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Searching for my name in the filter bar generates too many hits

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camner

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Premium Classic Member
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Sep 28, 2008
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737
Location
Tacoma, WA
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Classic
Lightroom Version Number
9.1
Operating System
  1. macOS 10.14 Mojave
Using the Filter bar, I was searching for my name in a folder with 276 images, and was quite surprised to find that LR claimed a hit on all 276 images. I used "Any Searchable Field" "Contains" "my first name". I also tried my last name, and Contains All, and in each case LR found a hit in all images. This is only happening with my first and last names, not any other name I type into the search box.

I then tried the search on All Photographs, and sure enough, my first or last name is associated with all of them.

So, I'm trying to figure out why. I'm the registered user for LR, of course, and my name is also in the nameplate in the upper left corner. Does the LR catalog has the registered user's name somewhere?

If not, is there a way to figure out which "searchable field" contains my name for all images in my catalog?
 
Did you enter a copyright message (which included your name) into your camera?

Having checked my name shows up in three places in the EXIF & IPTC info as Artist, Creator and in the copyright message from the camera.
 
Oh good thinking Dan!
 
Did you enter a copyright message (which included your name) into your camera?

Having checked my name shows up in three places in the EXIF & IPTC info as Artist, Creator and in the copyright message from the camera.

I did not enter a copyright message in my camera (good thought, though!), and I don't populate IPTC fields except Location, City, State/Province, and Country.

I looked at image metadata in LR using "All possible items" and my name does not appear anywhere. Many of the images in my catalog are from my wife's iPhone, and while I suppose it's possible that the iPhone transmits HER name somehow (though I can't find it in "all possible items"), her phone wouldn't have my first name anywhere (except in her contacts), and it seems unlikely that her iPhone would embed someone in her contacts into an image's metadata.

Another possibility occurs to me, however, I use lots of plugins, and most of them are paid and registered under my name. Perhaps one or more of these plugins stores registration info in the LR catalog? But even this wouldn't seem to be enough to have LR associate my name with EVERY image in the catalog, would it?
 
Re-run the filter but instead of "Any Searchable Field", One by one choose the other fields in the dropdown list. This will help you nail Down which metadata fields are contributing.
 
Other possibilities: The paths where your photos are stored, e.g. "/Users/john/Desktop/test pics/a b.tif" will match "john". Collections containing the photos.

If it's not one of those, download and install the free Show Catalog Metadata plugin. Install it following the directions of any of my other plugins. Select one of the photos and do File > Plug-in Extras > Show Catalog Metadata > Show. Copy and paste the result into a text editor, and then search for your name. That should show you which field(s) it's stored in.
 
Re-run the filter but instead of "Any Searchable Field", One by one choose the other fields in the dropdown list. This will help you nail Down which metadata fields are contributing.

Good idea. The only one that returned all my images was "Any Searchable Field." "Keywords," "Title," "Caption," "Searchable IPTC," and "Searchable Metadata" returned just the images that SHOULD have been returned (i.e., that appropriately are connected with either my first or last name). "Filename" and "Copy Name" returned no images, which is what I would expect.

So, I'm not sure where this leaves me. It seems there is a searchable field that has my name in it, but it isn't a metadata field (I assume that Keywords, Title, etc. are subsets of "Searchable Metadata").
 
Other possibilities: The paths where your photos are stored, e.g. "/Users/john/Desktop/test pics/a b.tif" will match "john". Collections containing the photos.

If it's not one of those, download and install the free Show Catalog Metadata plugin. Install it following the directions of any of my other plugins. Select one of the photos and do File > Plug-in Extras > Show Catalog Metadata > Show. Copy and paste the result into a text editor, and then search for your name. That should show you which field(s) it's stored in.

John, you are brilliant! My username on my iMac is my first and last name concatenated. My images are stored at ~/Dropbox/Lightroom Managed Photos/etc. Mystery solved!

I have to say, I'm not sure I understand the point of making the file pathname part of "All Searchable Fields." Is there a way one would know what "searchable field" a given text string is in, other than by using a plugin such as Show Catalog Metadata? I would think Adobe would limit the fields searched to those one could identify (though perhaps there is a reason I can't think of right now why that would be useful).

Thanks to all who replied.
 
Now I wonder if there is way to change the LR prefs so that the Filter drop down menu defaults to "Searchable Metadata" rather than "Any Searchable Field"?
 
"Now I wonder if there is way to change the LR prefs so that the Filter drop down menu defaults to "Searchable Metadata" rather than "Any Searchable Field"?"

LR will remember the last used setting, so if you set it to Searchable Metadata, it should stick until you next change it. You can also save a filter bar preset with that setting.
 
Now I wonder if there is way to change the LR prefs so that the Filter drop down menu defaults to "Searchable Metadata" rather than "Any Searchable Field"?
There are other options besides "Keywords," "Title," "Caption," "Searchable IPTC," and "Searchable Metadata". One that you might have tried would be "Searchable EXIF".
"Any Searchable Field" is the default in the drop down list and is defined as default in the program code. So there is no way to change that. However, you can create a Filter preset with "Searchable Metadata" in the Text field and save that as one of your custom presets.
 
Just curious why you were searching for your name? Are you just looking for images you shot?
Were the images shot on your wife’s iPhone taken by her only? if looking for your images only, could you search by camera or some other criteria rather than your name?
 
"Now I wonder if there is way to change the LR prefs so that the Filter drop down menu defaults to "Searchable Metadata" rather than "Any Searchable Field"?"

LR will remember the last used setting, so if you set it to Searchable Metadata, it should stick until you next change it. You can also save a filter bar preset with that setting.

Well, my experience with LR is that the intended behavior of "last used setting" is inconsistent. For example, the metadata dropdown is also supposed to open to the last used setting, but I'd say in at least 20% of the times I open LR, it is reset itself to Default. Same thing happens at time with the Filter dropdown. So, if it were possible to change the LR prefs file so that LR would read the options I want for those dropdowns, it would take care of this inconsistent behavior. It's hardly the end of the world, though, to change them whenever they change themselves to the out-of-the-box defaults.
 
Just curious why you were searching for your name? Are you just looking for images you shot?
After returning from a vacation visiting my daughter and her family, since she wanted to see the pix quickly, I processed them, including assigning a Title, but I left the keyword assignments for later. Since the Titles would contain the name of the person in the image, I thought the easiest way to assign the keywords identifying the people in the pic would be to sequentially search for the names of the people I knew would be in the images. Then I could select all and type the keyword. That worked for my wife, my two grandsons, my daughter, and my son-in-law. I then tried the same thing on me, since I knew I was in some of the pictures as well. That's when I was surprised to find that ALL the images taken on the vacation were returned, whether my name was in the Title or not.
I noticed I had neglected to change the Filter drop down from the default of "Any Searchable Field." I thought that it was odd that LR would return all 176 images shot on vacation, so I investigated further, and determined that even when I had selected All Photographs, entering my first or last names would return ALL 17K+ images.

I tried to puzzle out why LR would associate me with all of the images in the catalog, and all I could come up with was that I my name is on the Adobe account tied to the Adobe subscription, though I didn't think it made sense for that to be stored with each individual image. John Ellis solved the puzzle by mentioning that the file path would be stored with each image, and then I knew that this was the answer to the mystery, since my name is the username on my iMac.
Were the images shot on your wife’s iPhone taken by her only? if looking for your images only, could you search by camera or some other criteria rather than your name?
Yes, the images shot on my wife's iPhone were all taken by her.
 
at least 20% of the times I open LR, it is reset itself to Default.
Make sure the filters are locked:

1580532766547.png


When they're unlocked (the default), LR remembers the last-used filter settings for each folder and collection separately. When they're locked, then the filter settings don't change when you switch folders or collections.
 
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