Where do "phantom" keywords come from?

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Level 1

17 points

Where do "phantom" keywords come from?

I have been an Aperture user on my desktop iMacs for a couple of years, and I just bought a new Macbook Air. I added Aperture so I could play with my camera and iPhone while on vacation.

I have NOT imported any pics from my main library at home but all of a sudden I am having phantom keywords show up. I can understand Photo Stream Keywords showing up, but what about the rest of these? See below:

Thanks for any explanation to the above as I have NOT added any of these myself.

Posted on Jun 19, 2014 5:40 AM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

200,531 points

Jun 19, 2014 6:04 AM in response to NN2RL

I have NOT imported any pics from my main library at home but all of a sudden I am having phantom keywords show up.

But are there any images in your Aperture library on your new mac?

You HUD should be showing the default keywords (Photo Journalism, Stock Categories,..) , and it will show any keyword added to any photo you drop into your library. Do you sync with FaceBook or Flickr? Have you run a script to reverse geocode your photos, that could have added these keywords, Tampa etc?

I'd search your library with a keywords search or a smart album to look for images with those particular keywords.

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Answer 2

NN2RL Author

Level 1

17 points

Jun 19, 2014 6:30 AM in response to léonie

Hi Leonie!

The only images in my Aperture library on the new mac are the recent ones I have taken and imported from my Nikon camera and my iPhone. Yes, I do synch with Facebook and Flickr...do you think that is where the keywords come from?

Also here is the complete text file of my HUD; I don't see any of the default keywords you mentioned.

Birthday

Family

Favorite

Kids

Photo Stream

RAW

Vacation

bridge

courtney campbell causeway

d7000

dx

fl

florida

hillsborough

hillsborough county

james boone

june

lightning

lightning bolt

lightning strike

lightroom

nikon

nikon d7000

old boone

rocky point

storm

storms

tampa

tampa bay

thunderstorm

✔

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Answer 3

Jun 19, 2014 6:38 AM in response to NN2RL

Keywords are stored in the library and are unique to each library. Did you copy over a library to the Air (even with no images in it) when you got it and installed Aperture?

If you create a new library on the Air what keywords are in it?

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Answer 4

Jun 19, 2014 6:43 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

What the keyword HUD will look like in a new Aperture library

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Answer 5

NN2RL Author

Level 1

17 points

Jun 19, 2014 6:49 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Hi Frank!

No, did not copy over any library to the Air when I got it and installed Aperture.

I created a new library as you suggested and this is what appears...this looks normal to me now. Hmmmmmm...

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Answer 6

léonie

Level 10

200,531 points

Jun 19, 2014 6:54 AM in response to NN2RL

If you uploaded images to Facebook from Aperture and synced them to another Aperture library, the keywords will sync back to the new library.

For example: an image in a Facebook album, uploaded from Aperture and viewed in Aperture from a different Mac. It still has the keywords.

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Answer 7

Jun 19, 2014 7:04 AM in response to NN2RL

Interesting, I noticed in your first post that the keywords indicate there is one image in the library with each keyword. If you look at the images in the library with one of the keywords indicated, do you know where the image came from, how it got into the library?

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Answer 8

NN2RL Author

Level 1

17 points

Jun 19, 2014 7:39 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Frank and Leonie,

There are only 86 pics in my library on the new Air so I went through and clicked on each pic looking for those phantom keywords...the only keyword that showed up was "Photo Stream" and those had to come from my iPhone. There were no keywords on the Facebook or the Flickr photos. I then searched the photos for any of the phantoms and not one showed up. Weird, very weird.

FYI, when I hit "D" I get the usual Control Bar and also shift D will allow me to cycle through a number of the stock keyword choices such as wedding, iPhoto, Photo Descriptors, etc. Still have no clue where tampa and those others came from...funny stuff, eh?

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Answer 9

léonie

Level 10

200,531 points

Jun 19, 2014 8:20 AM in response to NN2RL

No photos are stacked or rejected? You looked into the Trash?

Create a smart album to search the library for Florida or Tampa Bay.

File > New Smart Album

Add a Text Rule to search for "Tampa". A text rule will also find keywords.

Make sure, the source is set to "Library" and not to an album.

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Answer 10

NN2RL Author

Level 1

17 points

Jun 19, 2014 2:29 PM in response to léonie

Sorry for long delay in response...

No photos are stacked or rejected? You looked into the Trash?

No stacks or rejected.

Create a smart album to search the library for Florida or Tampa Bay.

File > New Smart Album

Add a Text Rule to search for "Tampa". A text rule will also find keywords.

Make sure, the source is set to "Library" and not to an album.

Tried all this and nothing showed up, Léonie... this is really bizarre isn't it?

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Answer 11

Aug 16, 2014 4:29 PM in response to NN2RL

NN2RL- Ha, those are keywords I've added to my photos. Do you possibly have any of my pictures downloaded from my Flickr page used as wallpaper or anything? If I had to guess, you've probably downloaded this shot as it has those same keywords in it - http://www.flickr.com/photos/old_boone/14408510592/

I don't own Aperture, but there may be a default setting within that program that scans your saved pictures for metadata, including keywords, and imports those tags into your library. I'm just taking a guess on that...but you've probably already resolved your issue by now anyway. And sorry for creating a potential issue for you!

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Answer 12

NN2RL Author

Level 1

17 points

Aug 17, 2014 7:19 AM in response to Old Boone

Ha ha ha, MYSTERY SOLVED! You are absolutely correct, Old Boone...I don't know how you figured this out, but it is absolutely correct! Thank you for taking the time to post your response and finally remove the demons from my new computer and old brain! Thank you again!

Incidentally, your pic was not in my library, but was added to my photo stream on my iPhone or iPad and in turn displayed in Aperture.

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Answer 13

léonie

Level 10

200,531 points

Aug 17, 2014 7:34 AM in response to Old Boone

Spectacular photos, Old Boone!

I particularly like your ISS fly-by pictures. It must have been difficult to manually track it with the telescope. It is moving quite fast. And the milky way, wow!

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Answer 14

Aug 17, 2014 10:53 AM in response to NN2RL

NN2RL - Great! Glad that helped out! Shame that it happens by default though...it seems like a cool feature but I see that it could also be a bit annoying to import random tags.

léonie - Thanks! Glad you like them. Getting shots of the ISS is a lot of fun. You should see some of the better astrophotographers who shoot the ISS - the pics where the ISS is passing in front of or near the sun / moon blow my mind.

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