Backup and keywords

[rickd93422]

Recently I mistakenly deleted a folder of photos from LRC. I had a copy of the same folder on a separate external drive, so I imported the same photos from that drive as I had deleted. Now, however, the keywords are missing. Did I do something wrong? Is there a way to retain keywords in a situation like this? 

For what it's worth, if anything, I use LRC on a Mac. My main photo library and backup library are on separate external drives and I create the backup using Finder to drag folders from my main library to the backup drive. I used the LRC import feature to put the photos back into my library. 

Thank you. 

[JohanElzenga]

Keywords are stored in the catalog, not in the images. That is why re-importing the images does not bring them back. Replacing your catalog by catalog backup from before this happened (and restoring the folder on disk if you deleted it from disk too) will.

[rickd93422]

Thank you. That's a reason to back up the catalog every time, I guess. Otherwise using an older catalog backup will miss new photos added after that backup, so they will have to be re-imported (in place), processed, and keyworded, is that right? 

[Conrad_C]

There may be some ways you can try to get the metadata of those images from the backup catalog into the current working catalog. The two options below both depend on the restored photos being back in the same folder locations as they were before they were accidentally deleted. 

If Option 1 works it would probably be preferable to Option 2, because Option 1 is a catalog-level transfer and should include more complete metadata (such as membership in collections, and Develop history) than Option 2 which would only have file-level metadata.

Option 1: Import from Catalog

1. In the current working catalog, choose File > Import from Another Catalog. 

2. Select the backup catalog as the import source, and from it select the images that were accidentally deleted. 

3. Under Changed Existing Photos, choose Metadata and Develop Settings Only. 

4. Click Import.

What that should do is bring in the annotation metadata (including keywords) and Develop settings for the images with matching file names and folder locations, without duplicating the files. 

Option 2: Export and import metadata

1. Open the backup catalog that still has the keywords for those photos. Although it won’t know about later photos, you’re only going to use the backup catalog for a minute so don’t worry about that. 

2. In the Library module, select the photos that were accidentally deleted, and choose Metadata > Save Metadata to Files. That takes any metadata you added in that catalog and writes it out to XMP sidecar files (if they’re read-only raw photos) or into their metadata headers (if they’re DNG or non-raw files). 

3. Close the backup catalog and open the working catalog. 

4. In the Library module, select the accidentally deleted photos that you have now re-imported, and choose Metadata > Read Metadata From Files. That takes any metadata stored with the files (you just wrote out that metadata from the backup catalog) and writes it into the currently open catalog for the matching photos. 

[rickd93422]

Thank you for the detailed reply. I very much appreciate it.