PM > Lightroom 2 keyword strangeness (again)

[Rick Baumhauer]

This seems to have started with the latest beta, though I'm not absolutely positive of that.

The machine is a 1st generation Mac Pro 2GHz, 9GB of RAM, OS 10.6.2, PM v. 4.6.3 beta 1, Lightroom 2.6 (and LR3 beta).

I import and keyword my photos with PM, then import into Lightroom.  I experienced issues last year when Lightroom wasn't stripping leading/trailing spaces from keyword hierarchies (hadn't realized there were spaces on either side of PM's standard "pipe" separator character), but eventually got that sorted.  Had a small panic attack when a recent version of PM started putting the spaces back in, but was assured that it was only for display and that the spaces weren't actually exported in the hierarchy - everything was working fine.

After updating to 4.6.3 beta 1, I started getting duplicate hierarchies again, with the new entries showing leading and trailing spaces in Lightroom.  Strangely, the keywords are now being written to both the proper spots in the hierarchy (with no spaces) and the new hierarchies (with spaces), so I can just delete the duplicated hierarchies with no further problems, but it's still a pain.

I just tried to duplicate the issue by switching between 4.6.2.1 and 4.6.3, and everything worked fine (of course!), but it definitely didn't yesterday.  Off to scratch my head........

[Kirk Baker]

Rick,

This seems to have started with the latest beta, though I'm not absolutely positive of that.

The machine is a 1st generation Mac Pro 2GHz, 9GB of RAM, OS 10.6.2, PM v. 4.6.3 beta 1, Lightroom 2.6 (and LR3 beta).

I import and keyword my photos with PM, then import into Lightroom.  I experienced issues last year when Lightroom wasn't stripping leading/trailing spaces from keyword hierarchies (hadn't realized there were spaces on either side of PM's standard "pipe" separator character), but eventually got that sorted.  Had a small panic attack when a recent version of PM started putting the spaces back in, but was assured that it was only for display and that the spaces weren't actually exported in the hierarchy - everything was working fine.

After updating to 4.6.3 beta 1, I started getting duplicate hierarchies again, with the new entries showing leading and trailing spaces in Lightroom.  Strangely, the keywords are now being written to both the proper spots in the hierarchy (with no spaces) and the new hierarchies (with spaces), so I can just delete the duplicated hierarchies with no further problems, but it's still a pain.

I just tried to duplicate the issue by switching between 4.6.2.1 and 4.6.3, and everything worked fine (of course!), but it definitely didn't yesterday.  Off to scratch my head........

OK, so what do I need to do in order to reproduce the issue?

-Kirk

[Rick Baumhauer]

Kirk - I'm working on that   I had most of the post written up when I tried to do the comparison between 4.6.2.1 and 4.6.3, and didn't want to just abandon it when it decided to behave.

I'll let you know if it happens again and I can figure out how to reproduce it.

[Kirk Baker]

Rick,

Kirk - I'm working on that   I had most of the post written up when I tried to do the comparison between 4.6.2.1 and 4.6.3, and didn't want to just abandon it when it decided to behave.

I'll let you know if it happens again and I can figure out how to reproduce it.

OK.  I just want to mention a new setting in the IPTC/XMP tab of the Photo Mechanic Preferences dialog.  It's a check box titled "When updating XMP, add Structured Keywords to hierarchical keywords field only".  I suggest having that check box set if you're working with Lightroom.  This will keep Structured Keywords from being listed in both the lr:hierarchicalKeywords field and the original keywords field as well.

-Kirk

[Rick Baumhauer]

Kirk - thanks!  That may very well be the issue.  I think the problem cropped up when I found some older photos that I hadn't keyworded properly.  I had already imported these photos into Lightroom (I normally don't import into Lightroom until all the keywording is done), but then added more keywords via the beta PM and told Lightroom to synchronize the relevant folder.  It may have happened under other circumstances at other times, but I know this is what I did last night.

Given that, does it seem likely that synchronizing the metadata after adding the new keywords (and not having that setting checked) might lead to what I saw?  Is it possible that one of the keywords fields still has the issue with spaces, and this would explain why the keywords showed up both in the correct place and in a second place with the leading/trailing spaces?  It certainly makes sense to me, given what I saw.

Off to set that checkbox right now.........

[Kirk Baker]

Rick,

Kirk - thanks!  That may very well be the issue.  I think the problem cropped up when I found some older photos that I hadn't keyworded properly.  I had already imported these photos into Lightroom (I normally don't import into Lightroom until all the keywording is done), but then added more keywords via the beta PM and told Lightroom to synchronize the relevant folder.  It may have happened under other circumstances at other times, but I know this is what I did last night.

Given that, does it seem likely that synchronizing the metadata after adding the new keywords (and not having that setting checked) might lead to what I saw?  Is it possible that one of the keywords fields still has the issue with spaces, and this would explain why the keywords showed up both in the correct place and in a second place with the leading/trailing spaces?  It certainly makes sense to me, given what I saw.

Off to set that checkbox right now.........

Everything that you have posited sounds plausible.

-Kirk