HOW TO REMOVE REMOVE ALL KEWORDS FROM A FULL FOLDER OF JPEG FILE

[alainm44]

Hello

I have "kewords" in the metadata of my pjeg files coming from the days of using Picasa!  When I moved to PSE, I did not select them at import time, and therefore they do appear in my keywords structure I manage under PSE... So far so good.

Recently I decided to copy the metadata (PSE ctrl W) to my files and to install Bridge.

Bad news, all the keywords (old and new) sit together and make a mess . PSE "crtl W" do not erase existing keywords but just add the new ones.

The simplest thing would be to remove all the tags and do the "crtl W" again...  But in Bridge I did not find a way to do that in batch mode but only file by file ... with 50000 photos a batch solution would be welcome (even working at folder level woul be acceptable).

Does this function exist ? I could not find it in the user guide.

Thanks for your help

Alain 

[Erik Bloodaxe]

One possible method is to use Bridge's  Export Panel. There you can create a preset to export your files without metadata - there are various options depending upon what you wish to keep and what you don't. Other solutions, outside of Bridge, include using Exif Tool though you will need someone else to chip in to explain how to do that as it is not something I am too familiar with.

[alainm44]

Thank you for help. I have tried your method. It works ... but :

I could not find a way to just remove the "kewords" from the metadata and
indeed in my test all info (EXIF) have been removed.
I may have missed something but to my understanding, the export parameters
are either "do not include metadata" or "include ALL but the camera
info"... Bad luck I would need "include JUST camera info and remove the
rest" ...

I am correct ?

As far as exif remove tools I have download a few but either could find
batch mode or they would work just with Exif and ignore the "keywords type"
metadata.
Alain

[Erik Bloodaxe · Accepted solution]

I did a little investigation within Bridge.

I presume that your images contain different keywords which I thought initally presented a problem but here is a workaround:

In Bridge select a bunch of images.

In the Metadata Panel under Keywords you will probably see (Multiple Values),  unless all of the selected images contain precisely the same set of keywords - unlikely.

Click in the Keywords box and enter a single, random keyword.

Click on one of your selected images and confirm that you wish to Apply metadata changes.  All of the assigned keywords will then be replaced by the single random one you chose.

Now repeat this only this time you will be able to delete the single keyword simply because all the images now have the exact same keyword assignment.

This repetition is necessary as it seems impossible to do this when the selected images contain different keywords - you can't delete (Multiple Values).

Voila, no keywords!

[alainm44]

Thank you very much. It does work fine and the two steps approach is not too cumbersome. 

When the all existings tags are removed  I will  just reinstall the PSE correct keywords and have my files clean. 

I have also posted in the "PSE" community to  question the way PSE writes (ctr W) the keywords  in the file . They are all there but  not respecting the structure created in the catalog and no apparent rules of sorting. Therefore it is a mess , having person keywords mixed up with locations or dates or category tags ... 

But one thing at a time ..

Again, many thanks

Alain