How should I rename photos for a personal archive to avoid duplicates and stay organized?

Question

I'm looking for practical file-naming conventions for a personal photo archive. I’m mainly concerned with long-term organization and avoiding filename conflicts, not embedding every detail in the filename since keywords/metadata can handle that.

For example, I considered a format like `yyyy-mm-dd_001`, but I’m unsure whether numbering should restart each day, especially when one folder contains images from multiple dates (such as a trip or project). I’d also like to avoid clashes when using multiple cameras or phones.

Are there commonly used approaches for archival renaming, or is it better to keep the original camera filename and organize with folders and metadata instead?

xenoid · Answer

There are no "best practices". The picture number from the camera is as valid as anything else.

Your proposed date scheme will definitely create clashes if you use more than one camera. My phone uses a down-to-the-millisecond timestamp as the file name which is much less likely to create clashes if you want to go that route.

A good photo manager should be able to retrieve pictures using metadata, which includes the EXIF (including date/time), and any tag that you could add.

Personally, I keep the original camera filename, but keep pictures in folders /directories(*) with the date and the subject (2024-08-28 Eiffel tower/IMG_8492.JPG). This makes it quite easy for me to retrieve about any picture, and in case of dire need, as an IT person I can come up with convoluted commands to retrieve pictures on about any criterion.

(*) Whatever you do, you need folders because the performance of many things degrades when you reach a few thousands files in the same folder, especially on windows. .

How should I rename photos for a personal archive to avoid duplicates and stay organized?

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