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M
mastix
Inspiring
June 28, 2023
Question

Kill catalog and start a new one with NO HIERARCHY TAGS How?

  • June 28, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 475 views

I had enough of all the tags mess in Lightroom and want to start from scratch.

I have embedded al the metadata (included tags) to my images 

Now I create a new catalog but when I import those images all the annoying hierarchies are there again.

Is it possible when I import my images that the tags embedded in my images can be imported as tags with NO hierarchies.

This is really driving me nuts.

 

I wish there was an option in LT "flatten all levels" of tags so to get rid of the hierarchy. But as this is not possible has someone an idea on how to import the images with that flatten structure. These are thousands of images.

 

Any help on how to solve this puzzle will be really welcome. I am in the verge of abandoning LR altogether. If it was not by the excellent develope module I would have made that step a long time ago. I just hate the cataloging system and all its quirks but the develope section is truly amazing. But I heard so many good things about Photo Mechanic plus vs Lightroom for cataloging  that I might take the leap and create my catalog with this software and keep developing the raws with LR.

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2 replies

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Rob_CullenCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 28, 2023

Or you could view, and use, your Keywords as a 'Flat File' (no hierarchies) in the Metadata filter-

But it wont solve your keywords from XMP in a new catalog- the problem that you ask about.

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
M
mastixAuthor
Inspiring
June 29, 2023

Thank you Rob for your suggestion but I could find not help in this. Yes the column now has a flat view with no hierarchy but I still have to go to the Keywording tag panel if I want to copy and paste the keywords and there the Hierarchy always appears even if I put flat on the filter panel. 😞

 

The only solution seems to be to slowly searching the duplicate keywords and eliminating one after one . This can be done only one at once. You drag out a keyword at the hierarchy (alphabet letter in my case) if I can do it all good if I can't the keyword is duplicated then I have to select all the images with the right arrow and assign them to that keyword same keyword outside the hierarchy and then delete the one inside the hierarchy.

 

This is maybe one of the worst solutions implemented in a software I have ever seen but Adobe has this kind of stuff even after years of releases in their products. Very frustrating.......

 

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
June 29, 2023

This is maybe one of the worst solutions implemented in a software I have ever seen but Adobe has this kind of stuff even after years of releases in their products. Very frustrating.......

 

Maybe its the worst for you, but lots of people love this keywording feature and some people probably wouldn't use LrC without it. It is a key feature of the success of the Library Module, making Lightroom Classic a powerful Digital Asset Management tool. It works well for most people, there are very few complaints about hierarchical keywords here in this community (and those few complaints are usually about known bugs, not about the overall design)

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
June 28, 2023

I think a better approach would be to clean up the keywords into whatever new hierarchy make sense to you. I am not aware of any automated way to flatten the keyword hierarchies, and even if there is such a way there are some disadvantages to flat keyword lists (one being that on Windows there is a max number of keywords you can have in a list).

 

You could also import such that all previous metadata (keywords, edits, other metadata) is removed.

M
mastixAuthor
Inspiring
June 28, 2023

Deleting the metadata in not an option as this is the work of months. I cannot start keywording the same tens of thousands of images again.

 

I know about the list limit. But I really don't care. I find the hierarchy much more limiting and with many issues that the keywords I will be not able to see because of the windows bug over 3500 tags maxout.

 

I could do it by hand, but it would take me weeks as there are now the same duplicated inside the hierarchy (I put it under alphabet, so I could overcome the windows maximum keyword limit)and outside it. And you cannot drag and drop outside the top alphabet letter as if there is already the same tag there that drag is not possible (not allowed the same tag on the same level). I could go image by image unassigning  the keyword outside or inside the hierarchy  so I could delete the redundant one, but it would take weeks doing this one by one with thousands of duplicated tags.

 

So my options seam bleak unless someone comes with an idea that I have not thought. Maybe there is a program that can flatten the embedded tags to all separated with a comma so that when I import again in LR in a new catalog it does not detect anymore the hierarchy.

 

 

 

 

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