Problem with keywords

Question

Hello, I added a Keyword "Family" In lightroom and used it as a "header" keyword, with all the names inside it. Unfortunately when I created it I left all the tick boxes ticked, inc, person. What has aphappened without my realising it for some time, is that "Family" has been added as a keyword to hundreds of images. I have one folder of images, without this keyword, did this with a third party program, as this folder doesn't have many files. Although what I don't understand is, that LR still shows the Keyword "Family" in the keywords in the Metadata window, it shows this in collection and folder. although windows explorer clearly shows this keyword has been removed. Next to the keyword, it doesn't show any files, but when I do a metadata search for "Family" it shows hundreds. There is a minus sign to the left of the KW "Family", but reluctant to just delete it. I have now edited the KW "Family" and unticked ll the boxes, hoping it would no longer be a "header" keyword and would show the file count and allow me to delete it from the files in the collection.
I really hope that's clear, been 3 days trying to sort this, downloaded Exif pilot, to try and remove all the "Family" keywords, but as my images are two folders down, it does t seem to want to st recursively, even if it did I'm not sure it would do what I need. Even if I cleaned up all the files, would I then be able to read the MD back to Lightroom and thus remove the "Famiky" KW ?

I think in future when I create a top level KW I should untick all the radio buttons......just don't want to start all over again.
need to sort this please any ideas ?

richardplondon · Answer

What sometimes confuses people here, is that keywords can produce a search result, or export, even when they have not been explicitly assigned to a photo.

Say I make a keyword "father" and I nest other keywords "son" and "daughter" inside that. I assign "son" to a particular photo. Obviously that photo will show up in a search on "son", also an exported photo will show "son". But that photo will also show up in a search on "father", as will another photo with "daughter": being rolled up into the "father" keyword implicitly. If a child keyword has the option "export containing keywords" checked, then an export will include the "father" keyword even though that was never explicitly assigned. You can see a preview of this outcome in the Keywording panel by changing its view to "Will Export". OTOH, a given parent keyword (or a child keyword) can be blocked from ever exporting, within its own settings.

There can also be synonym keywords in the mix here too, which also have their roles in searching and in exporting.

If the child keyword later gets un-nested from the parent, this implicit behaviour will of course cease. That is: unless this parent keyword has also been assigned to that photo explicitly.

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