Lightroom keywords/metadata lost.

Hello Sullins.

Are you syncing the metadata to the files, either automatically or manually? By default Lightroom keeps the metadata in the catalog and does not sync it to the files unless you manually "tell it to". To sync the information to the files select the ones you want to send and press Ctrl+S (Windows) or Command+S (Mac OS). Also, unless you are using a file format like DNG, which stores the metadata in the image file itself, the metadata will be written to a sidecar XMP file. If you want your client to have access to the metadata you will have to send the XMP files along with you image files.

You could also make Lightroom automatically write the changes to the XMP (or DNG) files by going to Edit > Catalog Settings (Windows) or Lightroom > Catalog Settings (Mac OS). Once there click the Metadata tab and enable Automatically write changes to XMP. But I don't recommend doing that as every time you make a minor change Lightroom will write it to the file, which will make it slower, but more importantly will increase the danger of file corruption since you will be rewriting the file over and over. If I remember correctly Peter also recommends keeping that option disabled in The DAM Book.

If you already know all this and are writing the metadata to your files I'm not sure what the problem can be. I hope this is helpful.

--
Jorge

PS: By the way, it's a forum rule to sign posts with our real names.