MM5 2188 GPM Upload loses tags (GPM is replacing the track?)

[Linwood]

I am doing a clean test -- starting with am empty GPM and uploading from MM5. While it is not yet done (it crashed once, so I restarted), I see what appears to be a metadata problem.

LOTS Of the songs uploaded do not show tags on GPM for cover art (art is only thing I looked at so far as it's easy to notice the absence). Here is an example:



In the above you can see the cloud symbol, so MM5 knows it uploaded it. And it has a cover art tag:



But here is what GPM has:



So is this what @Barry4679 has mentioned (in https://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewt ... 30&t=94858), where GPM is storing someone else's copy and not mine? Or is GPM not uploading the track with tags intact?

I downloaded the track from GPM manually, and ran a different program to look at the tags (Tagscanner 6.0.35), and there is no cover art. I ran the same program on the FLAC track inside of my MM5 music library and the JPEG tag is there in the image (not separate in the folder as a file).

So either Google stripped it on arrival, replaced the track entirely with one it had, or MM5 did not include the tag during the FLAC -> MP3 conversion.

Here's a side by side display of the FLAC (on the right) from MM5's library, and the MP3 that I downloaded after MM5 uploaded to GPM. Notice the track tag, disk tag, and Year are also different.



It really looks like GPM replaced the track once it reached Google? I could see MM5 losing a tag, but it seems unlikely it is changing a tag in subtle ways like those others.

Unless....

Unless...

I noticed that GPM has a "Trash" where it appears to keep the last deleted copies.

Could it be that if you upload song X, and it has a copy in trash, it replaces it from the trash instead of the upload? Not sure if I am suggesting that GPM is doing that, or MM5 is doing that.

I have been repeatedly testing this by deleting all the songs from GPM. I have not been clearing the trash. I have also been tagging my library as I went. It is completely possible that this album at one point had different tags. Maybe it landed in TRASH and has just been recovered from it on each subsequent upload?

I just did a "permanent delete" on all trash. I will let MM5 finish, and see if subsequently uploaded songs have the same problem. I will also delete this one (permanently this time) and sync again and see what happens. I think it is a long shot but possible, I guess.

But something is wrong.

[Ludek]

Hi,
this is known issue already tracked as https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=15154

So far I was unable to reverse engineer how to supply the artwork properly. The tags and metadata are send to GPM and I can also supply a http link to artwork image that will be shown in GPM, but I don't know how to store the image on Google servers (and supply the google's link to that image). So I supply all metadata except for the artwork and GPM uses its own images for the tracks (which is missing for many tracks).

[Linwood]

So I deleted this, then deleted it permanently from GPM, and sync'd again.

It got the same result, including changing fields like date.

I get that you have a bug in artwork (maybe), but the fact it is changing these other fields -- is that really a case that MM5 is uploading wrong, or is GPM behind the scenes doing a de-duplication on its massive storage and substituting someone else's upload?

[Barry4679]

I get that you have a bug in artwork (maybe), but the fact it is changing these other fields -- is that really a case that MM5 is uploading wrong, or is GPM behind the scenes doing a de-duplication on its massive storage and substituting someone else's upload?

I think that if you have noticed an altered tag on an upload to GPM, that it is extremely unlikely that MM altered it.

As I said in another post you have accepted Googles offer to accept, store, and stream your track at no charge. No fee charged, makes you the "product", not the "customer". You have probably helped to improve Googles song recognition, etc etc.

The question is whether you care that they appear to have reduced their cost by de-duplicating?

As long as you de-select the option to import tags from Google, your local tags won't get polluted. And Ludek has said that he will make this an opt-in facility in a up-coming version.

You achieve benefits:

• Google stores a high resolution copy of your track, at no cost to you
  • if you are a GPM subscriber, they also have 30+ million tracks on offer, so your library has somewhat expanded in scope

• they run a Media Server, so that you can browse and stream at no cost

• if it scrobbles wrong, you can retag it at Google ... I would not expect that they would reset a custom re-tag

If you don't like what happens, you can take Ludek's advice, and switch your web location from GPM to Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive ... where you will pay a storage fee, but you will be the "customer", and they will leave your tags in their pristine condition, and Ludek will be able store your album art correctly also.

[Linwood]

@Barry4679 I am not complaining that GPM may be consolidating tracks to save space, but rather suggesting that the bug logged about album art may have nothing to do with MM5 but rather that what is uploaded to MM5 may not be what you see when it gets there.

I like free. Of course all this begs the question what happens with YouTube when they force GPM users there, but that's another topic.

[Barry4679]

suggesting that the bug logged about album art may have nothing to do with MM5 but rather that what is uploaded to MM5 may not be what you see when it gets there.

I think Ludek is saying that he has found (reverse engineered) a way to store tracks in a GPM library, but he has no way to store art into ether their art or track repository

all this begs the question what happens with YouTube when they force GPM users there, but that's another topic

Yes ... anxiously waiting for the other shoe to drop.