I have some SerialNumber fields in JPG's that were converted into spaces and would like to revert them to null. When using exiftool -SerialNumber= (filepath) they don't truly revert to null, as when I write the files metadata to CSV and use -f the field is a blank cell in Excel, and not a "-" like it should be when using -f.
Thanks.
This is the format to write an empty tag:
exiftool -serialnumber^= FILE
- Phil
Quote from: Phil Harvey on July 31, 2024, 03:17:23 PMexiftool -serialnumber^= FILE
On Windows CMD, you would have to use this, because the Caret
^ is a special character in CMD.
exiftool "-serialnumber^=" FILE
Thanks. That still yields a blank but not null field for me.
SourceFile SerialNumber
D:/file.jpg
Then your first command is what you want to use. But there is a caveat. Some SerialNumber tags cannot be removed.
For example, in this file, the Canon:SerialNumber cannot be removed or cleared. It can only be set to a number. In the first command, I removed the EXIF:SerialNumber, but not the Canon:SerialNumber. It then explicitly try to clear it. Then try to set it to a 0 length string, i.e. it exists but has an empty value. I try again with the hashtag shortcut for the -n (--printConv) option (https://exiftool.org/exiftool_pod.html#n---printConv). The best I can do is set it to 0.
C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -serialnumber Y:\!temp\Test_CR2.Cr2
[Canon] SerialNumber : 1470912081
[ExifIFD] SerialNumber : 1470912081
C:\>exiftool -P -overwrite_original -SerialNumber= Y:\!temp\Test_CR2.Cr2
1 image files updated
C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -serialnumber Y:\!temp\Test_CR2.Cr2
[Canon] SerialNumber : 1470912081
C:\>exiftool -P -overwrite_original -Canon:SerialNumber= Y:\!temp\Test_CR2.Cr2
Warning: Can't delete Permanent tag Canon:SerialNumber
Nothing to do.
C:\>exiftool -P -overwrite_original "-Canon:SerialNumber^=" Y:\!temp\Test_CR2.Cr2
Warning: Not an integer for Canon:SerialNumber
Nothing to do.
C:\>exiftool -P -overwrite_original -Canon:SerialNumber#= Y:\!temp\Test_CR2.Cr2
Warning: Can't delete Permanent tag Canon:SerialNumber
Nothing to do.
C:\>exiftool -P -overwrite_original -Canon:SerialNumber=0 Y:\!temp\Test_CR2.Cr2
1 image files updated
C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -serialnumber Y:\!temp\Test_CR2.Cr2
[Canon] SerialNumber : 0000000000