P: Inconsistent counts in the Metadata browser for directly assigned keywords containing children

[John R Ellis]

The Metadata browser's Keyword column in hierarchical view shows inconsistent counts for directly assigned keywords containing child keywords.  

My personal catalog has many, many such instances of this. They're easy to find: Configure the Metadata browser with two Keyword columns, the first with View > Hierarchical and the second View > Flat. For example, "Dubrovnik" shows a blank count in Hierarchical and a count of 79 in Flat:

To reproduce:

1. Download this tiny catalog and open it in LR:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/hckz8qbeqk3nynnrtbojj/keyword-column-bug.2023.07.30.zip?rlkey=ymrubwd...

2. Do File > Library Filters > Enable Filters.

3. In the Library Filter bar, click Metadata.

4. Remove the last two columns, leaving two columns.

5. Configure the second column to Keyword / View > Flat, the first column to Keyword / View > Hierarchical.

6. In the Keywording panel, set Keyword Tags to Enter Keywords.

7. Select 1.jpg and assign the keyword A>A1 in the Keywording panel.

8.Select 2.jpg and assign the keyword A>A2.

9. Select 3.jpg and assign the keyword A>A3.

10. Select 4.jpg and assign the keyword A.

11. Select 1.jpst and assign the keyword B>B1.

12. Select 2.jpg and assign the keyword B>B2.

13. Select 3.jpg and assign the keyword B>B3.

14. Select 4.jpg and assign the keyword B.

15. Observe in that the first Keyword column correctly shows a count of 1 for A but incorrectly a blank count for B:

16. Let you have problems reproducing this, you can download the final version of the catalog with the inconsistent counts:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/0o14dn2zcwfnk7ix241w8/keyword-column-bug-final.2023.07.30.zip?rlkey=x... 

Tested on LR 12.4 / Mac OS 13.4.

[MrApricots]

Parent levels in hierarchy keywords when using the filter bar do not consistently show the count of photos in the children keywords. The parent Keyword tag options can be either checked or unchecked for 'Include on Export' and that does not change if they show the count of children photos. Attached is a screenshot indicating the missing counts.

[John R Ellis]

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In the hierarchical view of the Keyword column in the Metadata browser, LR shows a count to the right of the keyword only if the keyword has been directly assigned to one or more photos. In your example, "CA" has been directly assigned to 6 photos, while "animal" hasn't been directly assigned to any photos.

To see how many photos have been assigned to "animal" or any keyword contained by "animal", select "animal" and then look at the top line of the filmstrip:

To see how many photos have been directly assigned to a keyword, not counting child keywords, switch the Keyword column to Flat view:

When you select a keyword in Flat view, it will display only those photos to which the keyword has been directly assigned, not photos assigned with child keywords.

[MrApricots]

John,

Thanks for the reply about parent keywords being directly applied to photos that also have the child keyword. However, in my example, 'Petaluma' is directly applied to the 6 photos where 5 of them have a Petaluma child keyword 'Thrifty Hippie' and 1 has the child '2nd St'. Yet the 'Petaluma' parent doesn't show the count of 6 when I select all 6 photos in the grid view. I have attached the keyword entry panel view that shows 'Petaluma' as being directly applied to all 6. Why isn't the count of 6 showing up for 'Petaluma'?

[JohanElzenga]

Yes, I see this too for some parent keywords, but not for all. I have no idea what makes one parent keyword show the count, and another one not show it when that other parent is definitely assigned directly to at least some images.

[John R Ellis]

I see it in my personal catalog too.  A bug has crept in at some point, and I just filed a bug report:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/inconsistent-counts-in-the-metadata-browser-fo...

It's straightforward to find the inconsistencies: Configure the Metadata browser to have two Keyword columns, the first with View > Hierarchical and the second View > Flat.  For each ancestor keyword in the hierarchical column showing a blank count, click on it and look in the flat column to see if it appears there.

[John R Ellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography, please merge with the existing bug report:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/inconsistent-counts-in-the-metadata-browser-fo...

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Greetings all,

Updates for the Adobe Photography Products have been released.  The October 2023 updates contain a fix for this issue. 

If you do not see the update in your Creative Cloud Application, you can refresh it by hitting [Ctrl/Cmd]+[Alt/Opt]+[ R ].

Note: It may take up to 24 hours for your update to be available in your Creative Cloud app.

Thank you for your patience.

[John R Ellis]

I confirmed that the bug recipe works correctly in LR 13.0, as does my personal catalog. Thanks.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

I appreciate the confirmations @John R Ellis