# removing keywords



## AlisonTB (Nov 7, 2012)

how do I remove keywords? I can't see them when importing into LR, they just show up afterwards.I've tried everything I can think of, including Bridge's batch "remove keywords". Help!


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## RikkFlohr (Nov 7, 2012)

Are you adding them inadvertently through a metadata preset, either applied at import or afterwards in Library? Do you apply any metadata presets?


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## AlisonTB (Nov 7, 2012)

not through a preset before or afterwards. In fact ... I've tried to remove them in numerous ways both before and after but they persist!! My teacher says Adobe has chosen to force the saving of keywords because most people need them. However, I am making an informed, professional decision to remove them and I can't find a way to do it.


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## RikkFlohr (Nov 7, 2012)

If you go to the Keywording Panel and select an image, can you physically select the keywords and delete them with the keyboard? What happens when you try?


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## AlisonTB (Nov 7, 2012)

yes that works well for a single image. sometimes it works for groups too, but not always. Same with the import preset that says if you leave it blank it will not import them- works sometimes but not usually. Probably depends on how/when/where the metadata was attached in the first place.?  Also I can remove them in groups using the check marks next to each word in the keyword list, again after import. But what I need is a way to see the keywords before they are imported, and select/deselect the ones I want to use. Otherwise I have to continuously revisit my keyword list and look for the "sneaks" and remove them manually. Not a good solution for my very large constantly evolving library.


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## Victoria Bampton (Nov 8, 2012)

The import preset is a bug - it should do what it says (remove if checked and left blank) but it doesn't.

You should be able to remove them in groups once they're imported though - select them in Grid view, go to the Keywording panel and select and delete them all in that text field.  Then if the leftover empty keywords are left cluttering up your Keyword List panel, you can use the Metadata menu to purge empty keywords.


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## AlisonTB (Nov 8, 2012)

I REALLY want to choose what keywords to Import, and not houseclean afterwards. Help? Another program perhaps, prior to import?


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## Victoria Bampton (Nov 8, 2012)

Ok, try importing into a clean catalog, removing the keywords, writing that back to the files, and then trash that temporary catalog.


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## Rose Weir (Nov 8, 2012)

Just a thought....Check the metadata form where info for the copyright and author can be inserted. At one time I put keywords in there ....who knows why....but I was stuck with these mysterious keywords for a long time and had no idea where they were coming from. By chance I went into that form and there were the words in one of the sections.

Also, if you have a user import preset you can open it with notepad or your text editor of choice and look at at the choices (AppData\Adobe\Lightroom\Presets\import\user). I include some basic keywords in my import preset that would get entered every time but I can edit those before the actual import occurs.

Rose


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## AlisonTB (Feb 6, 2013)

Hi Victoria:
Have they fixed this bug yet? I just imported an image with 40 keywords attached (bridge, bridges, sunset, sunsets.....) and now these silly words are in MY keyword list! Apparently, now I have to go find all 37 of the ones I don't want and purge them from my list... every time. Really? There should be a way to remove other peoples keywords on import if I want to!!! Please tell me they have developed a way to do this??
Alison


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## Victoria Bampton (Feb 7, 2013)

Nope.  But select the photos you've just imported, delete the keywords from the Keywording panel, and then go to Metadata menu > Purge Unused Keywords to get rid of them.  (Just be aware that it'll remove any other unused keywords from your keyword list too.)


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## Bryan Conner (Feb 7, 2013)

Where are you importing images from?  What is the source of the images?  Just curious.


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## LouieSherwin (Feb 7, 2013)

Hi Allison,

One way you can isolate all the newly added keywords is to set your keyword target to a specific keyword in your hierarchy. In the Library module open your Keyword List in the right panel. Create a new keyword with a name that is implies it usage. I call mine "UNASSIGNED". Then right click on this new keyword and select "Put New Keywords Inside this Keyword". Now all any keyword added by import that is not already in your keywords will be placed under the UNASSIGNED.

I know that this is not a complete solution but at least you will be able to easily see which keywords were created by your import. Then you can optionally delete the ones you do not want to keep.

-louie


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## Victoria Bampton (Feb 7, 2013)

That's a neat trick Louie.  I hadn't thought of that, thanks!


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## LouieSherwin (Feb 7, 2013)

Hi Victoria,

Good I glad like it. I also use it as a way to help my keyword assignment process. Often it is easier and quicker to let new keywords fall into the UNASSIGNED bucket while working on a large batch of images than to figure out where in my hierarchy they best fit. Then at a later date I can go through all the UNASSIGNED and place them where I want them to be.

The funny thing is I discovered this technique because I was playing around one day set "Put New Keywords Inside this Keyword" but didn't understand what it was for and then forgot about it. Some time later I though that all my new keywords were disappearing. After I finally found them under some random term I realized what this setting was for and what the little asterisk was for. The little light went on and I realized, "Oh that could be useful." and setup my UNASSIGNED term to catch all the random entries.

-louie


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## AlisonTB (Feb 10, 2013)

Brilliant, thank you!


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## dubaiphotography (Feb 12, 2013)

I think you are right guys,


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## Kiwigeoff (Feb 12, 2013)

very useful little trick/tip there Louie, thanks you!!:hail:


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## davidgp (Mar 16, 2013)

LouieSherwin said:


> Hi Allison,
> 
> One way you can isolate all the newly added keywords is to set your keyword target to a specific keyword in your hierarchy. In the Library module open your Keyword List in the right panel. Create a new keyword with a name that is implies it usage. I call mine "UNASSIGNED". Then right click on this new keyword and select "Put New Keywords Inside this Keyword". Now all any keyword added by import that is not already in your keywords will be placed under the UNASSIGNED.
> 
> ...



I love this idea but it is not working for me.  I created the keyword "!NEW KEYWORDS#" and right clicked and checked "Put New Keywords Inside this Keyword."  But when I import a RAW file (from my harddrive) which has keywords attached to it (and those keywords don't yet exist in LR), they get created at the top level of the Keyword hierarchy.

Am I missing something?


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## LouieSherwin (Mar 17, 2013)

Hi David,

Hmm, I think my recollection of this technique is not correct. It has bee quite a while since I played around with it. I tried this again and it seems as though import ignores this setting as you note. I still find it useful when adding new keywords so that I can add single terms that I will categorize latter. 

I think what happened is that I had lot of bare keywords cluttering the top level of my hierarchy so I moved them all to the UNASSIGNED category. Then when I imported images with non-standard keyword values they were easier to see. 

Thanks for reporting back. 

-louie


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## AlisonTB (Mar 29, 2013)

Hi all:

I've come up with two ways to accomplish purging keywords before they clutter up my LR system. I put all the new photos in a folder on my desktop and open it in Bridge; select all and look for the obnoxious keywords in the long list. Then I search them all out one by one and delete them from the Bridge list. Then I import into LR and catch the ones I missed by deleting them from each image. Then I delete them from my keyword list, and select all for my entire catalog and  "save metadata to file". That seems to do it. The reason this is important is my work group prefers to use Bridge to look at images, and all the non-purged keywords show up there if I haven't adequately removed them.  On a related  note, when I change the IPTC metadata on an image (say I change the photographer info in the IPTC panel) Bridge sees that as a new mage and makes a duplicate. Not a problem except my people like to look at things in Bridge, and they see the annoying duplicates there
.


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## Victoria Bampton (Mar 30, 2013)

AlisonTB said:


> On a related  note, when I change the IPTC metadata on an image (say I change the photographer info in the IPTC panel) Bridge sees that as a new mage and makes a duplicate. Not a problem except my people like to look at things in Bridge, and they see the annoying duplicates there



That sounds odd, Bridge is only a filebrowser.  Are you perhaps exporting the files, rather than just saving the metadata?


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## jjlad (Jun 10, 2013)

I just had a similar problem. I wanted to change the keywords on some photos from a shoot so that all of them had the same ones. I tried repeatedly to select all the images and paste in the keywords I wanted ...but each time any photos that had the original ones retained those and didn't adopt the new ones. Finally I selected all of them again then went to the keyword list and unchecked all that were checked then closed that and opened it again, ensured they were all selected again and then in the list of keywords, checked off all those I wanted and that finally worked.


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## erro (Jun 10, 2013)

You say you "import new photos". Are those your own photos? If so, they shouldn't have any keywords when they come from the camera.

Or are the photos someone elses, that already have keywords stored inside?

Or are they in fact your own photos, but you have added keywords with some other software, before importing them into LR?


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## Victoria Bampton (Jun 10, 2013)

You guys will be pleased to know that the import preset bug is fixed in LR5.  Now you can create an import preset with the keywords field checked but empty, and it'll import the photos without any embedded keywords.


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