Lost keywords via sync metadata error

[tonto]

Lightroom Version

Lightroom Classic 8.2.1

Operating System

1. Windows 10

I apparently lost the keywords on about 10,000 images though erroneously hitting the sync metadata button. I am trying to figure out how to get those keywords back as I use keywords as my basic file maintenance system. I have a backup of all my image files made about t month ago.
1) Could I just re-import my backup up files to Lightroom and would Lightroom just over-write the images having the erroneous keyword data with the images with the correct data?
2) Or, is the best solution to place all images shot over the past month to a temporary file, then erase all images before that, then re-import the backup file of images?
3) Or, does anybody have a simpler or better solution?
Any and all suggestions will be appreciated.
Using Lightroom CC with Windows10

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Nothing of that kind. Your images do not store the keywords, your catalog does. So you need a backup of your catalog, not of your images.

 

[Califdan]

1) Could I just re-import my backup up files to Lightroom and would Lightroom just over-write the images having the erroneous keyword data with the images with the correct data?

This would work if (and only if) you have been saving metadata to XMP. There is a setting to cause this to happen all the time as you make changes, or it will happen if you select images and tell it to save metadata to XMP. In either case the keywords would be in either the physical file or an XMP side car file. If you then read metadata from files they would come back (but no necessarily in as a hierarchy, but as individual keywords. By default, though, keywords are only saved in the catalog and not the image files or XMP files unless you did it on your own or set a preference to do it automatically.

2) Or, is the best solution to place all images shot over the past month to a temporary file, then erase all images before that, then re-import the backup file of images?

This will not do anything if the keywords are not in the image files or associated XMP files.[/QUOTE]

3) Or, does anybody have a simpler or better solution?

Do you have backups of your LR catalog? These would have been created when you exit LR and tell to go ahead and take a backup in the dialog box that pops up from time to time. Catalog backups can also be created outside of LR by whatever you use to back up other stuff on your system. For example, if on a Mac there's Time Machine (or File History on Windows). some people back up their system data to OneDrive, or iCloud, or other web services. Many people use local/cloud back up tools such as Good Sync, Acronis, Crash Plan, Carbonite, Etc. Unless you moved it, the default location of your catalog is in your Pictures folder which in turn would typically be included by default in most of these backup tools - if you use any. Let us know if you can find catalog backups and we'll tell you how to recover your keywords from the most recent one.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

If he would use ‘automatically write metadata to files’, then the keywords will have been automatically wiped from the XMP files as well. They will only still be in XMP files if he created these manually, before the accidental keyword erase.

 

[Califdan]

If he would use ‘automatically write metadata to files’, then the keywords will have been automatically wiped from the XMP files as well. They will only still be in XMP files if he created these manually, before the accidental keyword erase.

But perhaps not from backups of images taken prior to the mistake.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Perhaps, but why make life so complicated? Re-importing makes you lose quite a bit, like virtual copies, stacks, collection memberships, edit history. Restore the catalog from a backup (assuming he has a catalog backup too...).