Apple sync does not mantain photos sorting

[E-dro]

Hi!

I want to share a possible solution to the problem described at this link: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4221.
In particular, in my computer I've got a folder containing photos sorted by FileName. After syncronization, in my Apple device (iPAD) the same photos are not sorted as before.

The trick is to execute a batch file which set the DateTimeOriginal to the today date and then shift it incrementally with 1 minute for each photo, mantaining them sorted correctly.

Here you are the code that worked for me:

Code Select Expand


@echo on
set /A count=1
for /f "usebackq delims=|" %%f in (`dir *.jpg /b /On`) do call :DateTime "%%f"
goto :End

:DateTime
c:\Windows\exiftool.exe -overwrite_original "-DateTimeOriginal<$now" %1
c:\Windows\exiftool.exe -overwrite_original "-DateTimeOriginal+=0:0:0 0:%count%:0" %1
set /A count+=1
goto :End

:End


[JanK]

Why should anyone overwrite the "DateTimeOriginal"? That is the only date which tells you when the photographer pushed the button of his camera and the world become freeze. So I would never overwrite the "DateTimeOriginal". You lost one of the importants information in your image.

In the Apple Post I saw that there are more tags used to define the "Push Button of camera" event?? Not only "DateTimeOriginal"?

[Phil Harvey]

I suspect that your iPAD sorts by FileModifyDate (the filesystem modification date/time).  If so, you could set this instead of DateTimeOriginal to achieve the same result without overwriting your image metadata.

- Phil

[E-dro]

Let's say that this problem happens with every kind of picture syncronized with the device, not only photos! So it could be useful if you want to mantain right sorted pictures with blank DateTimeOriginal or if you don't care about losing this information.

However, with the latest software upgrade, Apple doesn't let you choose the type of sorting. It automatically sorts images by DateTimeOriginal and only if this date is the same (or blank) for all pictures, it sorts by other metadata. In this way, as Phil suggested, I could set FileModifyDate instead of DateTimeOriginal and probably the photo sorting would be ok.

Obviously you can choose to sort photos as you want buying a specifical app, but I was looking for a cheapest solution!