mvetrano2 Loc: Commack, NY

I have approximately 35K photos all edited and catalogged in Lightroom with multiple keywords for each. How can I extract, into a backup media, all the metadata and keywords for these into another library so that I can use keywords to find each individual photo outside of Lightroom?

Are there free or inexpensive software packages that will take and use the catalogging of Lightroom where I will be able to look up a photo using keywords searches? Or, is there software that will take the keywords used in Lightroom and create them as a name for each of the photos, so that I can access the photos in the backup external drive library by keyword? I'm asking this in the event that I no longer have Lightroom, but would still like to maintain the keywording of my photos. Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike Vetrano.

Ron 717 Loc: Pennsylvania

Maybe someone will chime in here, but I was under the impression that if you unsubscribe from LR if you are using the Classic version (not the cloud) the cataloging and key wording will still work on your computer but the processing tools will no longer be available. Will follow this to see what joggers have to say.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

I don't use LR so cannot try this out, but if you navigate to File Explorer and find the picture in there, are the tags still visible? If so, you can search on those tags through File Explorer.

mvetrano2 Loc: Commack, NY

Thank you for your respose, but I use a Mac, so no File Explorer. Is there a similar feature on the Mac?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Lots for free -
Best -
https://blogs.systweak.com/best-free-photo-organizer-software-for-windows-10-8-7/

Crichmond Loc: Loveland, CO

Xnviewer

http://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/

mvetrano2 Loc: Commack, NY

Thank you for your responses. Can any of these packages use the Lightroom catalog as input so that the same keywords can be associated with the photos?

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Mike,

This may take some work to figure it out. But, within Lightroom is the option to write .xmp or "sidecar" files that have the same data and adjustments as stored in the catalog. Other programs can read those files, including Adobe Bridge. Bridge is free if you register it to an Adobe account. There is also an alternate workflow where you export to .dng files that include the metadata.

As already mentioned, Lightroom does not completely quit if you stop your subscription. I'm pretty sure that what stops is the Develop and Map modules. Please double check but I think the Library and Print modules continue.

Bill

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Following Bill's ideas, according to this post from the LRQueen, you can still export your images after stopping the subscription:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/cancel-cc-subscription-photos/

I don't think you'll be able to 'enable' and create XML sidecars, after stopping the subscription, so that's something you'd want to do before stopping the subscription.

To the original question, two comments:

a. The LR catalog is proprietary to Adobe. It cannot be accessed directly by other software.

b. So, to 'publish' that LR catalog data, one must export the edited images that will embed all the metadata, including the keywords. Export the images to fill-resolution JPEGs or 16-bit TIFFs, depending on the input file types most useful to your next tool(s). Investigate PSDs ,or DNGs too, and the XML sidecars, as input to your next editor.

mvetrano2 Loc: Commack, NY

Thank you. My ambition is to be able to access, or find, photos by keywords created in Lightroom from externally stored photos not accessible by Lightroom. So, is there some way to copy or create these Lightroom created keyword indexes, and make them accessible to externally stored photos, either in another software package or directly using Mac tools?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I'm probably missing something in your expectations, but you might import images into LR, apply metadata / keywords, and export the image files. Then, use the updated / exported files rather than the initial files.

Keywords are just text added to the file, just like the shooting date, camera used, etc. The automation of cascading related keywords is a LR feature, but embedding the text into the 'header data' of an image file is a capability of any tool that can write this type data into the file. If you don't want a round-trip through LR to manage these other image files, try google for cheap / free metadata managers. I use a freeware tool EXIFTOOL to embed some metadata into scanned JPEGs from my film work. Must scanned film shows the scanner name as the camera and the scan date as the shooting data. If I keep good notes, I can replace this data with the actual lens, date, focal length into the JPEGs using EXIFTOOL.

You can use EXIFTOOL to embed keywords, if feeling confident with Command-line parameter-based programming. Although they may not advertise their implementation, but you can probably find cheap for-pay tools with graphic interfaces that just through up a window interface over EXIFTOOL. I have a date-manager tool that seems to be nothing more than a series of windows that collect data / parameters from me and executes EXIFTOOL in the background to update the image files.

mvetrano2 Loc: Commack, NY

Thanks CHG, I am trying to download EXIFTOOL on my Mac, having trouble. Max will not allow it to load because it may contain malwear. Is there a way to download so I can try this softwear to see if it can accomplish what I need to do?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I'm not sure and my memory is hazy. I think it was my virus protection software on a Windows machine that was unhappy with EXIFTOOL when I first found it, but that's now 5+ years ago. So, you might see if turning off virus protection / or overriding the question "are you sure?" from the OS. When I google "using exiftool on a mac" there seems to be plenty of instructions / responses. See if you can find a download source for the software that works without a security risk. It looks like maybe you'll have to set "permissions" on the EXE too to allow it to run on your Mac.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

keywords are embedded in the metadata, so they are portable if you write metadata to xmp. But, as Ron 717 pointed out, Adobe considers your catalog to be your data, so you will be able to use LR to manage your images. If you no longer have LR, you can't add/edit any new assets, but you can certainly manage your existing ones.

Some applications like ON1 Raw offer a migration tool to it's ecosystem.

Windows Exporer is the same as Finder.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I key and critical feature of Lightroom Classic is that, by default, it can't and won't change any of your files. Key words will not be available to any external software.

You can change the defaults. What have you got checked here:

(Download)