P: "Containing keywords no longer sent to Adobe Stock".

[rogeru42295677]

Hi,

For some years I have been keywording my images in Lightroom, using keyword hierarchies to manage them. Recently, when I try to upload to Adobe Stock, it only takes the bottom level keywords, and none of the hierarchy keywords they are in. This happens if I use the Stock plugin, or export and upload directly or via FTP. 

This problem doesn't occur for other agencies, and the keywords are correctly embedded in the JPG file details, so I'm at a loss as to why adobe Stock doesn't see them - any suggestions as to what i am doing wrong ??

Thnaks

Roger

[rogeru42295677]

P.S. - I'm on a windows machine using the latest build of classic CC.

[johnrellis]

This is happening because LR 11 preserves the order of keywords you send to Adobe Stock (sometimes -- the feature is poorly designed and very fragile, but that's another story).  It does this not by actually setting the order of the keywords in the industry-standard metadata fields, but rather by adding a new Adobe-specific field XMP:WeightedFlatSubject.  This new field only contains leaf keywords, not ancestor keywords.

For example, if you assign the keyword A > B > C to a photo and export it, here are the contents of the relevant metadata fields:

[IPTC] Keywords              : A, B, C
[XMP]  Subject               : A, B, C
[XMP]  Hierarchical Subject  : A|B|C
[XMP]  Weighted Flat Subject : C

Note that the other fields contain A, B, and C, but XMP:WeightedFlatSubject just contains the leaf keyword C.  When that field is present, Adobe Stock uses it in preference to the other keyword fields.

If you delete XMP:WeightedFlatSubject before uploading to Adobe Stock, then Adobe Stock will import all three keywords A, B, and C.  You could do that manually by exporting to your local disk, using Exiftool to delete that field, then uploading to Adobe Stock.

Or you could use the Metadata Wrangler plugin in concert with the Adobe Stock plugin to remove that field automatically on every export to Adobe Stock.  

Of course deleting XMP:WeightedFlatSubject will forgo the ability to set a specific keyword order within LR.  But that feature is so fragile and difficult to use I bet most Adobe Stock users don't use it:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/p-custom-sort-order-of-keywords-instead-of-al...

[rogeru42295677]

The Metadata Wrangler plugin  has done the trick - thank you !

[HPAdobe]

Hi @johnrellis 

I just wanted to follow up on your reply on this issue, and thank you for it. I am also struggling with uploading images to Adobe stock and maintaining all the keywords I've spent hours creating!  

I have tried  your work around with the 'metadata wrangler' plugin, and so far have not had success. I think this could be either because 1) I haven't put the correct information in the correct place into the plugin or 2) because my issue is not just about hierarchies but about keyword synonyms which I use heavily.

In case it's 1 (most likely!), here's what I've done: installed the plugin, in the new part of the export dialogue I have typed in "XMP:WeightedFlatSubject" (without quotes) into the box entitled: "Finally, Forcefully Delete These Fields".  I then exported a single image to my hard-drive. I can't tell the difference between tags in Windows Explorer (they all appear there correctly regardless) - but when I upload to Stock it still didn't include the synonyms of my keywords.

If you are able to correct what I've done, or have any other suggestions, I'd really appreciate it.

Also, if anyone knows if Adobe will be resolving this issue that would also be really helpful.

Thanks again

[johnrellis]

"because my issue is not just about hierarchies but about keyword synonyms which I use heavily"

It's yet another bug -- the Adobe Stock plugin doesn't export synonyms:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-keyword-synonyms-exported-from-lrc-11-2-not-... 

In general, the Adobe Stock plugin is flaky:

- It doesn't export synonyms

- It doesn't respect Include On Export

- It doesn't export parent keywords.

You can work around all three bugs with these Metadata Wrangler plugin options:

- Specifically Strip All Keywords

- Extra Keywords To Add: {Keywords}

- Forcefully Delete These Fields: XMP:WeightedFlatSubject

[HPAdobe]

Hi @johnrellis 

Thanks once more for your time - so helpful.

I've added in the extra bits (stripping keywords, adding in {Keywords}). It looks perfect in Explorer - all 29 tags are there. But as soon as I upload the sample image to Adobe Stock, only the 14 typed-in keywords - not the parents or synonyms - appear.

Could I be making a mistake with the forcefully delete field? I've copied and pasted XMP:WeightedFlatSubject in exactly.

I've copied in one picture here in case that helps (exported with the metadata wrangler) - assuming that when it is uploaded here they don't mess with the metadata?!

Otherwise I'll just go with my current workaround of exporting to hard drive, and then copying and pasting the keywords from there into Stock.

Thanks

H

[HPAdobe]

Just to clarify - although I normally upload to Stock via the publish plugin that comes with Lightroom - but at the moment I am exporting to hard drive and uploading whilst testing this out.

[johnrellis]

Hmm, Metatadata Wrangler is no longer deleting XMP:WeightedFlatSubject in the exported photo, which is required for any of this to work!  I vaguely recall I updated my Metadata Wrangler to the most recent version recently, so perhaps there's a bug in the most recent version.  I've reported it to the author.

So I got synonyms and parent keywords to export to Adobe Stock correctly by adding another plugin, Friedl's Run Any Command, to use Exiftool to really delete XMP:WeightedFlatSubject.  In its Command Per Image, I used this command line:

/usr/local/bin/exiftool -xmp:weightedflatsubject= "{FILE}" 

You'd need to install Exiftool if you haven't already, and the command on Windows would use the appropriate Windows path to "exiftool.exe".  

[HPAdobe]

Thanks! Your help is so appreciated.

At least I'm not donig anything completely wrong 🙂

I might hold on for now in case the Metadata Wrangler is updated, as I get the layout and think this will be something I can use more easily.  I'll sort with another couple of stock sites and then come back to Adobe in the next few weeks.  

Thanks again.

[johnrellis]

Jeffrey Friedl fixed the problem with the Metadata Wrangler plugin, and you can now use the latest version to publish ancestor keywords and synonyms and obey the Include On Export keyword flag (in other words, to make publishing to Adobe Stock work the way it used to prior to LR 11). No need to use Run Any Command.

Use these settings in Special Keyword Processing:

- Specifically Strip All Keywords

- Extra Keywords To Add: {Keywords}

If you had previously set Finally, Forcefully Delete These Fields, clear that -- it's no longer needed. (Strip All Keywords will remove XMP:WeightedFlatSubject.)

[HPAdobe]

Fantastic 🙂 Thanks so much to you and to Jeffrey.  This will help massively!

Hopefully Adobe will fix it to save others having to find this and figure it out, but very grateful to you both.

[johnrellis]

@Rikk Flohr: Photography, please consider moving this to Bugs, with the title "Containing keywords no longer sent to Adobe Stock".   

The LR 11 version of the Adobe Stock plugin introduced three problems:

- Synonyms aren't sent.

- Include On Export isn't obeyed.

- Containing keywords aren't sent.

The first two are in Bugs already.