Set datetimeoriginal of one set of photos from filemodifydate of another

[jbarnes]

If this has been covered previously, please let me know.

I have discovered that half of the cameras I have deployed do not record a Date/Time Original stamp. I am no faced with a problem in that I have started tagging some of these photos and in doing so the file modification date/time has changed. Previously I was using exiftool to add a Date/Time Original stamp based on the original File Modification Date/Time. Unfortunately, now, if I try to do that with these tagged photos, it give me the new modification date instead, so I can't update the Date/Time Original to what it should be.

So, before you ask, yes, I have the original raw files that have not been altered in any way, and these DO contain the original File Modification Date/Time stamp that I need to update the Date/Time Original in the EXIF data. So, I need to know if one of the following three things is possible:

1) is there a way of looking at previous versions, or previous file modification dates by which I would then be able to update the Date/Time Original
2) can I set the Date/Time Original of one set of photos (namely, my tagged photos with an updated modification date/time), based on the File Modification Date/Time of another set of photos (namely my raw, untagged files)
3) or, and this may be beyond the scope of this group, is there a way to copy over metadata tags from one set of photos (namely, my tagged photos), to another set (namely, a second copy of my raw, untagged files)

Thanks for any assistance

[jbarnes]

I should add that I can get the following command to function, and I am aware of it:

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exiftool -tagsfromfile "C:/filepath/1.JPG" -filemodifydate "C:/filepath/2.JPG"

What I would like to be able to do is expand this to work on a batch system by folder so that I don't have to do the above for ~30,000 photos.
Any modifications of this I have so far tried haven't worked, unfortunately.

PS: I realise the above serves only to copy over the File Modify Date and I would still have to then run more code to set that as the Date/Time Original, but I'd still rather do that than every single photo, one by one.

[StarGeek]

I have started tagging some of these photos and in doing so the file modification date/time has changed.

Add the -P option to your command to avoid this.

1) is there a way of looking at previous versions, or previous file modification dates by which I would then be able to update the Date/Time Original

No, once FileModifyDate (or either of the other two File*Date) has been changed, there's no previous record of it.

2) can I set the Date/Time Original of one set of photos (namely, my tagged photos with an updated modification date/time), based on the File Modification Date/Time of another set of photos (namely my raw, untagged files)

As you show in your second post, yes you can.

What I would like to be able to do is expand this to work on a batch system by folder so that I don't have to do the above for ~30,000 photos.
Any modifications of this I have so far tried haven't worked, unfortunately.

Can you give a real example?  It's seems unlikely that you named the original 1.jpg and the corresponding processed file 2.jpg.  If there is a pattern, or hopefully, the same name, just different directories/extensions, then it's easy.  It most likely be some variation of the example exiftool -tagsfromfile %d%f.CR2 -r -ext JPG dir from Copying Examples.

[jbarnes]

Thanks StarGeek. Yes, I'll be using -P from now on.

As for a real example:

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exiftool -tagsfromfile "C:/Users/UserName/Desktop/exiftestingground/FolderB/IMAG0001.JPG" -filemodifydate "C:/Users/UserName/Desktop/exiftestingground/FolderA/IMAG0001.JPG"

All file and folder names are legit, it was just a test folder I set up so as not to screw with any raw data. When I tried doing this on a directory level rather than a file level (which I want/need to do based on the sheer volume of files), however, I get an error saying:

Warning: Error opening file - C:/Users/UserName/Desktop/exiftestingground/FolderA/

That's where I'm at.

[jbarnes]

In my testing folder I HAVE got the following code to work:

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exiftool -tagsfromfile %d%f.JPG -filemodifydate "C:/Users/Jarrad Barnes/Desktop/exiftestingground/FolderA"

... as long as I have already navigated to the folder from which I want to copy, first. Is this the only way to do this, or can I enter that directory in the command line? It's not a big issue, more curiosity as I think I will be able to work it from this point. I'll return with hopefully good news.

Thanks.

[jbarnes]

Okay, so the above didn't work. That is, the process ran through exiftool as before, without any error messages, but the file modification date hasn't updated. Any thoughts?

[jbarnes]

So, for anyone who is also looking for an answer to this, this appears to work. Ensure you have a datetimeoriginal tag set in your EXIF data first, or it won't work.
There may be an easier way but this is what has finally clicked for me:

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exiftool -tagsfromfile C:\SourceFolder\%f.JPG -datetimeoriginal "C:\DestinationFolder"