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Inspiring
October 19, 2017
Open for Voting

P: Ability to sync Lightroom Classic keywords with the Lightroom Ecosystem

  • October 19, 2017
  • 372 replies
  • 16906 views

Keywords do not sync correctly: When added on the mobile app (iOS), they do not appear in LR classic and not in LR Web (I deleted the new LR CC immediately, this version does not make sense to me).
Same problem into the other direction: Keywords from LR classic do not appear on the mobile app. 
Attention: At this stage the whole keywording within the iOS app should not be used!

372 replies

Legend
March 13, 2024

I'm not sure why you are hating on other people's use of a standard, PLAIN TEXT rendering of data.

Inspiring
March 13, 2024

It's Adobe call if they could get the existing cloud based ecosystems of apps after LrC like Lr, LrWeb and LrMobile to support the arcane and the outdated hierarchical data structure.

 

I am still able to maintain hierarchy control of categories of photos that I need to be organise in hierarchy branches after I flatten several thousands in branches 

Legend
March 12, 2024

Getting rid of hierarchical keywords is totally the wrong idea. Keywords are ALREADY plain text. Its completely up to the writing and viewing application how to interpret them (note that Bridge has controls for this.)

Some of us rely on hierarchical keywords and we would scream bloody murder if the standards were changed for this. The answer is to fix Lightroom Cloudy.

Inspiring
March 12, 2024

Keywording.

Its so versatile and malleable. Combine with smart collections you can spin out albums in any combination imaginable. 
It is my humble opinion Adobe is missing out on leveraging keywords and releasing it's the superpowers. Granted the choice of hierarchical structure does not fit Adobe new direction for Lightroom Desktop, I believe there is a path to have both Keywords and Syncing capability withing the Lightroom eco-system ie  "have your cake and eat it", so to speak. 

Adobe should revisit this keywords syncing problem. This can be easily resolve to enable sync (to and fro) if Adobe were to change to use of flat keywords. Consider converting say Keyword1>Keyword2>Keyword3 (hierarchical) to flat ie #keyword1#keyword2#keyword3 .. etc

I use the popular hash tag "#" and each keyword could be by itself or part of the string. 
I had converted all my previous hierarchical keywords to this flat structure because it was so difficult to maintain the branches.

I believe if Adobe were to provide a batch keyword structure conversion tool, this will provide a path to enable syncing of keywords within LrC, LrCC, LrWeb, LrMobile.

Note: Despite removing and deleting permanently synced photos in LrWeb and then resync/upload photos  to LrWeb, the old keywords reappeared on those photos. I had them renamed them in LrC before I reupload, purge old unused keywords. Those old keywords continues to repopulate to the cloud (and hence LrCC). It is very apparent Adobe systems does not completely remove all traces of photos synced to the cloud even when you permanently delete them via LrWeb. It remembers old keywords despite those keywords are no longer in LrClassic (purged all unused keywords).

 

In conclusion.

Adobe keywords syncing between the eco-system of LrC, LrCC, LrWeb and LrMobile as of now is broken. I do not accept the contention that it is what it is and there's no workable, implementable and scalable solution. If a feature was a designed behavior and it no longer works in the new scheme of things or direction then undesign it and offer a conversion path. 

photopoeth
Inspiring
March 8, 2024

Sorry! I suspect that two threads on the subject have been merged here. There was a link in the original post I replied to and there weren't as many replies as there are here.

johnrellis
Legend
March 8, 2024

"Unfortunately the link to the feature request doesn't work anymore."

 

This thread is the feature request (Idea), with 200 upvotes. Which link are you referring to?

Uhl
Inspiring
January 15, 2024
quote

Its a terrible idea to abandon hierarchical keywords. They are just plain text, its entirely up to the image reader to parse them. Those of us who actually need hierarchical data want it supported, not cast aside.


By @Lumigraphics 

 

Agreed. I don't think they should ditch hierarchical keywords. I was just supporting @Ralph Lwouvie's idea that they could sync keywords for those of us who can get by with a flat list. 

 

Obviously, syncing hierarchical keywords between Classic and cloud would be ideal, but I doubt that'll ever happen.

Legend
January 15, 2024

Its a terrible idea to abandon hierarchical keywords. They are just plain text, its entirely up to the image reader to parse them. Those of us who actually need hierarchical data want it supported, not cast aside.

Legend
January 15, 2024

Seven years later and Lightroom CC/Mobile is still useless to me.

- I use Bridge at work (product photography) and Lightroom Classic at home. Neither workflow would be usable with LR CC.

- My home library has > 350,000 files, on multiple external hard drives. That's not going in the cloud.

- I have probably 150,000 images at work and again, not usable in the cloud (plus management wouldn't want them there.)

- At work, I make heavy use of keywords in Bridge which are not usable in either version of Lightroom.

- As for the whole syncing issue, keywords are plain text. Parent|Child|Child|Child. I can't believe that a solution cannot be found.

- Also, keywords live in multiple XMP/EXIF namespaces. Adobe hasn't even gotten THOSE right. :sigh:

- Honestly, there should just be ONE version of Lightroom that works with both local and cloud catalogs, allows granular syncing to mobile/cloud, has full support for keywords, is compatible with Bridge, is more easily scriptable (one big reason I use Bridge at work, despite its numerous flaws) and fixes all the poor UI choices. If I was the product manager I'd buy the rights to Aperture and use the UI concepts. Get rid of the different modes. Make it the kind of app it SHOULD be.

Uhl
Inspiring
January 15, 2024

Another vote for an option to limit Lightroom Classic keywords to being flat, so they can sync with Lighroom cloud.

 

I actually already flattened my Classic keyword list, only to be disappointed that they still won't sync. 😔