Re-read Metadata in Photoshop Elements 2018

[RiaAnn7176]

Can anyone tell me if there is a way to re-read the metadata in photoshop elements 2018.  Or alternatively search for all photos by data in the IPTC Keywords field, so I can add the tag again.  I have upgraded from PSE 9 and 12,000 photos tagged of my son were merged with 3000 face-tagged of my son and only those with the face tagging were kept.   The photo's no longer appear in the unnamed faces for tagging, is there any way to re-set the "untagged" faces without having to re-do all the naming of other people? 

[cz35895897]

The face tagging feature I believe is NOT a metadata field, but a Catalog function. Hence you can only hope to keep the ones where face tagging was also accompanied by keyword tags. If it was in a Catalog you should write the metadata to the file. It will then go into the IPTC keywords field. Did you convert the catalog? If not, use the old software and search for people faces, then add a keyword tag to those faces, then write the metadata to all the files. Then and only then will you be able to search the IPTC/other metadata fields for what will now be a PSE "face" in a metadata format. From what the instruction say, you cannot partially reset the face recognition, you will loose all the faces. So the face/name backup once complete into the metadata AND written into the files, is a good practice which will even allow other software to know what people are in your photos (but NOT where the faces are in the photo, that again is a PSE Catalog only function). As far as I know Picasa is the only software that automatically wrote the people names into the IPTC fields, and I was delighted when PSE picked that data up. But not as "faces", as "imported people tags".

[RiaAnn7176]

Thank you for your reply.  I have tried your solution but to no avail, I am afraid.

I was upgrading to PSE 9 where I wasn't using face tagging but people tagging (manual).  Unfortunately before upgrade I did not write out the metadata on the majority of files (I realize my mistake and I have done so now.  What a shame there is no warning about this before upgrading). 

I have tried un-installing and repeating the upgrade but unfortunately I think the catalog was saved to the same file and it remembers.  Any way to do the upgrade again where the keywords would be re-imported and the face-tagging re-started. 

I have gone back now (to the old version - yes I still have it) and taken the people tagged photos, added an "other" keyword tag and re-written the metadata.  And whilst I can see the new tag info appearing in the information tab when I search (find details by metatdata) the new "other" keyword tag does not appear in the dropdown, only the ones that were there when I upgraded.  Very frustrating, surely there is a way to re-read all the meta data without creating a new catalog. 

Regards, Maria

[cz35895897]

I feel your pain. If it helps any this issue has been around for a long while. Here is another discussion with a possible mitigating step in the last posted message.

How to re-read metadata from file in Photoshop Elements 11 Organizer?

[RiaAnn7176]

Thank again, yes I had read the earlier posts around this issue and they helped my understanding of what happened to loose the tags .  They would have been helpful if I had known in advance what the issue would be, but I can't see a solution to correct the problem I have now (unless I am missing something).  I was hoping there might be a solution with this latest version of software,  however I still see no solution and I am stuck with the prospect of loosing nearly a decade's worth of tagging.  Why on earth is there no way to re-read the meta data?