"Warning: No writable tags set from..."

[Cobweb]

Hi,

I wasn't sure whether to post here or in the The "exiftool" Application forum.  But I'm a newby, so I guess here's ok?

I have hundreds and hundreds of photos in a strange (to me) folder structure so I've simplified things by having exiftool create folders based on Years, then Months.  It shifted the whole lot in just over a day, awesome!  Saved me so much time and frustration.

I used the following command:
emm@i3:~$ exiftool '-Directory<CreateDate' -d /nfs/Photographs/%y/%m -r /nfs/Production/Photography/

However, some of the XMP sidecar files haven't gone over, they failed with the following message:

Warning: No writable tags set from /~/Bonus Day - 20 Feb/_DSC9251.NEF.xmp

Anyone shed any light? (in fairly simple terms).  Thanks in advance and sorry for the dumb question.  I'm using Linux Mint 20, just in case that helps

[Phil Harvey]

You'll get this warning for any file that doesn't contain a CreateDate tag.  If you want to use a fallback that always works, you can use FileModifyDate, ie)

exiftool '-Directory<FileModifyDate' '-Directory<CreateDate' -d /nfs/Photographs/%y/%m -r /nfs/Production/Photography/

... or use "exiftool -time:all -s FILE" to see what tags are available, and add all the ones you want (in reverse order of precedence) to the command.

- Phil

[Cobweb]

Thank you so much!!  I've been scratching my head most of this evening trying to wrap my mind around the issue.

Thanks, dude, you're awsome!