Lightroom not getting keyword tags from Lightroom Classic

[gobino]

Hi,

I spent some time to ensure that my images in Lightroom Classic get the necessary keywords so I can retrieve them easily afterwards when I need them.

I just started syncing my collections to Lightroom and all appear nicely, however, when checking an image the keywords are not visible. Additionally, when searching for a keyword I know I applied, I get 0 results.

Is this expected behavior? Or did I do something wrong with the syncing?

[Jim Wilde · Accepted solution]

No, you did nothing wrong, and yes it is expected behaviour. Keywords (and location data, face tags, presets) do NOT sync between Classic and the Lightroom cloud.

It is possible to effect a one-way and one-time transfer of Keywords and Location Data, but that can only be done the first time you sync images from Classic to the cloud. The trick is:

1. Ensure that smart previews of the images that you are planning to sync have NOT been created in Classic. If they have, select all the images and in the Library module on the menu bar do Library>Previews>Discard Smart Previews.

2. When you have added the keywords to the images (and Location Data if you do geo-tagging), select all the images and do Metadata>Save Metadata to File (Cmd/Ctrl+S shortcut). 

3. Start syncing the images. Because Classic only uploads smart previews, and because no smart previews exist in the catalog, Classic needs to generate them for uploading. In the process of generating those smart previews, the metadata that you saved to the original files (including the keywords and location data) is read and attached to the smart previews. Thus when they arrive in the cloud, those keywords/location data will be incorporated into your cloud catalog and you will see them and can search on them. Note, however, that Lightroom  does not support hierarchical keyword structures, so any such keywords will be "flattened", i.e. you will see them in a single continuous list.

As I said, that's a one-way thing....any keywords or changes to keywords added in Lightroom will not sync back to Classic (they do, of course, sync across the cloud system to any other Lightroom app you may be using).

[gobino]

Hi Jim, thanks for clarifying.

I generally always create smart previews on importing image from my camera for quicker editing.

I assume that is not an issue and I can do step 1-3 once I've added my metadata?

As mentioned, I've already synced some collections. How can I add tags to them?

Do I stop the syncing, remove them from lightroom, follow your steps and sync again?

Or what should I do?

[Jim Wilde]

Do I stop the syncing, remove them from lightroom, follow your steps and sync again?

Or what should I do?

By @gobino

Yep, that's the only way if you want to only sync smart previews to the cloud so that they don't use up any of your cloud storage allowance. There are other ways but that involves importing originals into the cloud, which take up space.

When you discard the existing Smart Previews, I'm not sure if that's an immediate thing of if there's a delay before they are deleted....so best do a small trial run first.

[gobino]

Thanks!

Yea, I don't need my raw files in the cloud, but do you know a way of how I can get my high-res jpgs in the cloud. I mean, smart previews are already great but not up to the size as my original files.

Is there an issue way of getting the jpgs in the cloud? Or would that involve exporting to jpg first and then re-import? And doing this way I lose the original created date, right?

[Jim Wilde]

The only way to get any full-res file, raw or derivative, into the cloud will be to import them directly into any of the Lightroom apps. Note that when you do that, they will also automatically sync down into the sync-enabled Classic catalog, so before you do that make sure you've had a look at the Classic Preferences>Lightroom Sync tab, where you can specify a different location for those downloaded images if you prefer (the default is a "Mobile Downloads.lrdata" folder/package on the local system drive), and you can also choose one of the standard date-based folder structures.

When you export the raws from Classic to create the jpegs for import into Lightroom, make sure you check the option to Include All Metadata in the Export settings dialog box, that way all the metadata, including keywords and capture date, is retained in the jpeg.

[gobino]

Great, thanks for the help!

Much appreciated.

Have a nice day!

[alisonp89568264]

Why oh why can I not add keywords in LR Classic and search for them in the cloud?  Like many professional photographers, I do all of my importing and editing in Classic, and then sync to the cloud to show people.  I have thousands of photos synced, and they all have keywords in Classic on my desktop.  It seems insane to me that I cannot search by keywords in Mobile.  OK, there is a workaround that requires a lot of work to get keywords to sync, but I would have to do that repeatedly over time to get all recent keywords added.

Will Adobe ever properly since Classic keywords to the cloud?  It is soo incredibly frustrating that this is not done.

[gobino]

I'm not even a professional photographer but I agree with you.

What I find strange is that Adobe sells Lightroom and Lightroom Classic as the "photography package" while they almost do not seem to be able to work together. Keywords syncing is one of them, while another one is the file syncing (this thread).

You can only sync smart previews from Classic to Lightroom, and if I wanted my full res jpgs from Classic, I would need to upload them again in Lightroom. But as I sync my edited mobile images from Lightroom to Classic, these full res jpgs would be resynced back to Classic. So either I disable syncing from Lightroom to Classic, or I only use the previews in Lightroom...

[Brendan D Rowlands]

Hello Jim

I cannot believe that LR to LRC doesn't sync keywords!! I just spent hours putting keywords in LR while I was away from the office only to find this "issue" Is there a work around that you know of. I had thought of creating new albums in LR based on a limited number of Keywords (basically by year) and then sync those. Is this an option? Thanks.

Brendan

PS: For Adobe - can this be something to include in an update to these packages?

[Jim Wilde]

You could do that I guess, though personally I'd just bite the bullet and make the same keyword change in both apps if I wanted to keep the keywords more or less in sync. I work on the principle of making all my keywords assignments in Classic before I sync the images to the cloud, thus keeping subsequent changes to an absolute minimum (still ocassionally need to make double changes though!).

Given that it's been 8 years since cloud syncing was added to Classic (LR5 at the time), I've reluctantly accepted the fact that keyword syncing isn't going to happen and work around the problem accordingly.