How do I add the create date for all files in a directory where needed?

[theprof]

I have a folder that has a mix of videos and images. Some of the videos are missing the "Media Created" date while some of the images are missing the "Date Taken" date.


What I want to do is have the EXIF tool go through all the files and add the "best guess create date" if it's missing. How do I do that?

[StarGeek]

It really depends upon what your definition of "best guess" is. Some people use the OldestDateTime.config which picks the oldest date/time value from the list at the top.

This list should be edited based upon the data you find in the file. For example, the MDItem* entries should be removed if used on Windows, as those are Mac only tags.

The list should be renumbered after any changes.

Use this command to see all the date/time tags in a file and see which ones you would want to add to the list
exiftool -time:all -G1 -a -s file.jpg

Personally, I dislike this idea because I've seen wildly incorrect time stamps fairly often. I usually deal with these on a case by case basis, but then I am overly obsessive about my file's data.

I will point out that if the date and time are part of the filename, then that's usually an accurate value to use and the filename can be directly copied into the file
exiftool "-AllDates<Filename" /path/to/files/