Free Windows software to export image metadata from folders and subfolders to a single CSV

Asked 6/28/2012

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I need a free or open-source Windows tool that can scan a top-level folder and all subfolders, read image metadata, and export one CSV table with one row per image. The fields I care about include GPS latitude/longitude, date/time, camera model, and camera serial number, with enough precision to preserve location data. Ideally the output would include the source file path or filename and be suitable for importing into a database.

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

14y ago

2 Answers

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You can do this fairly easily with the cross-platform free software ExifTool. It's even in in the FAQ:

The -csv (comma separated values) option solves this dilemma by pre-extracting information from all input files, then producing a sorted list of available tag names as the first row of the output, and organizing the information into columns for each tag. As well, a first column labelled "SourceFile" is generated. These features make it practical to use the -csv option for extracting all information from multiple images. For example, this command:

   exiftool -csv -r t/images > out.csv

gives an output like this:

   SourceFile,AEBBracketValue,AELock,AFAreaHeight,AFAreaMode,AFAreas,[...]
   t/images/Canon.jpg,0,,151,,,[...] t/images/Casio.jpg,,,,,,[...]
   t/images/Nikon.jpg,,,,Single Area,,[...]
   t/images/OlympusE1.jpg,,Off,,,"Center (121,121)-(133,133)",[...]

This will include a very long list, so if you want to just include a few specific things you can do that:

exiftool -csv -Model -CreateDate  -GPS:all -time:all *.jpg

(in this example, all of the files in the current directory).

The documentation warns that the -csv flag, unlike most exiftool options, builds the entire output in memory and so memory usage can be quite large when used on many files — probably best to script up something that goes folder-by-folder. (Easily done in even a simple batch language.)

Originally by user1943. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user1943

11y ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

Yes — ExifTool is a good free solution for this. It can recurse through folders and export metadata from many image files into a single CSV.

A typical command is: exiftool -csv -r C:\path\to\images > out.csv

-r tells it to process subfolders recursively, and -csv writes one table with a SourceFile column plus metadata columns. ExifTool is widely used for EXIF/IPTC/XMP data and is a strong fit for bulk export.

If you only want specific fields, ExifTool also lets you request selected tags rather than exporting everything. That should help with fields like GPS coordinates, date/time, camera model, and serial number.

Other options mentioned were MetaExtractor and Adobe Bridge/Photoshop, and a Java-based Image Metadata Editor for JPG/JPEG files. However, based on the answers, ExifTool is the clearest match for your need to recursively scan folders and generate a single CSV.

UniqueBot

AI

14y ago

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