Keyword Tags Disappeared and Can't Delete Virtual Photos

[Bp99]

I spent a lot of time adding different Keywords to 50+ photos in Lightroom Classic, all located in one folder.  Next time I opened up Lightroom all the different tags were gone and replaced with a single keyword for all the photos.   Is there a way to go back and recover those keywords?  

Next I attempted to create and edit a virtual copy of 1 photograph.  In the process somehow virtual copies were made of  all 340 pictures in the folder.  I attempted to delete these by filtering on the Virtual Copies button in the Attributes Panel.  This displayed all the virtual copies.  When I try to delete one photo  by selecting it and hitting Delete or Backspace nothing happens.  Same thing when I Select All and hit Delete or Backspace - nothing happens.

Thanks for any help!

[cmgap]

Regarding the keywords... can you test (1) photo? Add your additional keywords, quit Lr. Reopen Lr and see if the keywords you added are there. Since all these images are in the same folder are you adding the same keywords to all of them? You can apply the same keywords to all of the images in the folder if  that is the case. There are multiple ways to sync them. You can use the paint can to that is in the toolbar along the bottom of the thumbnail grid to spray paint them on other images. You can read  more here from Julienne Kost: https://jkost.com/blog/2019/10/using-the-painter-tool-in-lightroom-classic.html

"After loading the Painter tool with a keyword, Shift + K will assign the keyword to the selected image(s). "

Regarding making Virtual Copies, sometimes it is hard to see that all of the photos are selected when viewing thumbnails in the Grid View of the Library module. Try any other folder than the one you are in, select (1) image and make a virtual copy  of it. It will make a VC of only that image. Make sure that  you only have one image selected by hitting CMD or ALT 'D' to ensure that you have Deselected all images.

Regarding deleting virtual copies, try just (1). Select it, tap the delete key, it should bring up the delete dialog box confirming that you want to Remove from the Library or Move to the Trash. If Lr isn't responding to the Delete key try completely shutting down you computer and restarting.

[Bp99]

Thanks for the tips.  After closing out and reopening lightroom, the proper keywords have returned and virtual copies are working.  When the problem initially happened lightroom response was slow and I kept entering commands.  Like you suggest I probably didn't notice that all photos were selected when entering a key word.  I like that Lightroom can sometimes 'heal' itself when things like this happen.

[cmgap]

Yay! Good to hear that. Thanks for updating your post.