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Keywords not assigned to a photo not showing in keyword list search

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becksnyc

Active Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2015
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130
Location
Midwest, USA
Lightroom Experience
Advanced
Lightroom Version Number
Lightroom CC
Operating System
  1. Windows 10
I just finished a three month long project to create keywords for moth species known in my region, whether I've seen them yet or not.
Now, no keywords show that have not been assigned to a photo. As I created them, I placed them in my existing taxonomical hierachy.
I DID NOT purge my "unused keywords."
Is there a setting to toggle to make them show? Typing the name in the "Keyword List" bar is not bringing them up.
I did update Lightroom CC a few weeks ago.
Thanks
 
Click the triangle to the right of the Keyword List filter box and make sure All is selected:

1656980514878.png


If that doesn't help, do the menu command Metadata > Export Keywords to export your entire keyword list to a text file. Open the text file in Notepad and search for those keywords. If they're not in the text file, they're definitely not in the keyword list.
 
Interestingly, that dropdown menu is not visible so you never really know which of the three options are showing (I'd mark that as a bug or at least a poor design choice)
If you do not find your keywords after selecting "All", than please describe in some detail how toy added these keywords to your Master catalog.
Like you I have an existing taxonomical hierarchy and it contains some keywords with zero images assigned.
 
Yes, "All" is checked.
I experimented with creating a new keyword but not assigning it. Shut down (with backup) and re-opened and the keyword is there.
I went back through my backups and found the last backup WITH all the unassigned keywords. It was the first backup after I reset preferences to default after a LR CC update glitch. Would a preference reset delete all unassigned keywords?
Can I export/import the keywords without messing everything up?
If I go back to the last backup that contains the keywords, I gain 3 months of unassigned keywords but will have to re-keyword 300 photos taken since and all the keywords created since. Unless you folks have another solution?
Thanks
 

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I exported to a text file and they are NOT there. ... Would a preference reset delete all unassigned keywords?
Resetting preferences wouldn't delete unassigned keywords. I don't recall seeing previous reports about such behavior in years past (I'm obsessive about LR's metadata handling), though it's possible I missed some.
 
Can I export/import the keywords without messing everything up?
Yes. Open the backup catalog with the missing unassigned keywords and do Metadata > Export Keywords. Then open the current catalog and do Metadata > Import Keywords. That will add any keywords in the text file not in your current list (and it won't delete any keywords).

But important caveats: If since the backup you've moved or renamed keywords, LR will consider them different keywords, so the Import from the text file will add those old keywords back to your catalog (in their old locations in the hierarchy or with their old names).

If you're fluent with various text editing tools, you could do a file compare between the new and old text files and delete lines from the old file for such moved/renamed keyword, so as to not recreate them in the current catalog. See "Can I create my keyword list using a text editor" in The Missing FAQ for details about the format of the text files.

And of course, do TWO backups before you start experimenting on your current catalog!
 
Thank you for all the good advice. I'm glad it's not any harder that export/import, but I really wish I knew WHY it happened in the first place. The timing is very suspicious, being the same day I updated LR CC versions and had to reset prefs to get it to work properly.
 
@johnellis I don't remember the versions. I know that last time I updated, it was so buggy, I had to roll back. I waited several months and updated to whatever was the latest.
I just want to confirm that Metadata export/import is done as a .txt file??? That's the only format I'm given as an option to save to.
The imported keywords will not lose their locations in their taxonomical hierarchy?
And will only be duplicated if not identical to existing ones?
Thanks
 
I just want to confirm that Metadata export/import is done as a .txt file??? That's the only format I'm given as an option to save to.
Yup, it's a .txt file.
The imported keywords will not lose their locations in their taxonomical hierarchy?
And will only be duplicated if not identical to existing ones?
Right. But make two backups of your current catalog just to be conservative.
 
Well, it did restore the lost unassigned keywords. But in every instance, created an apparent duplicate hierarchy that will have to be merged in with the older, assigned keywords. Am I understanding this correctly? Any way around this, please?
The screenshot shows a keyword that had been created, but not yet assigned---"4644 Black-waved Flannel Moth (Megalopyge crispata)" (below), which was restored but NOT merged into the existing hierarchy upon import from the last backup containing the unassigned keywords. (Next to the moth waiting to be keyworded. Isn't she lovely? :)
Thanks
 

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Hmm, not clear what's going wrong. Can you attach here the Lightroom Keywords.txt file from your current catalog (before you did any merging) and the Lightroom Keywords.txt file from your backup catalog (the one you're mering into the current catalog)?
 
Since my extensive keyword lists contain names, locations and so on, I wouldn't be comfortable with that for privacy reasons.
 
I will add that I did random checks of the keyword structure, and other hierarchies that did NOT contain unassigned keywords are unaffected, no duplicates created by the import.
 
You could send them to me in a private message. It would be hard to troubleshoot what's going on without the actual files, unfortunately.
 
I think the simplest thing is to revert to the last backup that included the unassigned keywords and re-keyword my 300 photos taken since. I appreciate the offer of help, very much.
 
I decided to edit the exported .txt file of keywords from the last backup which contained the unassigned keywords. I cut & pasted just the Lepidoptera hierarchy into a new .txt file and imported it into my LR CC catalog (I only have one).
It still created duplicate hierarchies, but only for the keywords I created for the moth project. I am deleting duplicates and merging the new unassigned keywords into the assigned (populated) keyword structure. A pain, but not nearly as painful as re-doing 3 months of work creating keywords.
If anyone needs keywords for Lepidoptera of the Eastern USA with Hodges numbers, happy to share!
Thanks for all the kind and prompt help offered here!
 
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