A small change in a master page causes SOME pages to change inline items that are unchecked for master settings & content and in a totally different div.
ie. - made one change in a menu (linked to master) and the background images in a totally different item reverted to the master settings, even though that item was unchecked for both settings & content. But only on some pages. Have compared master settings on a page that did change and a page that didn’t change, and they are exactly the same.
Just happened again when I added one meta tag to a master . . . what am I missing doing?
first of all - I can understand your frustration at all.
The problem here is, that a lot depends on construction (methods and philosophy). It is furthermore a pre-processing thing going on here which we can’t reproduce naturally without seeing more.
So just a guess and a tipp:
One (or even two) of my screencasts for my subscribers are titled with “Don’t overthink master concepts”. I produced them at a time I exactly run into your issue.
I then decided the following workaround (just for me personal):
Don’t put stuff on a master (such as a placeholder) if it is NOT consistent content throughout the entire page. Even if 99 of 100 pages are the same image - it’s not a “master-item”.
Unfortunately this system shows weaknesses, sometimes - depending on how you “construct” your pages. So in my philosophy I sectionize my page (very similar to backdraft modules). If there is consistent stuff such as a sidebar within a changeable parent-div section - I’m still afraid what happens.
I then prefer to develop this sidebar on a clean stand-alone master, adjust it there if necessary and insert them manually by copy and paste.
Honestly I haven’t worked for longer time on a “real and master depending” project but another thing I could think of is to run two or three (slightly) different masters for those single super individual stuff.
Those three masters are quicker and better to control (and adjust) then jumping through an entire project. So as i already said: “Don’t overthink master-pages”.