don't understand what the syncing back to the MM library from GPM does to all of that information. I wouldn't want to overwrite "Rock and Roll All Nite" (in MM correctly) with "Rock and Roll All Night" (in GPM incorrectly). Does the process allow me to review each track it brings in from GPM to MM?

Again, I appreciate your careful and diligent testing of the GPM functionality. It is very much appreciated and will go a long way to ensuring a smooth migration from MM4 to MM5.

[quote=Chondog post_id=454411 time=1546481276 user_id=93324]
Can I select a subset of my GPM library to sync to the local db? It seems that it's all or none unless there is another place to do this? I have over 37K tracks in GPM and I'm a little worried about what is going to happen when I sync. There aren't any clear instructions or what we can expect after executing the command.
[/quote]

I agree that the instructions are not clear enough yet ... and I empathise re the angst before pressing the Sync button, due to what it may do to a carefully curated MM db.

What exactly do you mean by "when I sync"? ... you said you syncing in the direction from GPM to MM ... but are you wanting to:
[list]sync the GPM track locations and IDs into your MM db?[/list]
[list]or syncing your GPM track [b]tags[/b] into your MM db?[/list]
[list]or [b]inserting [/b] GPM-only tracks into your MM db?[/list]
[list]or downloading some GPM-only .mp3 files?[/list]

This variety of use cases is what makes it difficult to make the MM UI clear ... it is getting better, but still needs improvement IMO.

Back to your question .... this is my understanding so far:

What I think of as a "bulk sync" in a GPM-->MM direction is controlled by this screen [url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/6p9q1sh9t9lengv/GPM-to-mm%20sync%20control.png?dl=0[/url]
[list]#1. this control enables sync of GPM track locations and hidden ID into your matching MM tracks [/list]
[list]#2. whether to insert any GPM-only (or tracks which MM has been unable to match to your MM tracks) into your MM db ... I always set this ON, ie. exclude "new" tracks ... I prefer manual control over which GPM tracks get INSERTED to my MM db (see below)[/list]
[list]#3. Whether to download the .mp3 files for the GPM-only (or mismatched) tracks ... I always leave this off for the same reason[/list]
[list]#4. Whether to update (aka corrupt?) your MM db with GPM track tags ... always off ... GPM track tags are a mix of my, and everybody else's tags ... I would never want this [/list]

Other than this (I think) that a GPM->MM sync always works on your whole library ... but with the above controls this is OK, I think

What I think of as a "manual sync" is where I want to adopt some GPM tracks into my db, and|or download the .mp3 files.

The way i do this is to first sync the GPM links into my MM db using the options described above.
[list]then go here: [url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/hy7kyy4pa2f6s9n/open%20transient%20GPM%20library%20list.png?dl=0[/url][/list]
[list]It downloads the dictionary of tracks from your GPM library ... after a delay, it displays a temp list of your GPM tracks ... ie. the full list from your GPM library ... ie. those that MM knows about, and the tracks that it doesn't know about[/list]
[list]setup the Column Browser for this list like this, ie "Source in col 1 [url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/lsf5fr55b7kzze5/filter%20transient%20list.png?dl=0[/url][/list]
[list]The top Source filter criteria (see red arrow here in above image) are tracks|albums that are in GPM, but not found in MM ... The right click menu for any track(s) selection has "Add to library" and "download" options .... this is what I mean by a "manual sync", .... maybe this gives you the control you are wanting?[/list]

There is a step between the "bulk sync" and the manual sync ... that is to make sure that MM has matched all your tracks OK ... where it cannot tag match the GPM track to the corresponding MM track, it will think that you don't have this GPM track ... so if you did do a bulk sync to adopt the "new" GPM tracks, you could end up with MM duplicates where ever MM5 has been unable to see the match to your existing MM track ... and in the case of a "manual sync" the filter list described above will be polluted with tracks that do already exist in MM

So there is also the job of detecting and fixing any mismatches ... but this post is already long enough, because I am not dead sure that I am properly addressing the question that you asked.

Can I select a subset of my GPM library to sync to the local db? It seems that it's all or none unless there is another place to do this? I have over 37K tracks in GPM and I'm a little worried about what is going to happen when I sync. There aren't any clear instructions or what we can expect after executing the command.