Here is what I want to do...
Let's say I have a folder /data/photos/....
Images are spread over subfolders and crazy structures.
I now want to MOVE all files that do NOT have exif data (specifically that are missing the tag that I would use to later rename the files) and 'relocate' them to /data/photos_no_exif/... while keeping the rest of the folder structure
In other words, /data/photos/ads/rerw/aggdf/image1.jpg moves to /data/photos_no_exif/ads/rerw/aggdf/image1.jpg
How can I do that?
You didn't mention what OS you are using. The command below is for Windows CMD. Change the double quotes to single quotes for Mac/Linux
First CD into /data/photos/. Then test using this command to make sure it's working right, replacing TAG with the tag you are checking for or $EXIF:All for files that don't have any EXIF data.
exiftool -if "not $TAG" -Testname=/data/photos_no_exif/%d .
It will output the new directory for each file and if the output looks correct, then you would change Testname into Directory.