Collections tags - transfer to another image

[David Madison]

Lightroom Version

Lightroom Classic versuin 9.2

Operating System

1. Windows 10

Is there any way to transfer the collection tags associated with one image file to another image file?

For instance, I have a low res scan of an image that is present in 10 collections; I make a high res scan of the image and then would like to include it in the same 10 collections (and then delete the low res version).

Is there a way to do this without manually adding to each collection?

 

[clee01l]

Manual Collections are just that — manual. A smart Collection uses keywords and other metadata to determine membership. if a smart collection has criteria {keywords}{contains}{ mySpecialKeyword}. The just adding that "mySpecialKeyword" as a keyword to an image will automatically include that image in the smart collection. Similarly, removing "mySpecialKeyword" for a lo-res image will automatically remove it from the Smart collection.

 

[David Madison]

Cletus, thank you for your reply. I understand the difference between Smart Collections and Manual Collections, and I could solve my problem by converting all my manual collections to smart collections and adding the identifying keyword to all and so forth.

However I was hoping there was a more simple way to copy the manual collection tags from one image to another.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

From memory, I think the Syncomatic plug-in can do that.

 

[David Madison]

Thanks Victoria, I checked out Syncomatic and it does this task. Thanks for the pointer.

 

[Califdan]

In my experience, if you replace the image file with the new version using exact same name using Finder (Mac) or File manager (Windows), then go into the develop module to force it to re-read the image file and rebuild the preview, the new version will be used everywhere the old version had been and will inherit everything else from the old version as well. The old version will be non existent. If you do this and get a "metadata mismatch" warning, then save metadata to the file (not Read metadata from the file). Sometimes it's a bit difficult to get the preview re-built though.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

In my experience, if you replace the image file with the new version using exact same name using Finder (Mac) or File manager (Windows), then go into the develop module to force it to re-read the image file and rebuild the preview, the new version will be used everywhere the old version had been and will inherit everything else from the old version as well. The old version will be non existent. If you do this and get a "metadata mismatch" warning, then save metadata to the file (not Read metadata from the file). Sometimes it's a bit difficult to get the preview re-built though.

Yes, if they're the same format, replacing works pretty well. Going to Develop won't (er, shouldn't!) rebuild the Library preview unless you actually apply some edits. And if the replacement file is a different resolution, that can mess up the metadata a bit.