ExifTool Forum

Hello,

I'm a newbie and I'm from Germany, so expect technical shortcommings and quite a poor English too. Sorry in advance regarding both.

I've installed exiftool on my Macs (MBP and iMac), OS 10.10.x. I wanted to correct all time stamps for approx. 1.500 pictures in .ARW and .jpg, setting back the dates from 2016 (camera or user error) to 2015 in a bunch. So I created a folder on my desktop with all the files and called it "TIME".

According to the instructions I've studied so far at different places I executed a command line:

-AllDates-='0001:00:00 00:00:00' -overwrite_original /Users/hermann_dressen/Desktop/Time.

What I got as a result was the error line

File not found - /Users/hermann_dressen/Desktop/Time.
0 image files updated
1 files weren't updated due to errors

Tried it different times slightly varying the command line, and also by renaming the directory on both machines, but no success and always with the same error output.

I'm sure, it's a trivial misentry on my side, but I'm in dispair really and would highly appreciated any help.

Thanks in advance

Hermann

Hi Hermann,

Apparently there is a problem with how you typed the directory name.  Try dragging and dropping the folder onto the Terminal window instead of typing the name.  (I'm guessing that the "." at the end shouldn't be there.)

- Phil

Hi Phil,

thanks a lot for not only your great work with the tool, but also for your quick and kind support! I very much appreciate it!

Of course I immediately tried dragging and dropping the folder directly into the terminal window. But the path displayed was exactly the same I had put in manually. BTW, I added the double quotes in my post above only in the running text of my question, not to the command line of course.

So no success one more time ...

Thanks anyway and best regards

Hermann

Hi Hermann,

OK,   try this command then:  exiftool -r ~/Desktop

- Phil

Hi Phil,

Oh, a misunderstanding I discovered on rereading your post, sorry.


I added the "." to the directory in the command line, because one of the sources informing how to use the tool recommended to add the ".", when you want both type files to be be changed in that particular folder, ".jpg" as well as ".ARW".

Sorry for the confusion.

I'll try again, hoping, that all files are changed, wether they are .jpg or .ARW also without adding the ".".

Thanks again and of course I'll report the result.

Thanks again

Hermann

Hi Herman,

I suspect that they meant to use "." instead of "*.jpg" or something like that to process all writable files in the current directory.  ie) exiftool .

- Phil

Hi Phil,

Thanks again.

Now the tool is running indeed, scanning the files in the particular folder  :)

But the output for each scanned file indicates:

Error: File not found "Path" - /._DSC03507.ARW

And so on for each single .ARW and .jpg file.

So I suppose, it doesn't work one more time (?).

But nonetheless thanks a lot

Hermann

Hi Hermann,

That is an odd error.  If you paste the exact command you used I should be able to help.

But you can add this to your command to avoid processing the "._" files:  -if "$filename !~ /^./"

- Phil

Hi Phil,

my command was:

exiftool -AllDates-='0001:00:00 00:00:00' -overwrite_original /Volumes/PICTURES/Eigene_Bilder/2015/Sony_A_7_R/USA_IX_X

Error output indicated:

Warning: [minor] Entries in SubIFD were out of sequence. Fixed. - /Volumes/PICTURES/Eigene_Bilder/2015/Sony_A_7_R/USA_IX_X/DSC03402.ARW


and

Error: File not found - /Volumes/PICTURES/Eigene_Bilder/2015/Sony_A_7_R/USA_IX_X/._DSC03405.ARW

and similar for all approx. 1.500 files .ARW and 1.500 files .jpg.


Thanks again

Hermann

Ah, OK.  These are the OS X resource files because you are accessing a non-Mac disk from a Mac system.  Add the -if option I suggested to avoid processing these.

- Phil

Edit:  Oh.  But since you are on a Mac you will need to use single quotes:  -if '$filename !~ /^./'

Hi Phil,

thanks!

I'll try later, so there's hope again  :)

At the moment the machine is still running since there are more than 3.000 files to scan.

But I'll try, when it's finished and will report.

Thanks again

Hermann

Hi Phil,

Now that's really strange.

Although I got the error messages I posted above "File not found ..." for all of the more than 3.000 files, all files seem to be corrected nevertheless.

I examined a random sample and the exifs indicated the correct date "2015" instead of "2016" without running your recommended additional command.

So I have to say thank you ever so much again  :)

And best regards

Hermann

Yes.  Your command would have changed the metadata of the images fine.  It was only complaining about the resource files, which are separate and have names beginning with "._" (you don't see these in a regular directory listing, but "ls -a DIR" will show them).  The -if option I suggested was to simply avoid the error messages for the files that shouldn't be processed.

- Phil

Edit: ... and for your information.

What made me sceptic bevor restarting the process with your recommend additional command was the summary:

  exiftool -    1 directories scanned
2815 image files updated
2636 files weren't updated due to errors

Now, I don't know what's meant by the statement that 2636 files are not updated, but all files I examined so far do have the correct time stamp. And the folder indeed contains 2815 files ....

All the best

Hermann

 :)

OK, I think, that's what you meant by your last post.

But I'm happy of course :) since that's the result I was after.

Thanks again and best regards

Hermann