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Metadata Backfill

Fill missing labels, years, and albums from file, folder, cached provider, and researched evidence, then export only the approved staged changes as Rekordbox metadata XML.

Start here

Section titled “Start here”

Fill missing labels, years, or albums.

Safety: Review before export

Time
Scope-dependent; automatic passes are followed by conflict review and gap research.
You'll get
Approved label, year, and album changes in a Rekordbox-compatible metadata XML file.

Review before import. Changes are prepared only. Approved export creates a backup and XML; import and verify it in Rekordbox, and keep the XML until then.

Online access: Online services are used only when the chosen step needs information that is not available locally.

Find tracks missing labels and years in my collection and fill them from enrichment data.

What happens next

Section titled “What happens next”
  1. Measure readiness. Check whether enough evidence is ready for the tracks with missing metadata. A searched no-match is valid completion; an unavailable release does not need to produce a match.
  2. Fill evidence gaps. Complete relevant Discogs and Beatport searches, then use targeted Bandcamp, MusicBrainz, automatic enrichment, file/folder evidence, or web research for unresolved gaps.
  3. Review staged values. Labels fill empty values but conflicts need your approval. Year conflicts prefer the earliest credible year. Albums are best-effort and may remain empty for singles or loose tracks.
  4. Preview and export. Confirm every remaining label/year gap was genuinely researched, review the aggregate preview, and approve the XML.

Decisions and approval checkpoints

Section titled “Decisions and approval checkpoints”
  • Resolve label conflicts and uncertain researched values rather than bypassing the evidence gate casually.
  • Decide whether a missing album is a genuine gap or an acceptable loose-track result.
  • Review all prepared changes before export; staged values remain in memory until exported, cleared, or the MCP process restarts.

What changes and how to recover

Section titled “What changes and how to recover”

Preparation may write enrichment caches and provider session state. Approved metadata changes are staged in memory; audio files and Rekordbox master.db are not edited. The export fails closed: XML is written only after the built-in Rekordbox database backup succeeds or the configured custom backup script exits zero. A failed XML write keeps staged changes available for retry.

You can continue an interrupted preparation pass with the same scope. Start a fresh pass after changing the scope or evidence sources so every track is judged consistently. Previously researched evidence remains available, but unexported staged changes do not survive an MCP restart.

Finish in Rekordbox

Section titled “Finish in Rekordbox”

Keep the exported XML until the import is verified. Follow the metadata XML handoff, then confirm representative labels, years, and albums in Rekordbox before cleaning up the file.

Technical details

Section titled “Technical details”
Technical details, safety, and recovery

Complete reference

Workflow contract

Stages metadata for XML

Fill missing labels, years, and albums from file, folder, cached provider, and researched evidence.

Best for
Users preparing missing metadata for stronger search and genre-classification evidence.
Network
Network when neededCached evidence is incomplete, auto_enrich is enabled, or remaining label/year gaps require provider or web research.
Scope
The collection’s missing labels, year-zero tracks, and empty albums; gap research is paginated manually.
Time
Scope-dependent; automatic passes are followed by conflict review and gap research.
Resuming
Provider caches persist. Bounded enrichment advances through page.next_offset while page.has_more, then retries failed explicit track IDs; restart at zero if selector order, providers, skip_cached, or force_refresh changes. Run the label-mutating pass once and fetch later conflicts with dry_run=true, auto_enrich=false, and conflict_page.next_offset. Staged metadata and the research gate belong to the current MCP process, so export before restarting or re-run the staging passes.
Result
Approved label, year, and album changes in a Rekordbox-compatible metadata XML file.

What can change

Staged metadata
This workflow creates in-memory metadata changes for XML export.
Direct user files
None.
Local state
  • Enrichment cache When needed — Targeted or automatic enrichment and lookup work is needed for remaining gaps.
  • Provider session When needed — Discogs authentication is required for uncached label or year research.
Files created
  • Rekordbox database backup On export — XML export proceeds only after the built-in backup succeeds or the configured custom script exits zero
  • Metadata XML file On export — The user approves the staged label, year, or album changes.

Before you start

  • A scoped cache_coverage baseline for the tracks with missing metadata.
  • Completed Discogs and Beatport searches where relevant; a cached no-match counts as searched.
  • Time to research unresolved label and year gaps before bypassing the export gate.

Approval checkpoints

  • Resolve label conflicts and approve researched labels or uncertain years.
  • Acknowledge that every remaining label and year gap was genuinely researched before bypassing the label gate.
  • Review preview_changes and approve the XML export.

Recovery

  • Retry actual provider errors, accept legitimate no-matches, and re-run the relevant backfill after new evidence is cached.
  • Clear unwanted staged fields or tracks and re-run preview_changes.
  • A failed XML write keeps staged changes available for retry; keep a successful XML until Rekordbox import is verified.

Rekordbox handoff

  1. Metadata XML file On export — After the research gate and final preview are approved.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”