Is there a way to prevent metadata from being updated/replaced during export?

My agency maintains several GIS features classes, some of which come from non-spatial databases. I have discovered whenever I import updates from one of these non-spatial databases my metadata gets overwritten at the same time. My short term solution was to export my metadata to XML and re-import it to my feature classes whenever I run my exports from the non-spatial databases. What I want to know is if there's a way to 'turn off' metadata overwrites completely?
I have been experimenting with the synchronize metadata tool. I was under the impression you could use this tool to flag a feature class so existing metadata would remain untouched using the 'create' flag, but that didn't work. Do I need to use a different flag in this tool? Is the answer in the feature class and/or geodatabase properties?

Thanks in advance.