Warnings when renaming previously successfully renamed files

[shrimp]

Hello together,

I have used exiftool in the last years for renaming pictures using

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exiftool -'Filename<DateTimeOriginal' -d IMG_%Y%m%d_%H%M%S.jpg *.jpgand

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exiftool -'Filename<DateTimeOriginal' -d IMG_%Y%m%d_%H%M%S.jpg *.JPG(found somewhere on the internet) without warnings or errors. The only problem was having multiple pictures with the same timestamp.
I just now read the manpage and changed my line to

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exiftool '-Filename<DateTimeOriginal' -d IMG_%Y%m%d_%H%M%S%%+c.jpg -ext jpg *to address all the files that have not been renamed in the past.
Now I receive hundreds or thousands of warnings of different kinds and some errors, even on the files that have been succesfully renamed in the past.

I am on Debian Testing, using Gnome 43. My pictures get synced to my Nextcloud and I reinstalled my OS a few weeks back and synced all my files from my nextcloud to my Laptop again. Before that, my pictures were copied directly from my camera or downloaded through links provided by friends.

I have found some of the warnings in the FAQ and read how to solve or ignore them. This is however not my primary goal. First I am interested in what is the difference from the last time I used exiftool (a few months ago) to today. Does anyone have any hints where I can start my research?

Thanks and greetings

[StarGeek]

Now I receive hundreds or thousands of warnings of different kinds and some errors, even on the files that have been succesfully renamed in the past.

It is impossible to trouble shoot any problems without knowing exactly what these errors are.

Is exiftool not renaming the files at all?  Or is it renaming the files and displaying extra warnings while doing so.  What was the old version and what is the current version you're using.

[shrimp]

Hi StarGeek,

thanks for your reply.

Is exiftool not renaming the files at all?  Or is it renaming the files and displaying extra warnings while doing so.  What was the old version and what is the current version you're using.

Exiftool is renaming the files except the ones where "DateTimeOriginal" is empty (saved from chats or edited in paint as a child).
My current version of exiftool is 12.57+dfsg-1 and I do not know the version from before reinstalling my OS. It was, however, the most recent version available in Debian testing around christmas last year (2022).

The following lines show the warnings I can see. I noticed, that most of those warnings appear not only on the mentioned camera types but across a lot of different cameras and that only some pictures from each event (like holidays, hiking, family gatherings) show warnings.

Pictures taken with my very first digital camera Canon PowerShot A60

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Warning: [minor] Possibly incorrect maker notes offsets (fix by -268?)
Canon PowerShot A520

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Warning: [minor] Adjusted MakerNotes base by -266
Casio Exilim EX-Z450

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Warning: [minor] Overlapping MakerNotes values
Canon EOS 1000D, Canon IXUS 130

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Warning: [minor] Adjusted MakerNotes base by 4198
Nikon COOLPIX AW100

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Warning: [minor] Error reading PreviewImage from file
Warning: [minor] Bad PreviewIFD directory
GoPro HERO 3+

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Warning: [minor] Unrecognized MakerNotes
LG-D855

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Warning: Invalid EXIF text encoding for UserComment
Pictures I cannot open even on the laptop anymore:
"Not a JPEG file: starts with 0xcc 0x2b"

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Error: File format error
As far as I remember, none of these files showed any warnings while renaming them in the past, otherwise i would have looked into this way earlier.

[StarGeek]

The Error: File format error means the file has been corrupted somehow. My first thought here would be to check the drive to make sure it's not failing.  It is unlikely that any program that edits or manipulates images would incorrectly write an jpeg in this way.

The MakerNotes warnings are often the result of improper editing by programs that don't correctly adjust data locations when writing EXIF data, though there are quite a few cameras that have MakerNotes errors directly from the camera.  See FAQ #15.  All of these would have been suppressed if previously you included the -m (-ignoreMinorErrors) option.

For the most part, you can ignore these, as they don't affect the rest of the metadata nor do they affect the image.  FAQ #15 has some options to try and remove the warnings, but IMO, it's not worth bothering with.  A lot of work with zero reward.

The Unrecognized MakerNotes most likely means that nobody has decoded the MakerNotes for that camera.

The Invalid EXIF text encoding for UserComment means that the UserComment tag has been written incorrectly, either by some editing program, but also possibly directly from the camera.  Unless you have edited this tag yourself or have set your camera to write some data here, there's probably not any data in there to begin with.  A lot of cameras will write this as an empty tag.

You can check to see if there's any data in the files with
exiftool -if "$UserComment" -UserComment /path/to/files/

If you don't see any useful data in those tags you can run this command to remove the tag from the files
exiftool -UserComment= /path/to/files/

or use this command to remove the tag only when it is empty and has no data, leaving the ones with data untouched.
exiftool -UserComment-= /path/to/files/

These command creates backup files.  Add -Overwrite_Original to suppress the creation of backup files.

[shrimp]

Hello StarGeek and sorry for my late response,

thank your for your detailed answer. I tried some options that you mentioned as well as ones I found on the FAQ like the "-F" for the Possibly incorrect maker notes offsets and was able to reduce the warnings. However, since this did not "solve" everything, you wrote that this may be a lot of work with zero reward and the same is written in the FAQ I decided to just leave my pictures as they are, as long as they get renamed correctly.
I am still wondering why I have never seen any of those warnings before but I guess there is no way for me to find out.

The pictures with the "File format error" are indeed corrupted and may have gotten so on my phone. Luckily I have a backup.