diff --git a/osu.Game/Beatmaps/BeatmapUpdater.cs b/osu.Game/Beatmaps/BeatmapUpdater.cs
index a86aab4ac1..d7b1fac7b3 100644
--- a/osu.Game/Beatmaps/BeatmapUpdater.cs
+++ b/osu.Game/Beatmaps/BeatmapUpdater.cs
@@ -41,21 +41,25 @@ namespace osu.Game.Beatmaps
         /// <summary>
         /// Queue a beatmap for background processing.
         /// </summary>
-        public void Queue(Live<BeatmapSetInfo> beatmap, bool forceOnlineFetch = false)
+        /// <param name="beatmapSet">The managed beatmap set to update. A transaction will be opened to apply changes.</param>
+        /// <param name="preferOnlineFetch">Whether metadata from an online source should be preferred. If <c>true</c>, the local cache will be skipped to ensure the freshest data state possible.</param>
+        public void Queue(Live<BeatmapSetInfo> beatmapSet, bool preferOnlineFetch = false)
         {
-            Logger.Log($"Queueing change for local beatmap {beatmap}");
-            Task.Factory.StartNew(() => beatmap.PerformRead(b => Process(b, forceOnlineFetch)), default, TaskCreationOptions.HideScheduler | TaskCreationOptions.RunContinuationsAsynchronously, updateScheduler);
+            Logger.Log($"Queueing change for local beatmap {beatmapSet}");
+            Task.Factory.StartNew(() => beatmapSet.PerformRead(b => Process(b, preferOnlineFetch)), default, TaskCreationOptions.HideScheduler | TaskCreationOptions.RunContinuationsAsynchronously, updateScheduler);
         }
 
         /// <summary>
         /// Run all processing on a beatmap immediately.
         /// </summary>
-        public void Process(BeatmapSetInfo beatmapSet, bool forceOnlineFetch = false) => beatmapSet.Realm.Write(r =>
+        /// <param name="beatmapSet">The managed beatmap set to update. A transaction will be opened to apply changes.</param>
+        /// <param name="preferOnlineFetch">Whether metadata from an online source should be preferred. If <c>true</c>, the local cache will be skipped to ensure the freshest data state possible.</param>
+        public void Process(BeatmapSetInfo beatmapSet, bool preferOnlineFetch = false) => beatmapSet.Realm.Write(r =>
         {
             // Before we use below, we want to invalidate.
             workingBeatmapCache.Invalidate(beatmapSet);
 
-            metadataLookup.Update(beatmapSet, forceOnlineFetch);
+            metadataLookup.Update(beatmapSet, preferOnlineFetch);
 
             foreach (var beatmap in beatmapSet.Beatmaps)
             {
diff --git a/osu.Game/Beatmaps/BeatmapUpdaterMetadataLookup.cs b/osu.Game/Beatmaps/BeatmapUpdaterMetadataLookup.cs
index c7c8f0ceb0..02fb69b8f5 100644
--- a/osu.Game/Beatmaps/BeatmapUpdaterMetadataLookup.cs
+++ b/osu.Game/Beatmaps/BeatmapUpdaterMetadataLookup.cs
@@ -48,18 +48,27 @@ namespace osu.Game.Beatmaps
                 prepareLocalCache();
         }
 
-        public void Update(BeatmapSetInfo beatmapSet, bool forceOnlineFetch)
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Queue an update for a beatmap set.
+        /// </summary>
+        /// <param name="beatmapSet">The beatmap set to update. Updates will be applied directly (so a transaction should be started if this instance is managed).</param>
+        /// <param name="preferOnlineFetch">Whether metadata from an online source should be preferred. If <c>true</c>, the local cache will be skipped to ensure the freshest data state possible.</param>
+        public void Update(BeatmapSetInfo beatmapSet, bool preferOnlineFetch)
         {
             foreach (var b in beatmapSet.Beatmaps)
-                lookup(beatmapSet, b, forceOnlineFetch);
+                lookup(beatmapSet, b, preferOnlineFetch);
         }
 
-        private void lookup(BeatmapSetInfo set, BeatmapInfo beatmapInfo, bool forceOnlineFetch)
+        private void lookup(BeatmapSetInfo set, BeatmapInfo beatmapInfo, bool preferOnlineFetch)
         {
-            if (!forceOnlineFetch && checkLocalCache(set, beatmapInfo))
+            bool apiAvailable = api?.State.Value == APIState.Online;
+
+            bool useLocalCache = !apiAvailable || !preferOnlineFetch;
+
+            if (useLocalCache && checkLocalCache(set, beatmapInfo))
                 return;
 
-            if (api?.State.Value != APIState.Online)
+            if (!apiAvailable)
                 return;
 
             var req = new GetBeatmapRequest(beatmapInfo);
diff --git a/osu.Game/OsuGameBase.cs b/osu.Game/OsuGameBase.cs
index 6514fc6aee..41eeece76d 100644
--- a/osu.Game/OsuGameBase.cs
+++ b/osu.Game/OsuGameBase.cs
@@ -287,7 +287,7 @@ namespace osu.Game
 
             AddInternal(new BeatmapOnlineChangeIngest(beatmapUpdater, realm, metadataClient));
 
-            BeatmapManager.ProcessBeatmap = (set, isBatch) => beatmapUpdater.Process(set, forceOnlineFetch: !isBatch);
+            BeatmapManager.ProcessBeatmap = (set, isBatch) => beatmapUpdater.Process(set, preferOnlineFetch: !isBatch);
 
             dependencies.Cache(userCache = new UserLookupCache());
             AddInternal(userCache);