• Welcome to the Lightroom Queen Forums! We're a friendly bunch, so please feel free to register and join in the conversation. If you're not familiar with forums, you'll find step by step instructions on how to post your first thread under Help at the bottom of the page. You're also welcome to download our free Lightroom Quick Start eBooks and explore our other FAQ resources.
  • Stop struggling with Lightroom! There's no need to spend hours hunting for the answers to your Lightroom Classic questions. All the information you need is in Adobe Lightroom Classic - The Missing FAQ!

    To help you get started, there's a series of easy tutorials to guide you through a simple workflow. As you grow in confidence, the book switches to a conversational FAQ format, so you can quickly find answers to advanced questions. And better still, the eBooks are updated for every release, so it's always up to date.
  • Dark mode now has a single preference for the whole site! It's a simple toggle switch in the bottom right-hand corner of any page. As it uses a cookie to store your preference, you may need to dismiss the cookie banner before you can see it. Any problems, please let us know!

Create import keyword with date and time

Status
Not open for further replies.

Jim Leask

New Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2018
Messages
24
Lightroom Experience
Advanced
Lightroom Version
Lightroom Version Number
Lightroom Classic version: 8.2.1 [ 1206193 ]
Operating System
  1. macOS 10.14 Mojave
How do I create a keyword on import that includes the import date and time?

I would like to automatically create a keyword for each import, so I can easily track each time I import photos from a card. I often import multiple cards or cards from different cameras, then want to go back to processes these batches.

I have a top level "Imports" tag, then after each import I am manually selecting all of the newly imported photos, then performing "Create keyword tag inside Imports", with an appropriate name. I would like to automate this.

On import, I would like to always add a new keyword based on the date and time, under my top level "Imports" tag so these are hidden away but easily accessible. For example, if I import now on April 6th 2019 at 9:26 AM, I would like the following tag:

Imports:Import20190306T0925

Can I do this?
 
You can create that keyword manually in the import dialog, under 'Apply during Import'. It is a purely manual operation however, so you will have to type the date yourself.
 
You can create that keyword manually in the import dialog, under 'Apply during Import'. It is a purely manual operation however, so you will have to type the date yourself.
Yes, I know you can do that but it isn't any easier than just doing it all manually without messing with the import settings (that I'd forget to reset next time). I'm looking for something where I can put an expression in the keyword that gets filled in during the creating of the keyword. Something like:

Import:Import-%datetime%
 
If that were possible, I would have told you how to do it. Maybe it can be scripted, but the option does not exist in Lightroom itself.
Just a guess here, but what about John Beardsworth's Search and Replace plug-in?

Phil Burton
 
Import Time isn't available to plugins, so S&R can't do it.
 
Rats - simple scripting like this would be very useful. I wish LR would automatically track all imports, not just the latest, but having the ability to script a keyword (or other metadata perhaps) on import would allow us to do the job ourselves. Perhaps I should put in a feature request to Adobe.
 
It is probably not a feature because the import date is a meaningless value to most people. If you really want to have the import date as a keyword you can achieve this manually to hundreds of photos in about 5 seconds upon import, provided you remember to do it.
 
@MarkNicholas I guess I'll have to try to remember to do it. Seems that is the easiest way, but unfortunately I tend to omit details like that until about 1/2 second after I hit the import button. @LouieSherwin Thanks for the tip on TextExpander. I'll take a look and see if it help me.
 
@MarkNicholas I guess I'll have to try to remember to do it. Seems that is the easiest way, but unfortunately I tend to omit details like that until about 1/2 second after I hit the import button. @LouieSherwin Thanks for the tip on TextExpander. I'll take a look and see if it help me.
You can still add it after you have imported.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top