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Really basic keywording question

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davidj

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Aug 26, 2015
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I'm new to Lightroom but have just spent a day importing my library. I am saving to a NAS drive. I have keyworded and used face detect on all items and they appear correctly in the keyword panel. I am assuming that as I do this the keyword is written to the asset. However it appears the asset filedate remains its original created date and on viewing properties the keywords do not appear. If I export a group of images however the keywords do appear. I am obviously missing a vital final stage, sure its a basic thing. Thanks in advance.
 
I am assuming that as I do this the keyword is written to the asset
No, this metadata first is written into the Lightroom database. Ligthroom does not 'touch' the assest it manages, it does only refer to them.
It is possible to 'push' metadata back into the image if you want it there. However this is not possible with all fileformats. It is possible with JPG, TIF and DNG

When you export, a second file is created with all edits merged into it.
 
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I am working with Jpegs, So the only way to actually create a library then is to export the whole lot. Given I ultimately want to store them on the cloud within an app (poss Smugmug) and be able to search my library. THis is not for prefessional purposes simply for family albums.
 
So the only way to actually create a library then is to export the whole lot
I don't understand. What do you mean?
All your camera files (JPG's or RAW's) which are imported in Your Lightroom determine your library.

For projects, prints, postings you create 'disposable' derivatives. Every time you need one you create it from the original 'in' Lightroom.
 
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I am working with Jpegs, So the only way to actually create a library then is to export the whole lot. Given I ultimately want to store them on the cloud within an app (poss Smugmug) and be able to search my library. THis is not for prefessional purposes simply for family albums.
Welcome to the forum. You will not be storing the original image files in the cloud, You will be sending a derivative to the cloud site. For this reason it is not necessary to keep the metadata anywhere except the LR Catalog role (database) All metadata has to be in the LR Catalog file, It does not need to be in the original image file copy. Derivative image files are created by LR in the export process by merging the contents of the LR catalog (including any develop adjustments) with the image data (not the image metadata) from the original file.

If Smugmug is your internet destination, You can use the SmugMug LR Publish service to manage your images at SmugMug. Withe the publish Service a temporary derivative file will be created locally and transferred to SmugMug. Once this is accomplished, the local temporary file is deleted and LR contains all that is necessary to recreate this derivative should you need to generate additional copies.
 
You can set Lr to write metadata changes to files automatically in the catalog settings.

And you can use the command Metadata>Save metadata to file to do the same thing.

And as others noted above it can be done upon export, or publishing.
 
I believe that another option is to write the asset or image metadata to a sidecar file which resides on the HD as a companion file to the original file. When LR does this the metadata from the sidecar file is accessed on export.

I'm not sure if it also writes the image metadata in the LR Catalog file?
 
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I believe that another option is to write the asset or image metadata to a sidecar file which resides on the HD as a companion file to the original file. When LR does this the metadata from the sidecar file is accessed on export.

I'm not sure if it also writes the image metadata in the LR Catalog file?

Lightroom always writes to the catalog file.
Lightroom writes either to the image header file if it supports the meta data extensions (e.g. DNG, JPG) or to a sidecar file called XMP (most raw formats) if told to do so. This is done view the menu which says save meta data to file, or by enabling the auto update meta data settings discussed above.

Tim
 
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