Pretending to be DCIM

[mattjhaigh]

Hello there,

I have a large number of images, 20,000, in a single flat directory.

I would love to upload them to my iPad by directly connecting the USB drive.

But, in order for this to work, the files need to be formatted based on the "DCIM" standard - that is they need to appear just like a digital camera plugged in - for Apple Photos to recognise and import them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_rule_for_Camera_File_system

I have searched the forum multiple times, and tried several code snippets, but I am a bit stuck.

I am looking for a way in which to sort the images into the ABCD000X format - that it 4 characters and 4 character sequence number.

I have also considered segmenting the images by year, to reduce down the load times - and move a year at a time.

Can you help with the syntax?

Code Select Expand

exiftool -filename="IMG%.5c.%e" DIR does not appear to work that well - but I feel that it should.

Can you help me set up my SSD to "pretend to be like a memory card" - and work to the format.

Thank you kindly for the help.

Matt

[greybeard]

If you open the USB drive using the files app on the iPad can you see the files with their original names?

You should be able to select and share those files - then choose Save Image and copy the files to Photos without any renaming.

[StarGeek]

Code Select Expand

exiftool -filename="IMG%.5c.%e" DIR does not appear to work that well - but I feel that it should.

In what way doesn't it work?  That filename pattern matches your specification above.

Looking at the Wiki link, it says that the directory also needs to be in a specific pattern.  Are you accounting for that as well?