Primary aliases being ignored in MusicBrainz?
- Dominant language
- Python
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Description
### Problem
Last week I ran an `mbsync` over my library and noticed a ton of artists no longer use their locale-specific aliases.
Two example artists and their aliases:
- [東京酒吐座](https://musicbrainz.org/artist/a26f7ca4-d14c-408b-9f9c-c8d847286bd0/aliases) which should be "Tokyo Shoegazer"
- [دمار](https://musicbrainz.org/artist/f64892d3-b4cf-4fae-9141-e39c5d968ff0/aliases) which should be "Damaar"
No config changes made on my side. I suspect this might be a side-effect of dropping the old `musicbrainzngs` library for fetching data but I've not had a chance to fully debug this yet, so pure speculation on my part.
### Setup
* OS: Linux
* Python version: 3.14.2
* beets version: latest git
* Turning off plugins made problem go away (yes/no): no
Relevant part of my configuration:
```yaml
import:
copy: no
move: yes
timid: yes
write: yes
from_scratch: yes
languages:
- en
ignored_alias_types:
- 'legal name'
```
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start by reproducing the alias behavior with mbsync using the reported import.languages and ignored_alias_types configuration, then compare the results for the two linked MusicBrainz artists. Inspect the MusicBrainz fetching path, including the suspected replacement for musicbrainzngs and plugin interaction. Done means locale-specific primary aliases such as “Tokyo Shoegazer” and “Damaar” are restored without breaking ignored alias types.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- cli
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 52/100