When I try to assign files to albums, I get the message "error applying keyword tags"

Question

This just started to happen, not sure why.  I don't assign or use keywords.  It does it on all albums.  I made new albums and it did not work, even on the new albums.  There was one album that did not have the problem, but when I tried to transfer an afftected album's files to it, it developed the problem.  I reset the preferences in both Organizer and Editor, and that did not help.  It prevents me from moving files out of as well as into albums.  Any ideas on what caused this and what I can do about it?  Thanks for any help.    

Answer 1

A last try:
- what if you try to move the pictures with the common keyword (no album selected) to a new subfolder via the organizer,
- delete them from the catalog
- delete the catalog itself
- and re-import them ?
There is clearly something wrong with 'normal' or new albums as well in your case.
Your experience shows that the problem is not only in some albums, it's linked to the catalog itself. If you can create a new catalog and reimport the files of your test album and work normally, then you can test that other catalogs are ok. Otherwise, if all catalogs have the same problems, it's linked to the organizer itself, but I doubt it since you have already deleted the organizer prefs (the psa.prf and status in your 'Roaming' folder).
I have found that sometimes, using a newer version of Elements (a trial one if you want) and converting the catalog can solve problems; but on the other hand, PSE12 has new problems with converted catalogs... Also, the backup and restore process probably can't help because the catalog database is just copied, not converted.
What you have done with your test albums means that any meaningful organization is safely stored into the files metadata section, so that you can recover it in other PSE versions, Lightroom, Windows explorer or many organizing softwares. Of course with a large number of albums, that looks like a huge job.