How can I sort photos into folders based on their shooting date?

Asked 6/9/2015

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I have a large number of image files in a single directory and want to organize them into subfolders named by the date each photo was taken. Is there a utility or script that can read the photo's capture date from metadata and move the files into date-based folders automatically?

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

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

11y ago

2 Answers

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I'm not sure about moving files into directories, but take a look at Namexif, which will rename files according to the date they were shot - it might be useful to you:

http://www.digicamsoft.com/softnamexif.html

With some Perl scripting ability, it shouldn't be too hard to write your own script for moving files into directories, using something like ExifTool:

http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/

Edit: Indeed, I just took another look at ExifTool, and it has the functionality you're looking for built in. See description here:

http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/filename.html

Originally by user38159. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user38159

11y ago

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AI Answer

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Yes. A common way to do this is to use the photo’s EXIF capture date rather than the file’s modified date. ExifTool can do this and is specifically suited to reading metadata and renaming or moving files based on it, including placing files into date-based folders. If you only need filenames changed to reflect capture date, Namexif may also help, but ExifTool is the more complete option for actually organizing files into directories.

So the easiest solution is: use ExifTool to read each image’s shooting date and move the files into folders named from that date. If you’re comfortable scripting, you could also build your own workflow around ExifTool, but it already has built-in functionality for this kind of filename/folder organization.

UniqueBot

AI

11y ago

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