Many keywords missing (despite being in the file itself)

[process]

Operating System

1. Other (please note in thread)

To my surprise many of my photos (which I've spent a lot of time keywording) don't show any keywords (or just one of them) in Lightroom's "Keywording" section of the Library module.
After first assuming I had forgotten to keyword them (which didn't quite make sense) I decided to check them in another app.
I did this by right-clicking on one of the photos within Lightroom, select "Show in Finder", then open it with the Preview app (taking care to have the Inspector feature enabled: "Tools"-"Show Inspector").
There in the "IPTC" section I could indeed see the keywords that I was sure I had added earlier.

What might be the cause of this, and how do I resolve the problem?
I'm using Lightroom 6.14 on a Mac under MacOS 10.14.6.

 

[clee01l]

To my surprise many of my photos (which I've spent a lot of time keywording) don't show any keywords (or just one of them) in Lightroom's "Keywording" section of the Library module.
After first assuming I had forgotten to keyword them (which didn't quite make sense) I decided to check them in another app.
I did this by right-clicking on one of the photos within Lightroom, select "Show in Finder", then open it with the Preview app (taking care to have the Inspector feature enabled: "Tools"-"Show Inspector").
There in the "IPTC" section I could indeed see the keywords that I was sure I had added earlier.

What might be the cause of this, and how do I resolve the problem?
I'm using Lightroom 6.14 on a Mac under MacOS 10.14.6.

In LR6 (I think) there is an option to "Read Metadata from File" This should add any keywords found in the imported file header and add them yto your catalog.

 

[process]

Thanks Found it!
In the menu "Metadata"-"Read metadata from files".

For some reason I've also lost metadata which hadn't already been saved to the photos and I'm trying to figure out why.
Besides the obvious reasons (software crashes, random power outtage, harddrive/SSD malfunction etc.), what other reasons could there be for this happening?
Is it a good idea to keep the Lightroom catalog setting "Automatically write changes to XMP" turned on? My understanding is that this writes all photo related information into a separate XMP file (one XMP file for each photo), and this comes in addition to the same information stored in the Lightroom catalog file. So apart from taking up some additional disk space there shouldn't be any disadvantage to having it on, should there?
But in case the Lightroom catalog file gets messed up you can recreate everything from those files (yes -I do have the catalog backup function turned on, but depending on when things get messed up I might/might not have saved the Lightroom catalog file and/or have created a backup).
Also, will the XMP files allow for better compatibility with other image organizing/viewing software?

 

[process]

Come to think of it... I might have forgotten to save the metadata (CMD-S) at times, before quitting Lightroom.
But then again I did a quick test by adding keywords to some photos, quitting Lightroom, then opening Lightroom again. The keywords for those photos were still there!
So what does CMD-S ("Metadata"-"Save metadata to file") actually do when the keywords are somehow saved regardless?

 

[clee01l]

Also, will the XMP files allow for better compatibility with other image organizing/viewing software?

No, the XMP is simply a structured text file Develop settings for "brightness" etc. can have different meanings in image editing apps from different sources. Standard header blocks like EXIF & ITPC can be read but may not be considered if the app ignores separate standalone files.

I might have forgotten to save the metadata (CMD-S) at times, before quitting Lightroom.

This only applies to XMP sidecar file of a Proprietary RAW or the XMP section of non proprietary files. In catalog preferences/ metadata, there is a check box to do this automatically. You probably have that checked

 

[johnbeardy]

Thanks Found it!
In the menu "Metadata"-"Read metadata from files".

For some reason I've also lost metadata which hadn't already been saved to the photos and I'm trying to figure out why.
Besides the obvious reasons (software crashes, random power outtage, harddrive/SSD malfunction etc.), what other reasons could there be for this happening?

Lots of reasons are more likely to do it that those you list:

• Loading an old copy of the catalogue
• Accidentally applying a metadata template which sets fields incorrectly. A common one is a template which should apply copyright info but other, blank fields are also enabled
• Accidentally doing Read Metadata from Files when there isn't metadata in the files (eg no xmp files)

Is it a good idea to keep the Lightroom catalog setting "Automatically write changes to XMP" turned on? My understanding is that this writes all photo related information into a separate XMP file (one XMP file for each photo), and this comes in addition to the same information stored in the Lightroom catalog file. So apart from taking up some additional disk space there shouldn't be any disadvantage to having it on, should there?

Small amount of disk space, it is in addition, and it does no harm other than making some people think it's as good backup as their catalogue backups.

However, consider backup. Raw files are proprietary and are the only file format that needs the xmp sidecar files - they and their backups are small. If the photos are not raw files, Lightroom does not need to generate these files and instead stores the xmp in the photo file itself. As this updates the file modified times, there can be an impact on the size of your backups.

But in case the Lightroom catalog file gets messed up you can recreate everything from those files (yes -I do have the catalog backup function turned on, but depending on when things get messed up I might/might not have saved the Lightroom catalog file and/or have created a backup).

Almost everything. With an old version of LR, you would miss Pick Flags. Other data such as History Steps or Collections aren't included in the xmp.

Also, will the XMP files allow for better compatibility with other image organizing/viewing software?

That's how they're designed in Lightroom, and partial backup/restore is a secondary role.