Today’s Question: In Lightroom Classic is there a way to remove a keyword that was inadvertently added to all photos in an entire folder? Or does each photo need to have that keyword removed individually?
Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can easily remove a keyword from multiple images in Lightroom Classic by selecting those photos in the grid view and then turning of the checkbox for the applicable keyword on the Keyword List.
More Detail: If you’ve accidentally added a keyword to a large group of photos, such as by adding a wrong keyword in the Import dialog when importing new photos, it is easy to remove that keyword from the images.
Start by switching to the grid view (not the loupe view) and selecting the photos you want to remove the keyword from. In this example that would mean selecting all photos in the applicable folder, such as by choosing Edit > Select All from the menu.
With the photos selected in the grid view, go to the Keyword List on the right panel and locate the keyword you want to remove. Turn off the checkbox to the left of that keyword, and the keyword will be removed from all selected images.
Note that there are three possible status options for the checkbox to the left of each keyword on the Keyword List. If there is a checkmark that indicates that all selected images have that keyword assigned to them. If the checkbox is empty that means the keyword has not been assigned to any of the selected images. If there is a dash in the box that is an indication that the keyword is assigned to some but not all the selected images.
What that means is that if you see a dash, you’ll need to click more than once to remove the keyword. The first time you click on the checkbox the dash will change to a checkmark, meaning the keyword will be assigned to all selected images. You can then click on the checkbox one more time to remove the keyword from all selected images.
