Skip to main content
Known Participant
January 28, 2023
Question

Lightroom removed keywords and also removed pictures from my collections

  • January 28, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 526 views

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to add a few new pictures to one of my collections and I was shocked to see almost all of my collections had zero pictures. I then noticed that suddenly I now have over 8000 pictures with no keywords. 

I am very organized with my keywording and file system and have been that way since Lightroom 2. 

I have serached this community and I can not find anyone else bringing this here. Needless to say, I know where to start, but damn, I lost it all. It also looks as though the pictures that lost their keyword mighht have also lost my edits and color code. 

This is crazy, has anyone else 

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 29, 2023

Have you tried loading a Backup catalog? The missing collections, etc, may be because of corruption in the current catalog.

 

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 .
Known Participant
January 29, 2023

Not yet, I do have a backup drive but I am hoping to resolve this without connecting that drive, that would be Plan B.

C.Cella
Inspiring
January 30, 2023

Smart Collections are bugged and often populate only if the actual photos are displayed in library/grid.

 

Metadata and edits disappearing should not be happening unelss you removed them yourself so there must be a bug.

 

 

GoldingD
Legend
January 28, 2023

1. Are/were these collections, smart collections, and were the rules based on keywords?

 

2. Are you sure the correct catalog is opened?

 

Known Participant
January 29, 2023

My collections are probably smart collections and each collection and all the pictures contained in each were placed there manually by me over the course of 10 years. They are independant of all my keywords. I only have one catalog so I don't think that is an issue. 

Participating Frequently
January 28, 2023

Is it possible you are not giving the Smart Collection time to load fully? They always start out at 0 photos, but then start building as the collection loads. Until it is fully loaded, you will not have access to the photos or the information stored with them.

Known Participant
January 28, 2023

I have never noticed that, however, Lightroom has been open for over an hour and noticed this for the first time about three weeks ago so the computer and lightroom both have been opened and closed down many times since I first noticed.