ADOBE BRIDGE - KEYWORDS on MULTIPLE COMPUTERS

[joannlaureen]

I notice that keywords are not automatically synced across my various computers.  Will I be able to find images that have the same keyword applied on one computer as on another?  For example:

The keyword DOGS has been manually added (not import/export) to COMPUTER A as follows:

KEYWORDS

- 2025

-- ANIMALS

--- DOGS

The keyword DOGS has been manually added (not import/export) to COMPUTER B as follows:

KEYWORDS

- 2025

-- DOGS

I applied the keyword DOGS to IMAGE 3456 on COMPUTER A. Will I find that same image on COMPUTER B?

[Peru Bob]

I've moved this from the Using the Community forum (which is the forum for issues using the forums) to the Bridge forum so that proper help can be offered.

Scroll down here to see a list of the forums:
https://community.adobe.com/

[Erik Bloodaxe · Accepted solution]

Bridge is a stand alone application. It doesn't sync with other computers I'm afraid. The only way you are going to see any edits, including assigning keywords, on a different computer is if you physically copy the files by some means from one to the other.

[joannlaureen]

The files are on an external hard drive that I plug into different computers.

[gary_sc]

"The files are on an external hard drive that I plug into different computers."

Why did you think it was not important to tell us this in the first place. 

The Keywords panel in Bridge stores a separate list of keywords that are used for managing and organizing your keyword library. This list is stored in an XML file called "Adobe Bridge Keywords.xml". This file can be backed up, exported, and imported to transfer your keyword list between different Bridge installations or to share with other users. 

Do a search on that and manually transfer that to all computers needed.

[gary_sc]

Let me add one other option, but be aware that this is NOT reliable. If you share the files that Erik suggests via DropBox or some other cloud service, this MAY work. It may also create more problems than it's worth. 

Bridge was designed to be used on one computer with directly attached storage devices (e.g., external hard drives) and not any cloud service. That notwithstanding, sometimes it will work with Dropbox, and then it will not work a few days later. We often see folks asking for help, saying that they've been using Dropbox for months and now it's not working. There's nothing that anyone can do about this because they are using Bridge in a way it was not designed to work with. You will not lose your files because the Dropbox folder is on your computer, only shared with the other computer via the cloud. But, it is NOT reliable for general use.

I believe the best way to do this would be for you to have your images in a folder, once done with Keywords, COPY those images to the Dropbox and retrieve them on the other computer. Then move them to a different folder. In other words, do not leave all of your images in Dropbox to share with yourself. Rather, just use this as a mechanism to transfer the files to the other computer.

Good luck either way.

[Stephen Marsh]

As a file browser, Bridge metadata is stored in the image file, so yes, it travels with the image and can be searched for on another computer which has access to the image file.

The keyword panel is different, as previously mentioned it's local to a particular install, but it writes to the selected image files:

https://prepression.blogspot.com/2016/11/bridge-restoring-lost-keyword-xml-file.html

Lightroom metadata has to be explicitly written to the file, as it may only be written to the local catalogue/database (depending on settings).

[bluebrad]

Have the preferances and user data save to your adobe cloud file location. 
i have reqested that the preferances and settings can be exported | importe | synced for over 15years now. 
also before upgrading have preferances, scripts, addons & bookmarks backup automaticly before the app updates so if there was  an update error you can just reinstall than resync from backups. 

[bluebrad]

Still broken and thumbnails are SLOW

please update the order of operations and thumbnails should be last. 

https://youtu.be/b_U7c9bX7P4

V15.1.2.737