How to use backup keyword XML file?

[peachyhill]

This morning a bunch of my Bridge keywords disappeared. I started to add a keyword, realized I was adding it in the wrong part of the tree, and hit "escape" to cancel out. When I did that, a whole bunch of keywords simply vanished.

The good news is that I have a backup of the XML file on my backup drive. The bad news is that it doesn't seem to be working. I deleted the XML file with the missing keywords and replaced it with the file from my backup drive. (I checked the backup file and it has the keywords that vanished this morning.) I restarted my computer and opened Bridge, but it doesn't seem to be reading the new XML file. They keywords that disappeared this morning are still missing.

I know that one of my option is this: Prepression: Bridge – Restoring a Lost Keyword XML File   But why should I have to go that route to basically re-create my keyword tree when I already have a file with all the data? How do I get Bridge to read the replacement XML file from my backup drive? Is there a utility that will convert it into a plain text file so that I can manually import it into Bridge?

I'm running Bridge CC 2018 on Mac OS High Sierra 10.13.2.

[Stephen Marsh]

Compare the XML of the backup to the new file. Perhaps there is something that it does not like in the old file.

___________

There are online converters that can strip out the tags… however to retain a nested parent keywords + child sub-keyword structure I would use a plain text editor with search/replace leaving only the values ready for importing (being careful to replace with nothing or with one or more tab characters depending on the nesting level required).

So one find/replace to remove all of the common leading/opening tags, then a second find/replace to remove all of the common trailing/closing tags. A little bit of manual cleanup and you should be ready to go with a couple of minutes in the text editor.

You could use a regular expression capable text editor for a single leading + trailing tag search/replace step (rather than two separate steps), however it is not going to save too much time and is only listed for completeness:

Find:

<.+?"|".+?>|<\/.+>|<.+>>

Replace:

… or perhaps another regex for the same result, this time using a capture group reference in the replace –

Find:

(?:<\/set>)|(?:<.+?")(.+?)(?:".+>)|(?:<\/keywords>)

Replace:

$1

You will still need to delete the first two lines… and also deal with the extra leading tab character on each line, such as with the following regular expression search for a single tab at the start of a line:

Find:

^\t

Replace:

Example image of the original XML (upper) and the clean plain text version (below), ready for importing (invisible characters shown):

Edit – here is a animation of the regular expression based XML cleanup to produce a plain text import file:

[1Mollybird]

What the heck?! Do you think I'm some computer genius!!!???  

Get real... for us common folk.

Adobe should fix this ASAP!

[peachyhill · Accepted solution]

What I ended up doing was uninstalling Bridge. With the backup XML file in place I reinstalled Bridge and that did the trick. There were all the keywords from the XML file.

[Stephen Marsh]

Glad you sorted it out! I have swapped the XML file in/out many times and it has just worked, so I have no idea what was going on there. I was also going to suggest resetting Bridge’s preferences which if I recall correctly are not removed with an uninstall/reinstall, however that would not have fixed it if this is the case. I’ll update my blogpost with the XML text editor moves, just in case it helps somebody else.

[1Mollybird]

How did you swap out the XML file?  I have my XML file but Bridge will not allow me to import it and I don't understand why. I'm getting so frustrated. Yesterday all of my keywords were there and fine and today they are all gone AGAIN!  This doesn't make sense to me. I haven't done or changed anything. Why do I have to keep re-typing all of my keywords back in all the time?

[Stephen Marsh]

@1Mollybird 

If you are using the Bridge interface, then the "Import" menu item only accepts plain text.

If you have a correctly formatted XML file, then you need to quit Bridge and place the file in the appropriate folder as mentioned here:

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

[1Mollybird]

Sorry. You must think I'm some computer genius.

This doesn't help me at all!!!!

Adobe needs to fix the problem.

God knows I pay them enough every month for programs that don't work on Mac Catalina anyway!

[Stephen Marsh]

---

1Mollybird wrote:

Sorry. You must think I'm some computer genius.

This doesn't help me at all!!!!

The blogpost was written in 2016 long before your reply, obviously without any knowledge of your specific experience, competency or understanding of your computer knowledge. So, no, I don't presume to think that you're some computer genius.

How can I help?

If you have the XML file backup, simply replace the empty/default/reset version with your backup Adobe Bridge Keywords.xml file in a path similar to:

/Users/loggedinusername/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Bridge CC 2015/Adobe Bridge Keywords.xml

/Users/loggedinusername/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Bridge 2022//Adobe Bridge Keywords.xml

Is the problem finding this folder? This is the user account level Library folder, not the computer level Library folder.

Quit Bridge before replacing the file and restart afterwards and your keyword panel should be restored.

If this does not help, what is your problem and how can I help?