Keyword filtering

[joanne.eastope]

Lightroom Version Number

15.1

Operating System

1. Windows 11

Having issues filtering by keywords in Lightroom.
Discounting my ugly keywording structures I have many 1000's of keywords. Normally I type in the search box and see every possible option for a key word containing the word or part word....if I type in the search box I see no options to filter against.
Any suggestions welcome I have so many keywords I can't even scroll down to the ones I am currently looking for as 'moon' is too far down the list to display.

Example below - my keyword filter is blank & I can see the top of my keyword list- I have a keyword 'tree frog' so lets use this as an example....

I click on the key word 'tree frog' and that what pops up - super!

I now reset the selection - this time I type 'tree frog' in the filer box - I see no results in my keyword list and no images are filter in the image display window- even if I had just typed tree I would expect to see both 'tree' & 'tree frog' appear as both are keywords I have attached to images...but nothing happens

 

[clee01l]

“Tree frog” is a Keyword phrase. You get hits. “Tree” is not a keyword in your list. No hits.

This is unlike the Text filter on the filter bar or keyword criteria in a Smart collection where you have modifiers like contains, contains all, does not contain etc.

A smart collection {keyword}{contains}{tree} or even {tre} would return your “tree frog” and every thing else that has the characters “tree” as a part of the keyword phrase.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Hal P Anderson]

Cletus,
That isn't right:

I'd suggest resetting the Preferences.

 

[clee01l]

Cletus,
That isn't right:
View attachment 28153

I'd suggest resetting the Preferences.

Thanks for the correction, I was away from my real computer and should have tested out my theory which was plausible.

 

[joanne.eastope]

“Tree frog” is a Keyword phrase. You get hits. “Tree” is not a keyword in your list. No hits.

This is unlike the Text filter on the filter bar or keyword criteria in a Smart collection where you have modifiers like contains, contains all, does not contain etc.

A smart collection {keyword}{contains}{tree} or even {tre} would return your “tree frog” and every thing else that has the characters “tree” as a part of the keyword phrase.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

that is incorrect

 

[joanne.eastope]

Cletus,
That isn't right:
View attachment 28153

I'd suggest resetting the Preferences.

Hi - just tried that - no joy sadly.

 

[johnbeardy]

WIth LrC closed, try zapping the catalogue's Helper.lrdata file. It will rebuild when you reopen LR.

 

[John R Ellis]

If John's suggestion of deleting the Helper.lrdata file doesn't help, I think your catalog's keyword list is corrupted. It has a blank root keyword:

If you want, I can take a look, and if it's similar to previous LR corruptions of the keyword list, I may be able to fix it (but no promises). Zip up the .lrcat file in your catalog folder and update the .zip to Wetransfer, Dropbox, Google Drive or similar free service and send me the sharing link in a private message.

 

[johnbeardy]

An Optimise Catalog might also clear things up, but I'd bet on the helper.lrdata file.

That blank root keyword does look odd.

 

[joanne.eastope]

WIth LrC closed, try zapping the catalogue's Helper.lrdata file. It will rebuild when you reopen LR.

Hi John, just to clarify, when you say zap you mean delete. J

 

[John R Ellis]

when you say zap you mean delete

Yes, that's what John meant.

 

[joanne.eastope]

WIth LrC closed, try zapping the catalogue's Helper.lrdata file. It will rebuild when you reopen LR.

Hi John, just to clarify, when you say zap you mean delete.

An Optimise Catalog might also clear things up, but I'd bet on the helper.lrdata file.

That blank root keyword does look odd.

I optimised earlier but no joy. Will try zapping the helper next, in the morning! Thanks

 

[joanne.eastope]

If John's suggestion of deleting the Helper.lrdata file doesn't help, I think your catalog's keyword list is corrupted. It has a blank root keyword:
View attachment 28157

If you want, I can take a look, and if it's similar to previous LR corruptions of the keyword list, I may be able to fix it (but no promises). Zip up the .lrcat file in your catalog folder and update the .zip to Wetransfer, Dropbox, Google Drive or similar free service and send me the sharing link in a private message.

Hi John I did notice that this morning, but couldn't recall if it had always been that way. Will try the suggestion of the helper file tomorrow and if that fails will take up your kind offer to take a look. Fingers crossed.

 

[John R Ellis]

Your .lrcat catalog database did indeed have a corrupted keywords table, with two root keywords instead of one. (The root keyword is never shown to the user.) The fix appeared straightforward, and when I open the fixed .lrcat in LR, the keyword list appears intact and keyword operations appear to working correctly. But you should spend some time increasing your confidence that all is right.

I sent you a Dropbox link to the modified .lrcat file by private message. Here are the steps to incorporate it

1. Make two backups of your catalog and verify that you can open a copy of the catalog restored from those backups. Very important!

2. Download the fixed .lrcat file from Dropbox, unzip it, and move it into your catalog folder, replacing the older version of the .lrcat file.

3. Start LR.

4. In Library Grid view, go to All Photographs and do the menu command View > Sort > Capture Time.

5. Randomly select photos from different capture dates (from old to new), and carefully examine their keywords to ensure it looks right.

6. Randomly select keywords from the keyword list, hover the mouse over the keyword, and click the right-arrow that magically appears to the right of the keyword, to show all the photos assigned that keyword. Make sure that the assigned photos look correct.

The more photos and keywords you examine, the more confidence you can have in the fix. I'd recommend looking at at least a hundred photos and a hundred keywords, more if you can tolerate the tediousness.

 

[joanne.eastope]

John, I can't thank you enough. Ran lots of checks and it all looks good thank you for your help.
Joanne