Keyword assigned but not showing up in Keyword List

[allanj44170242]

I have a couple of keywords that have dropped out of the keyword list. For instance, I have 85 photos with the keyword NNWR (Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge) assigned. However, NNWR does not show up in the keyword list. It was showing up, but had 0 images assigned, and when I clicked Metadata>Purge Unused Keywords, it was removed from the list. 

If I click on one of the images, the Keyword Tags window shows NNWR.

I first noticed this when I tried to create a virtual copy and got an internal error message "can't apply this tag to this image". I tracked it down to the fact that the NNWR tag was applied. If I remove the keyword, I can create the VC.

I also can't apply the tag NNWR to any new images.

I am running Lightroom Classic 9.0 on a new MacBook Pro running Catalina.

[johnrellis]

Sounds like your catalog is in an inconsistent state due to a LR bug. Sometimes you can clean up such inconsistencies by doing File > Export As Catalog, unchecking all the options at the bottom of the export window.  And sometimes File > Import From Another Catalog into a brand new catalog fixes the inconsistencies when Export As Catalog does not. And sometimes neither fixes them.  But certainly worth trying.

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[johnrellis]

You could also try doing File > Optimize Catalog (since others are bound to recommend it), though I've never heard of that fixing inconsistencies.  The main purpose of Optimize Catalog is eliminating unused space in the .lrcat catalog file, to make LR go a little faster and make backups smaller.

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