-if " not $DateTimeOriginal" always fails.

[SialoS]

I want to change the date taken of my photos only if its empty, to the date modified of the file. Unfortunately, the condition always fails and I cannot understand why. I have the latest version of the tool, i am on Windows 11, and below is my command:

Code Select Expand

.\exiftool -config oldest -if "not $DateTimeOriginal" "-DateTimeOriginal<OldestDateTime" -P -r -overwrite_original "C:\Users\mike\Desktop\a\DSCN8039.JPG"
with the same command, i try a picture with an empty date taken, and one with a date taken field and I always get the same response" 1 files failed condition"

What am I missing here? (the config that I use is from these forums and it is for always choosing the oldest day)

[Phil Harvey]

Did you try this command on the files?:

exiftool -datetimeoriginal FILE

If that produces no output, try this command to see what date/time tags exist:

exiftool -G1 -s -time:all FILE

- Phil

[SialoS]

Hi Phil,
Thank you for your reply
this command
exiftool -datetimeoriginal FILE

gives this response:

Date/Time Original              : 0000:00:00 00:00:00

[Phil Harvey]

So that file will fail the condition because DateTimeOriginal exists.

If you want to also test for a zero year,  try this:

exiftool -if "not $datetimeoriginal or $datetimeoriginal=~/0000/" ...

- Phil

[SialoS]

tried it but again the condition is failing

[Phil Harvey]

Is it possible to copy and paste the result of those last 2 commands here?  I can't tell what you are doing wrong without more information.

- Phil

[Phil Harvey]

Wait.  Are you using PowerShell?  If so, you may need to use single quotes instead of double quotes.

- Phil

[SialoS]

Yes i am using powershell and yes the single quotes did the trick!!!

i spend so many hours on this!
Thank you Phil!

[StarGeek]

You must pay attention to the highlighting in Powershell.  When you see the different color highlighting as with $CreateDate below, then that means it is being treated differently than the rest of the command.


PowerShell fails on some basic exiftool commands so if you have problems with a command, you should test the command on CMD to make sure PS isn't messing things up.