Missing or misleading warning if TAG not found

[HansS713]

E.g.

Code Select Expand

D>exiftool "-FileModifyDate<CreateDate" "-FileName<CreateDate" -d %Y%m%d_%H%M%S_Pana-HS_%%f.%%e "00000.MTS"
Warning: No writable tags set from 00000.MTS
    0 image files updated
    1 image files unchanged


Problem in this case is, that the *.MTS have TAG "DateTimeOriginal" instead of "CreateDate" (which is found in *.MP4 etc.), but there is no info about not found TAG in the error message. I think there should be warning about not found "CreateDate" in this cases.

In this special case the text "writable tags" additionally irritated me, because exiftoll can't write real tags in *.MTS. I then recognized that exiftool treats file properties like "FileModifyDate" and "FileName" as "pseudo" tags.

exiftool v9.82

[Phil Harvey]

Thanks for your suggestion.

I see your point, but if I added a warning for each tag not available when copying then some common procedures would produce a daunting number of warnings.  The "No writable tags" message is certainly true, although you are correct that it doesn't differentiate between "real" and "pseudo" tags.

It is very useful to have a consistent warning when nothing is written (especially for scripts that intercept these warnings), and I think the current message is a good compromise given this goal.

- Phil