How do I stop LrC from adding new keywords to my list from imported media files?

[flexigav]

Lightroom Version Number

12.2.1

Operating System

1. macOS 13 Ventura

I am using LrC 12.2.1 on Mac Ventura OS. I have created a customised hierarchy of keywords that I don't want corrupted with unauthorised additions. I thought I might get rid of the unwanted additions by simply importing my backup list, but could not figure out how to delete the current keyword list before importing the backup list (all to the same catalog). How do you get around this problem?

 

[Johan Elzenga]

You can’t do that. If you would somehow delete the current keyword list, then you would remove all keywords from all images. If you would then import the old keyword list, you would have a list of keywords again, but none would be assigned to any image. Do you already have a problem with unauthorised additions, or do you want to avoid the situation happening?

 

[flexigav]

You can’t do that. If you would somehow delete the current keyword list, then you would remove all keywords from all images. If you would then import the old keyword list, you would have a list of keywords again, but none would be assigned to any image. Do you already have a problem with unauthorised additions, or do you want to avoid the situation happening?

I have a newly developed keyword hierarchy list for my current batch of images and wish to import older images with a different keyword hierarchy order and have it conform to the new order on all these older photos. However after importing one, it altered my LrC keyword list, causing many duplicates and upsetting my LrC keyword list hierarchical structure. Can I import the older photos without them altering my keyword list?

 

[Johan Elzenga]

I have a newly developed keyword hierarchy list for my current batch of images and wish to import older images with a different keyword hierarchy order and have it conform to the new order on all these older photos. However after importing one, it altered my LrC keyword list, causing many duplicates and upsetting my LrC keyword list hierarchical structure. Can I import the older photos without them altering my keyword list?

You will have to strip these images from their keywords first. You can do that in Bridge before you import them.

 

[Califdan]

How do I stop LrC from adding new keywords to my list from imported media files?​

Once you manually delete all the extraneous KW's that have polluted your KW hierarchy list, you can prevent future imports from bringing in new (unwanted) keywords which happen to be in the imported images metadata. The method is to create an import metadata preset which includes "Keywords" but with an empty list of KW's. Unfortunatly there is a bug (IMHO) where using such a preset does prevent the imported images from having any keywords but does not keep those keywords from being added to your keyword list. This necessitates the use of "Purge all unused KW's" command (found at the bottom of the Metadata menu) after the import (assumiong you don't have other KW's with no images attached that you want to keep).

If you already use a metadata preset on import, then edit it by checking the the "Keywords" box and removing everything from the "Keywords" text box.

If you don't already have a preset that you use, create one. In the Library module, go to the Metadata Panel and click the up/down arrow on the Presets line (at the top of the panel). Then in the drop down list select "Edit Presets...". this will give you the presets editor. Uncheck everything except the Keywords item and blank out any keywords that are in the box (see screen shot above). Then click the up/down arrow on the top line (which will say "custom") and select "Save current settings as a new preset". Name it something like "Remove KW's on Import"). Lastly, in the import dialog, select this preset in the "Apply During Import" panel.

 

[flexigav]

I see a string by

• Thread starter gYab61zH (Keywords added out of nowhere ...) is of similar content.

 

[flexigav]

I think I like the suggestion by Johan Elzenga, to import all my libraries and just drag and drop all the out of place keywords into my desired hierarchical order on the LrC kw list. All keywords in photo metadata will follow suit.

Where duplicates are encountered, bring up all the photos with one version of the duplicate, add to a quick collection, select all in that new quick selection and check the desired keyword, unchecking the undesired duplicate. Then remove all from the quick collection. The process will be time consuming, but doing it in large batches will speed things up. I might take a week off production to do this update... reorganising 200,000 keyword tags across 10,000 plus images. Once done the only new imports should be new photos. Lets see how LrC and my MacBook handle large volumes of metadata processing...