How to set new date from filename + set dummy time?

[erodrigues]

Dear all,

Tried finding anypost with similar problem but failed so decided to ask for help

I am re-organizing some backed up photos and EXIFtool is helping me alot... now I have a problem I can't figure out how to fix:

I have been using:

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exiftool '-CreateDate<FileName' '-ModifyDate<FileName' '-FileModifyDate<FileName' '-FileAccessDate<FileName' FILENAME


which work fine for files named, i.e.: 20180212_115657.jpg ....but for files without time i.e.: IMG-20180205-WA0060.jpg I get:

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Warning: Minute '60' out of range 0..59 in File:FileModifyDate (ValueConvInv) - IMG-20180205-WA0060.jpg

I understand that this is because of the "WA0060" so I was wondering:

How can I use just the DATE of the filename but write a dummy time?

Thanks for any help
ER

[StarGeek]

You would match the 8 numbers that make up the date and add a static time to the end
exiftool '-CreateDate<${FileName;m/(\d{8})-wa/i;$_=$1} 00:00:00' /path/to/files/

example

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C:\>exiftool -P -overwrite_original "-CreateDate<${FileName;m/(\d{8})-wa/i;$_=$1} 00:00:00" Y:\!temp\aa\IMG-20180205-WA0060.jpg
    1 image files updated

C:\Programs\>exiftool -g1 -a -s -CreateDate Y:\!temp\aa\IMG-20180205-WA0060.jpg
---- ExifIFD ----
CreateDate                      : 2018:02:05 00:00:00

[erodrigues]

Thank you so much for the quick reply, I was modifying my post when I got a BSOD

I was going to ask the solution so that besides writing the time as metadata, how can I use the same time to rename the file so that the file:

IMG-20180205-WA0060 ends up as "IMG-20180205-WA0060-hhmmss" or "IMG-20180205-WA-hhmmss"

Thanks again,
ER

[StarGeek]

As long as you know you aren't processing non-WhatsApp files, you could use
exiftool -Filename=%f-hhmmss.%e /path/to/files/
or
exiftool -Filename=%-.4f-hhmmss.%e /path/to/files/

You can find details on the % tokens under the -w (-TextOut) option.

If your files are from mixed sources, then a more complex command would be required.

[erodrigues]

Thanks again! I really appreciate the help and I will give it a try

This will be used for a group of files coming from a WhatsApp backup which does not have any other EXIF info/metadata.

I will read more on the documentation. It is incredibly powerful but quite complex to take in 

ER

[erodrigues]

As long as you know you aren't processing non-WhatsApp files, you could use
exiftool -Filename=%f-hhmmss.%e /path/to/files/
or
exiftool -Filename=%-.4f-hhmmss.%e /path/to/files/

You can find details on the % tokens under the -w (-TextOut) option.

If your files are from mixed sources, then a more complex command would be required.

Worked well but I forgot that I have photos with the same date so if I enter 010101 as value for hhmmss I end up with same filenames ... 

I looked for examples in the forum and I found this one https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=13031.0 but I can't figure out how I could adapt to generate a random time that I could put in hhmmss

Hoping you can shed some light

Thanks a million again,
ER

[StarGeek]

Are you keeping the What's App numbered order or don't care if they're not in the original order?

The simplest thing to do would be to add a copy number with %-c.  Something like this will add a (dash)copy number at the end of the filename for any file that has a duplicate name
-Filename=%f-hhmmss%-c.%e

[erodrigues]

Are you keeping the What's App numbered order or don't care if they're not in the original order?

The simplest thing to do would be to add a copy number with %-c.  Something like this will add a (dash)copy number at the end of the filename for any file that has a duplicate name
-Filename=%f-hhmmss%-c.%e

Thanks, I will also give this a try.

I can skip the numbering order, no major importance. The key is the day.

Although ending up with IMG-20140609-WA-hhmmss.jpg would be better for me, the other solution you also kindly provided IMG-20140609-WA0001-hhmmss.jpg is still very much OK!

Thank you again for the help,
ER

I will try