Create EXIF when none exists

[dafu]

I have a hundred or so iPhone pictures that weren't saved with any metadata save the bare bones. I tried using exiftool on OS X 10.6 to add a capture date using:


exiftool -overwrite_original_in_place '-exif:datetimeoriginal<CreateDate' DIR

But all I get is:

Code Select Expand

Warning: No writable tags found - /Users/dafu/Desktop/tp/IMG_1889.JPG

It appears I can't *create* an EXIF tag for these files. Is there any workaround for this?

Thanks!

Dave

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Dave,

This message indicates that CreateDate doesn't exist in the source file, so there is nothing to copy.

If there is no metadata, only the filesystem FileModifyDate will be available for copying.

- Phil

[dafu]

Thanks very much, Phil! I understand, now. I set the file modified date to the creation date with a script and then ran exifTool and by gawrsh that worked.

By the way, just how many years have you been refining ExifTool?



Dave

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Dave,

Version 1.0 was released in November 2003, so it's been more than 7 years now.  That's 3018 refinements and counting.

- Phil