How can I set photo date metadata from a YEAR/MONTH/DAY folder structure using ExifTool?

Question

I have photos stored in folders like `YEAR/MONTH/DAY/IMG_something.JPG` (for example `2015/07/04/IMG_1234.JPG`). I want to use ExifTool to write the photo’s date metadata based on the folder path. What command should I use, and how do I handle tags that require a full date and time value?

user37960 · Accepted Answer

Basically, the command would be something like this
ExifTool "-TAG
assuming that the directory structure is numeric e.g. 2015/07/04
But there may be problems depending upon the exact tag you want to use. Many date/time tags require a time as well as a date and I believe all the EXIF date/time tags fall into this category. If you don't care about the actual time, you could -TAG<$Directory 00:00:00. Or if you want to increment the time, you can see this previous post for some help.

XMP tags are usually more flexible and can be used without a time.

If there is already a current time in the tag and you just want to change the date, you can use something like this
ExifTool "-DateTimeOriginal<$Directory ${DateTimeOriginal;s/.* //"

How can I set photo date metadata from a YEAR/MONTH/DAY folder structure using ExifTool?

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