A few files wont update the date/time from the json file

[StarGeek]

Code Select Expand

exiftool --ext pdf --ext json --ext log --ext _gs --ext gsl -p '$directory/$filename -if 'not $datetimeoriginal' -r .

What OS/Shell?  Can you share a file where this happens?

I see nothing wrong with this command, and can't figure out how you would even get a "Tag not defined" warning for it.

[StarGeek]

Ok, I figured it out. In the files where you get "Warning: [Minor] Tag 'datetimeoriginal' not defined", those are the files that don't have the DateTimeOriginal.  So those files are the ones their file paths listed with the -p (-printFormat) option. If you are redirecting the text into a file, then this line won't appear in that file because it is coming from STDERR, not STDOUT.

But you do have an error in the command I didn't notice. You need a closing quote for the -p
-p '$directory/$filename'

Alternatively, you can use Filepath which will give the absolute file path instead of the relative filepath.
-p '$Filepath'