Geotagged Files Dissapear?

[Rob_Delta]

When I run this command

exiftool -v2 -geotag /media/robert/ESD-USB/Road_trips_2019/Cardston_to_Hanna.csv -geosync=-07:00:00 -if  'not $gpslatitude'  /media/robert/ESD-USB/Road_trips_2019/ToDoNikon

I receive the following final message:

Code Select Expand

   1 directories scanned
   17 image files updated
    5 image files unchanged

The 17 updated files each have (I assume) a copy named something like '091.jpg_original' in the folder but none of the updated *.jpg files can be found.  I did a file system search without any luck.  These are Nikon SLR images that do not have any GPS tags.  Have I missed something important about using the command?  I'm using Exiftool ver 11.65 on Linux Mint 19.2.

When I run a similar command on Lumix images that do have GPS tags, both the *.jpg_original and updated *.jpg files are left in the source folder, as expected.

Thanks for any help.

[StarGeek]

You can use the -restore_original option to restore the from the _original backups or just rename them.

But as for the files disappearing, that's extremely out of character and shouldn't be happening.  I'd suggest running the command on a single file (use a copy) and adding -v2.  The output will be much more detailed and hopefully will give a clue as to what is happening.

If it's an actual bug and can be replicated, it may need to wait until Phil gets back from vacation.

[Rob_Delta]

StarGeek:

Thanks for your suggestions.

The test on a single file as as per your suggestion worked.

A second run on the 24 test files appeared to work at first, but then I noticed that the GeoTagged file sizes were all 0 bytes, so no.  (There was also one extra named 116~1.JPG for some reason.)

A third run on the 24 test files did work as expected.

I am running these tests on files which are on an external USB drive.  Perhaps the file read/write operations can't keep up with the program.  I'll do any future work on the hard drive to eliminate this potential trouble source.

[StarGeek]

I would also check the cable connecting the drive to the computer.  I've had a few drives that had problematic cables that worked fine once I got a better cable to connect with.

[snappyhappy]

I'm quite a novice and i've had files disappear but have noticed that on some occasions they have gone to my home directory despite cd-ing to the photos.

[Rob_Delta]

Just an update on the disappearing files.  This has not reoccurred while doing all the operations on the internal hard drive.  I'm thinking this was a hardware problem.  Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and comments.