How do I use ExifTool in PowerShell only when DateTimeOriginal is missing?

Question

On Windows, I have a folder of image files where some have a valid `DateTimeOriginal` tag and some do not. For files missing that tag, I want ExifTool to copy the file creation date into `DateTimeOriginal` and leave the others unchanged.

I tried this in PowerShell:

`exiftool -if "not $DateTimeOriginal" "-MWG:DateTimeOriginal<FileCreateDate" -overwrite_original .`

ExifTool reports that all files failed the condition. How should this be written in PowerShell?

StarGeek · Accepted Answer

You have to pay attention to the highlighting when using PowerShell. In your command, you would see that $DateTimeOriginal has a different color than the rest of the command. That indicates that it is a PowerShell variable, not an exiftool tag name.

Your command would work on Windows CMD, and it will probably work in PowerShell if you change the double quotes into single quotes.

But because PowerShell has different quoting rules from CMD/Mac/Linux, there are exiftool commands that would work correctly under the other command lines, using double quotes for CMD and single quotes on Mac/Linux, that do not work either way on PowerShell. This Exiftool forum post gives an example of a command that doesn't work on PowerShell no matter what quotes are used.

How do I use ExifTool in PowerShell only when DateTimeOriginal is missing?

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