Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...)

This is an Automator action (for Apple Automator.app) that takes a list of files as input and will move them according to a special pattern which can use the metadata fields of the file.

You will be able to move images according to their EXIF data (date taken, camera model, ...), move audio files according to their ID3 tags (artist, title, ...), move PDF files according to their author, etc... etc...

Automator Action | 2 September 2007, by Mortimer

1 Principle
- 1.1 Example of moving photos
2 Installation
3 Using the Action
4 Special Patterns Elements
5 Detailed Behaviour
6 Introduction to Photo meta data
- 6.1 EXIF Date Patterns
- 6.2 EXIF Patterns Elements
7 Introduction to Music files meta data
8 Organising PDF Documents
9 Other file formats supported
10 Development and Localisation

1 Principle

This is an action for Mac OS X Automator that takes a special path pattern and will try to rename the files it get in inputs according to that pattern.

We call it a "path pattern" because it can contain elements that will be replaced for each file with information coming for the meta data stored in the file.

1.1 Example of moving photos

Let’s make an example. The script supports the EXIF meta data field included in photo files by your camera. It can therefore use them to move the images.

Example Results

Let’s say you have a bunch of images that you would want to move in directories named from the date they were taken at, like:

2007
- 08
  - 12
    - IMG_1.jpg
    - IMG_2.jpg
- 07
  - 25
    - IMG_3.jpg
2006
- 01
  - 28
    - IMG_4.jpg

You can set the path pattern parameter of the Automator action with the pattern: %Y/%m/%d/

The action will extract information from the EXIF data and replace the special markers in the pattern:

%Y will be replaced by the year
%m will be replaced by the month
%d will be replaced by the day

the directory structure will be created and the file moved in the right directory.

There is more detail later on how the patterns work, but this is the basic idea.

2 Installation

Download and open the following disk image. Check out the license and move the MetaDataMove.action file in the directory /Library/Automator/ (for a particular user) or /Library/Automator/ (for all users) [1].

MetaDataMover download

2029 download(s) since 21 November 2008

Extract the archive and inside you will find MetaDataMover.action, move this file in the directory /Library/Automator/ (for a particular user) or /Library/Automator/ (for all users) [2].

3 Using the Action

Once installed, you will find the action in Automator under the Finder application. Just drag and drop it in the workflow just after an action that returns a list of files.

The action will return a list of the moved/renamed files.

Here are the option:

do you wish to copy or move the files, default is copy,
what path pattern should be used. This is the pattern for the moving/renaming of the file. The default is for EXIF patterns: %Y/%m/%d/,
in which root directory to put the new files. The path pattern will be applied from that directory. The default is the directory where the current file is,
you can check this option and follow the action by the "View Results" action from Automator to do a test run,
you can check this option if you are OK with the action overwriting existing file. The default is to not overwrite existing files, see 5.3.

4 Special Patterns Elements

Most of the pattern — except for the date notation in the EXIF case — elements follow a simple notation, they are the name of a field in the file metadata with columns (’:’) around. You can use more than once the same marker in the pattern if you wish.

The available meta data fields change according to the file type you are passing to the action. The main fields for photos, music files and PDF are discussed later. Generally, the action uses ExifTool by Phil Harvey and therefore, the fields read by this tool can be used, for more details, please see ExifTool tag names documentation.

The action also offers some basic pattern elements:

:basename: is the name of the file, without extensions,
:ext: is the extension of the file, with the period (.),
:cnt: will be replaced by the clash avoidance (see 5.3) counter if a file with the same name already exists, otherwise, it will just be removed.

5 Detailed Behaviour

Here are the specifics on how the action deals with the different possible cases.

5.1 Trailing Slash

If the path pattern finishes with a /, then it is taken as the directory where the file should be moved, without being renamed.

5.2 File Renaming

If the path pattern doesn’t finish with a /, the last part of the path is supposed to be the renaming pattern for the file. If it doesn’t contain an extension (. followed by something), then the extension of the original file will be used.

5.3 File Clash avoiding

If the option overwrite is not checked, the action will avoid replacing an existing file with a file it is renaming. The action has two choices then:

if the path pattern you specified uses the :cnt: special marker, it will replace this by a counter.
otherwise, the action will add a counter at the end of the file name, just before the file extension. The action will start with the counter at 1 and try to write the file, if a file with the same counter already exist, it will increment the counter until it finds a new file name.

6 Introduction to Photo meta data

6.1 EXIF Date Patterns

The photo files containing EXIF metadata can use another special notation to extract the date when the photo was taken (as described in the previous example). The date pattern format is the one provided by the strftime tool. Check out its man page for details. Here are useful fields:

Useful time/date formating
Pattern	Meaning
%d	The day of the month as a decimal number (range 01 to 31).
%H	The hour as a decimal number using a 24-hour clock (range 00 to 23).
%I	The hour as a decimal number using a 12-hour clock (range 01 to 12).
%S	seconds
%m	The month as a decimal number (range 01 to 12).
%M	The minute as a decimal number (range 00 to 59).
%s	The number of seconds since the Epoch, i.e., since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC.
%u	The day of the week as a decimal, range 1 to 7, Monday being 1.
%y	The year as a decimal number without a century (range 00 to 99).
%Y	The year as a decimal number including the century.

6.2 EXIF Patterns Elements

You can also tell the tool to extract other EXIF information by putting the EXIF field name between columns (:) in the pattern. For example, %Y/%m/%d/:Model:/ will put the photos in subdirectories by date and then by model of camera.

Useful EXIF fields
Field	Meaning
:Model:	the name of the camera model
:Manufacturer:	the camera brand
:ISO:	the iso setting
:FNumber:	the aperture in f value

7 Introduction to Music files meta data

Most of the modern music file formats like mp3 support meta data fields to store the name of the track, the performing artist, etc... The action can extract these fields and can be used to organise a music collection automatically.

Useful ID3 fields
Field	Meaning
:Artist:	the performing artist
:Album:	the album of this track
:Title:	the title of this track
:Genre:	the genre classification of this track

8 Organising PDF Documents

You can also use the automator action to organise your pdf documents if they contain the right metadata. If the author of the file has tagged it with the right information, you can extract his name, etc... etc...

Useful PDF fields
Field	Meaning
:Title:	the document title
:Creator:	the document creator
:Author:	the document author

9 Other file formats supported

This automator action is based on the great ExifTool library. It will support all metadata format supported by that library. For details on each format and the tags availlable for that format, see the exiftool tag names documentation page or go directly to the format you are interested in from this list:

10 Development and Localisation

You can get the development version of this action from the repo git repository.

If you want to propose a path, first clone the repository on your local drive:



git clone git://repo.or.cz/AutomatorExifMover.git

make modifications, commit them to your local repository and format a patch for emailling to me with:



git-format-patch

The script is already localised in French, Italian and English. If you want to propose a new localisation, contact me.

Changelog

15 February 2008

update version of ExifTool to 7.18

13 February 2008 first update

allow - in path pattern and tag values. This was previously replaced by _,
trim blank spaces around tag values,
use file creation/modification date if there is no other data information in the meta data,
some little optimizations,
replace / in tag names with _.

Date of online publication: 2 September 2007
last-update: 21 November 2008
Forum messages 62
visits:

45423

Some Right Reserved: Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

notes

[1] Create the directory if needed.

[2] Create the directory if needed.

Make a Donation

1 user(s) already donated a total of 2.5£ to this project.

Donation don't have to be big to make a difference. I already received donations ranging from 0.50£ to 10£ and all of them made me happy. Think of it, if the thousand users of these tools made a small donation, it would not make a big difference to them, but it would to me.

You will probably enjoy using what you download from this website and if so, you can decide to make a donation. Making a donation is optional but will help to develop new tools and support the existing code.

All the software, scripts and other tools distributed on this web site are distributed under open source licenses and are available to download for free. Making the code free and available to all doesn't means it's of lower quality. The tools provided here are fully functional and their author invested some of his personal time to develop them and provide support to their users.

Think about it.

P.S.

If you want to use exiftool configuration file for custom tags, etc. Place the .ExifTool_config file in your $HOME directory.

Reply to this article

62 Forum messages

Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...)
11 September 2007 14:04, by Jorre

Hey Pierre,

interesting concept: integrating the availability of the metadata to optimize the file management complexity of large sets of data on a traditional (little metadata supportive) filesystem. In our Nucle Browser we don’t do this effort but offer a rich metadata GUI to manage the a.o. exif metadata inside it. This way the need to ’restructure’ your data is less apparent. What do you think?

Good luck with your project, Jorre.

Feel free to give it a try at

See online : www.inuron.com

Reply to this message
- Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 21 September 2007 11:25, by Mortimer
  
  It’s sounds like a great way to share documents between friends and family. But isn’t the server/client architecture a bit overkill and scary for normal users?
  Reply to this message
  - Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 21 September 2007 13:55, by jorre
    
    Yes, indeed, correct observation. Come and have a look in a couple of weeks
    
    Jorre.
    
    Reply to this message
Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...)
11 September 2007 14:13, by Jorre

Btw, I didn’t manage to get it to work yet. I defined a workflow with first "Ask for Finder items" and then the "MetaDataMover". When I run this in Automator, I can select the pictures I want to organize and he succesfully executes the workflow, but I can’t find any organized content.

I use copy, %Y/%m/%d/ and Same Directory

Tnx, jorre

Reply to this message
- Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 11 September 2007 22:44, by Mortimer
  
  Well, I am not sure why it wouldn’t work, maybe your files don’t have EXIF data attached. The files are moved only if they have the right data.
  
  You can see the list of moved files by adding a "Automator>View Results" after the meta action to see what happened.
  
  Reply to this message
  - Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 12 September 2007 09:27, by Jorre
    
    You were right... I didn’t have real shot pictures in there with datetimeoriginal decently completed.. Added some and now it works great...
    
    Cheers, Jorre.
    
    Reply to this message
Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...)
13 September 2007 16:13, by Vitor

Thank you very much for this Automator action
Reply to this message
Download broken
5 November 2007 18:42

Hi,

This looks like a fantastic Automator action, but I can’t download it. Clicking the download icon gives me a 404 page.

Reply to this message
- Download broken 6 November 2007 01:48, by Mortimer
  
  Well, it does work for me here, the link on the small disk icon in the middle of the article.
  
  If that still doesn’t work for you, try out the direct link: http://6v8.gamboni.org/IMG/dmg/Meta...
  
  Reply to this message
Clash avoidance - with what?
2 December 2007 16:43, by csgzs

Hi, this is a really nice action and I would like to use it as my standard renamer after importing files. I am trying to depend on the clash-avoidance feature to rename a burst of shots having the same EXIF creation date up to the second (name defined mainly by this data). However, despite not having checked the "overwrite" box, files with the same date and time are getting overwritten. Am I not understanding clash avoidance properly? If the feature I seek actually does not exist, is it difficult to add? I think many would benefit from it. Best, Zs
Reply to this message
- Clash avoidance - with what? 3 December 2007 12:33, by Mortimer
  
  Ok, this feature does exist
  
  For example, if you have a pattern that will rename multiple files as 10.jpg, the clash avoidance will rename them: 10_1.jpg, 10_2.jpg, 10_3.jpg, etc...
  You can use the :cnt: marker in the pattern to put that numbering where you want in the file name. By default if it is not present, it’s gone be just before the last extension of the file.
  
  The way this clash avoidance works is that, if overwrite is not selected, it will test if a file with the same name/path does exist, and if yes, add the counter... looping on this test until it finds a unique name.
  
  However, If you run the action in test mode, then the files are not really created and the file clash test will always pass, as there is no existing file with the same name. So if you are in test mode, you won’t see anything happening with the clash avoidance feature.
  
  For it to work, you have to use the action for real. If you don’t feel confident and are afraid of losing files, make a copy of them and do a real test of the action on them, or use the copy mode. If it still doesn’t work properly for you (it works fine for me), I will have to do more test with your renaming pattern and some of your files I suppose. But I hope we won’t have to come to this and the feature is properly working
  
  Reply to this message
- Clash avoidance - with what? 8 December 2007 08:29
  
  I am moving from Windows to MAC. On windows i was using Cam2pc which also provides an exif pattern based renamer. I am looking for a replacement of Cam2pc (which btw also rotates the images accoding to the orientation flag)
  
  The directory pattern is D:\01_foto\10_bilder\%Y\%m\%Y-%m-%d-%P
  
  the filename pattern is %Y-%m-%d-%h%u%s-%num:a.%e
  
  The patterns look quite the same but miss the following placeholders:
  
  %P which would be a comment which was promted from the user %e the original file extension %num:6 which is a global counter. I use this global counter to avoid clash and also have a quick reference to the images.
  
  Is there any Idea how this can be done?
  
  bernhard
  
  Reply to this message
More desires ...
8 December 2007 13:21, by Bernhard

luckily, I made it work. It comes very very close to my requirements. What I am ammissing is:

1. it does not allow to have "-" in the filename. But my filename pattern uses "_" to separate versions of the file. So I would like to use #

%Y/%m/%d comment/%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S-counter:6

But the "-" is replaced by "_"

2. I would like to have a global counter which is also added to the filename. The global counter should be persistent from session to session, but it should also be possible to change the setting manually. The number of digits for the counter is also provided.

3. There should be a comment which is prompted from the user whenever the date changes. The most recent comments shall be available via a dropdown. The most recent comments shall also be persistent from session to session.

4. maybe it is better to have a configuration dialog for setting the pattern and the counter value.

bernhard

Reply to this message
- More desires ... 13 December 2007 15:48, by Mortimer
  Ok, I will correct 1 as soon as possible. The script replaces non standard path character by _, but I suppose - should be accepted.
  
  For 2, the global counter. It’s not that easy, as you can use the Automator action for different things. I use it with patterns to rename mp3, other patterns for pictures, etc. So there should be a global counter per pattern I suppose. I will have to figure out how to store this kind of things in Automator. Right now, I use a pattern with the camera model in the path then the camera counter in the name. So the "global" counter comes from the EXIF...
  
  For 3, it’s an idea, it would be a bit obtrusive though. The Automator actions should usually be for batch operation, things running in the back without nagging you every time for something... I look if there is a way to interrupt the task and ask for a comment.
  
  For the configuration thing, that’s an Automator problem and shouldn’t come with the action. There is a way to do that:
  1. launch automator and start a new workflow
  2. add a something that would provide finder items (like the "Ask for finder items" action)
  3. follow that by the meta data mover action
  4. set the default parameters you want
  5. in the options of the meta data mover action, check "Show Selected Items" and tick the option you want to be prompted for (e.g. "path pattern")
  6. do file>save as and choose "application" in the drop down. Next time you want to run the thing, double click the application you created, it will prompt you for files, then for the path pattern you want.
  You could also save the workflow as a Finder plugin and have it in the contextual menu of the finder when right clicking on files. In fact, Automator is not an app you would use all the time you have to do the task. You will create the workflow and save it as an application or plugin. Check the tutorials about that for more examples
  
  I don’t know when I will have the time to work on the counter thing or the comment part. You could maybe simulate that with a "rename finder items" action that would insert the comment or the counter you want.
  
  I hope that helps.
  
  Reply to this message
- More desires ... 13 February 2008 16:29, by Mortimer
  
  Ok, the 13/02/08 update fixes the - problem, they won’t be replaced by _ anymore. I am still thinking about how to implement the rest properly and find time to do it.
  Reply to this message
Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...)
13 December 2007 12:22, by Rob Brown

This is a great find. I’m looking for a way to export from iPhoto08 a set of named Event folders while preserving their date based order.

One method was to find(or write) a script that would take a folder full of named Events and modify each Event folder’s name by prefixing that name with a date number extracted from a photo inside the folder. The same date could also be written into the folder’s Comment field as an alternative sort key. This would enable a folder full of Event folders to be viewed in their correct order on both PC and Mac.

Your script does much of the work needed and points the way ahead. Now, if I can only work out how to modify and extend it!

Reply to this message
- Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 13 December 2007 15:59, by Mortimer
  
  Ok, this is an interesting problem.
  
  I am not sure how the events work in iPhoto as I try to avoid it as much as possible
  
  A solution I see, is that, if it’s possible, you transfer the name of the events in the EXIF comment field of each photo. Then you do a rename pattern using the comment EXIF field and the date.
  
  If I have sometime, I will include a pattern for the directory name in the next version. This would make it possible to use the folder renaming scheme you want
  
  Reply to this message
  - Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 14 December 2007 11:13, by Rob Brown
    
    If you are tempted to look at this problem you’ll find it clearly stated at:http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5951917
    Reply to this message
Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...)
20 December 2007 01:29

Hi, and thanks for this awesome piece of software. It seems to work fine and copies / sorts files correctly, but after about 200 or so photos, it stops processing. The "hourglass" cursor keeps spinning like it’s doing something, but nothing happens. After about 20 mins, the process bombs out.

If I manually stop, remove the completed photos from the list, and then run it again, it does the next 200 or so photos.

Any ideas?

Reply to this message
- Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 13 February 2008 16:37, by Mortimer
  
  the 13/02/2008 update has some little optimisations. Maybe this will help, I am still investigating.
  Reply to this message
Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...)
22 January 2008 23:35, by Andrey

Thanks for this amazing Automator action.

It does the job quite excellent for me with %y%m%d%I%M%S (btw the %S key would be nice to see up on page). But... the reason I was looking for other solution is iViewMedia Pro not working nice in terms of renaming on 10.5 (Leopard). And what I discovered in your nice piece is that images from my mobile phone (quite old Nokia) are not renamed properly.

I’m not sure what is the reason: your action or ExifTool. iView was totally fine with Nokia’s exif though before 10.5. I’m not sure where to adress it.

See online : http://andreys.info

Reply to this message
- Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 23 January 2008 01:11, by Mortimer
  
  please send me a photo by email at mortimer.pa@free.fr, I’ll see if it’s coming from my script and let you know.
  Reply to this message
Help Trying to Move/Rename files according to ID3 metadata
23 January 2008 08:44, by JeffT

Thanks for the Great Automator. I’m using Leopard and I’m trying to move my mp3 files based on Genre. When I use the path value of ":Genre:/" the resulting directory has underscores in it ie. "_Blues_" where the Genre is Blues. Is there any way I can get it to create the directory without the underscores??

Thanks. Eventually I’m want to create an automator that will move my mp3’s to a directory based on Genre and then add them to the iTunes library.

Reply to this message
- Help Trying to Move/Rename files according to ID3 metadata 24 January 2008 12:16, by Mortimer
  
  ok, the action replaces any weird character in the data with _. In particular spaces. In this case, there must be blank spaces around the genre or something.
  
  I’ll try to update the action as soon as possible so that it trims blanks at the begining and the end of the path instead of adding _.
  
  Reply to this message
  - Help Trying to Move/Rename files according to ID3 metadata 24 January 2008 22:20, by JeffT
    
    Thanks for the response. I checked before and I didn’t see any spaces or strange characters but I’ll look again or Re-enter the Genre info to make sure there are no strange characters.
    
    Thanks again.
    
    Reply to this message
    - Help Trying to Move/Rename files according to ID3 metadata 30 January 2008 11:30, by Mortimer
      
      fixing this is on my todo list.
      Reply to this message
    - Help Trying to Move/Rename files according to ID3 metadata 13 February 2008 16:39, by Mortimer
      
      ok, I added a blank space trimming to the 13/02/08 update. That might fix your problem.
      Reply to this message
      - Help Trying to Move/Rename files according to ID3 metadata 25 July 2008 18:35, by JLPicard
        
        Hi. I have the same problem of JeffT. I’ve downloaded the the workflow today, and with my iTunes Library using tags like this
        
        :Artist: - :Title:.mp3
        
        it makes the filename like
        
        Artist_-_Title.mp3.
        
        Am I using tags wrong?
        
        Thanks
        
        Reply to this message
Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...)
8 February 2008 01:29, by Robert Krinner

Hi Pierre,

thanks for the automator, works great. I just got into trouble to get the directory structure inline again with Lightroom. Is there any solution, like a LR plugin for renaming and reorg within LR based on the Exiftool. This would be even better.

Thanks for any information.

Robert

Reply to this message
- Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 8 February 2008 12:36, by Mortimer
  
  well, I have never used LR, so I don’t really know how it manages the directories, etc. I suppose if you move the files after you have registered them into this kind of app, it will be lost.
  
  You should maybe start by ordering the directories, then registering the photos in LR. I really don’t know how this one works, so I can’t really help
  
  Reply to this message
Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...)
10 February 2008 16:34, by Mikle

Hey Pierre!
I am Mac user and I made Automator workflow using your MetaDataMover.action .The "path pattern" is :
:ExposureTime:/:AEBBracketValue:/:OriginalDecisionData: (Canon tags)
This workflow works well! I have user-defined tag "MyTag" ( almost the same as the "AEBBracketValue").
This tag works well in terminal:
exiftool -MyTag dir
But it does not work in atomator MetaDataMover.action like this:
:AnyTag:/:MyTag:/:AnyTag: or :MyTag:
Any ideas?
Reply to this message
- Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 11 February 2008 11:20, by Mortimer
  
  Well, I never tried custom tag. how do you set it on the file? I’ll try to reproduce it and see why it doesn’t work. Alternativelly, you can send me a test photo of yours so that I can try.
  Reply to this message
  - Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 12 February 2008 06:11, by Mikle
    
    Pierre!
    I follow Phil’s instructions
    I use this ExifTool_config
    UnZip to /Users/username/Desktop/New_ExifTool_config.txt
    You will need to rename New_ExifTool_config.txt file to .ExifTool_config
    and put it in Macintosh HD/usr/bin
    This is easist to do using the Terminal. You will need the admin password:
    sudo mv /Users/username/Desktop/MyNewExifTool_config.txt /usr/bin/.ExifTool_config
    (insert your username)
    three photos for example
    
    Your MetaDataMover does not use /usr/bin/.ExifTool_config !? I did experiment and placed .ExifTool_config into /Users/username/Library/
    After that, MetaDataMover is not working.
    
    Thanks!
    
    Reply to this message
    - Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 12 February 2008 22:06, by Mortimer
      
      Ok, I will investigate.
      Reply to this message
    - Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 13 February 2008 01:45, by Mortimer
      
      ok, the solution was quite easy:
      
      first, you should put the .ExifTool_config in your $HOME (~/) directory not in /usr/bin/. This is explained at the beginning of the script you provide, the exiftool home is somewhere in the action package and you shouldn’t mess with that. Your own configurations files should be in your home directory
      
      second, I found that the code given by Phil doesn’t work for me as the perl is configured to strict refs. I had to use:
      
      %Image::ExifTool::UserDefined = (
      'Image::ExifTool::Composite' => {
      MyAEB => {
         Desire => {0=>'AEBBracketValue'},
            ValueConv => '$val ? sprintf("%.1f", $val) : "0"',
      },
      MyDir => {
         Desire => {0=>'AEBBracketValue'},
         ValueConv => '$val ? ($val > 0 ? "AV" : "-AV") : "0AV"',
      },
      },
      );
      
      Donwload
      
      third, I removed the + in the value returned as this will be replaced by _ as it’s not usually a valid path character. Testing this, I fixed two bugs, I will release a new version tomorrow with the fixes for that:
      
      the - are replaced by _, which shouldn’t be the case (mentioned above)
      the / should be replaced by _, but are not
      
      you can already use your custom tags without this update.
      
      Reply to this message
      - Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 14 February 2008 15:37
        
        Ok , Pierre.
        I put the new .ExifTool_config in my $HOME ( /) dir,
        New tags works well in terminal:r
        do shell script "exiftool -MyAEB /dir
        do shell script "exiftool -MyDir /dir
        For example i do the AppleScript bundle :
        do shell script "exiftool -MyDir /Volumes/xxx/"
        As the result:
        "======== /Volumes/xxx/0055.JPG
        My Dir : AVr
        ======== /Volumes/xxx/0056.JPG
        My Dir : 0AV
        ======== /Volumes/xxx/0057.JPG
        My Dir : -AV
        1 directories scanned
        3 image files read"
        This is normal, as before.
        Three workflow’s example woking, but not righ. Instead OAV and -AV, always puts AV :
        /Volumes/xxx//AV/0055.JPG
        /Volumes/xxx//AV/0056.JPG
        /Volumes/xxx//AV/0057.JPG
        
        Thanks!
        Mikle
        
        Reply to this message
        
        Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 14 February 2008 19:53, by Mortimer
        
        ok, will investigate more. Seemed to work for me with the demo image you give. Will try tonight with your workflows.
        Reply to this message
        
        Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 14 February 2008 21:38, by Mortimer
        
        Ok, I actually don’t get the same result as you. With exiftool from the command line, your script and the images you send me (I also tried with a bracketed image I did), I get:
        
        $exiftool -MyDir ~/Desktop/download/2008_02_12/ ======== /Users/pandrews/Desktop/download/2008_02_12/IMG_7056.JPG My Dir : AV ======== /Users/pandrews/Desktop/download/2008_02_12/IMG_7057.JPG My Dir : AV ======== /Users/pandrews/Desktop/download/2008_02_12/IMG_7058.JPG My Dir : AV 1 directories scanned 3 image files read
        
        If I check with the MyAEB tag, I get:
        
        $ exiftool -MyAEB ~/Desktop/download/2008_02_12/ ======== /Users/pandrews/Desktop/download/2008_02_12/IMG_7056.JPG My AEB : 26216752.0 ======== /Users/pandrews/Desktop/download/2008_02_12/IMG_7057.JPG My AEB : 26312136.0 ======== /Users/pandrews/Desktop/download/2008_02_12/IMG_7058.JPG My AEB : 26212168.0 1 directories scanned 3 image files read
        
        but with the default AEBBracketValue:
        
        $ exiftool -AEBBracketValue ~/Desktop/download/2008_02_12/ ======== /Users/pandrews/Desktop/download/2008_02_12/IMG_7056.JPG AEB Bracket Value : 0 ======== /Users/pandrews/Desktop/download/2008_02_12/IMG_7057.JPG AEB Bracket Value : -4/3 ======== /Users/pandrews/Desktop/download/2008_02_12/IMG_7058.JPG AEB Bracket Value : +4/3 1 directories scanned 3 image files read
        
        You can see that the $val in the custom tag is NEVER under 0 and has a value of 26216752 for 0. I don’t know what this value stands for. With my photos, it’s different, the 0 being 26181908...
        So, if I code a new custom tag:
        
        MyDir2 => {
        Desire => {0=>'AEBBracketValue'},
        ValueConv => '($val-26181908) ? (($val-26181908>0)? "A":"-A") : "0A"',
        },
        
        Donwload
        
        Then, I get the right result.
        
        But as this numerical value seems to change, this tag won’t be usable anyway. I have no idea what the value stands for, and how exiftool does get it to 0, etc... You might want to go back to the original ExifTool thread and ask Phil.
        
        Reply to this message
        
        Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 15 February 2008 04:26
        
        Ok!Pierre!
        I do not quite understand why we have different resultst from the command line!: iMac: mihailartuhov$ exiftool -MyAEB -MyDir /Desktop/2008_02_12 ======== /Users/mihailartuhov/Desktop/2008_02_12/0055.JPG My AEB : 1.7 My Dir : AV ======== /Users/mihailartuhov/Desktop/2008_02_12/0056.JPG My AEB : 0 My Dir : 0AV ======== /Users/mihailartuhov/Desktop/2008_02_12/0057.JPG My AEB : -1.7 My Dir : -AV ======== /Users/mihailartuhov/Desktop/2008_02_12/IMG_7056.JPG My AEB : 0 My Dir : 0AV ======== /Users/mihailartuhov/Desktop/2008_02_12/IMG_7057.JPG My AEB : -1.3 My Dir : -AV ======== /Users/mihailartuhov/Desktop/2008_02_12/IMG_7058.JPG My AEB : 1.3 My Dir : AV 1 directories scanned 6 image files read iMac: mihailartuhov$
        Only in the avtomator’s MetaDataMover (:MyAEB:/:MyDir:/:OriginalDecisionData:) action I get the same result, as you:
        ( "/Users/mihailartuhov/Desktop/2008_02_12//8934776.0/AV/IMG_7056.JPG", "/Users/mihailartuhov/Desktop/2008_02_12//8958956.0/AV/IMG_7057.JPG", "/Users/mihailartuhov/Desktop/2008_02_12//9005272.0/AV/IMG_7058.JPG", "/Users/mihailartuhov/Desktop/2008_02_12//9221044.0/AV/0055.JPG", "/Users/mihailartuhov/Desktop/2008_02_12//9207676.0/AV/0056.JPG", "/Users/mihailartuhov/Desktop/2008_02_12//8866320.0/AV/0057.JPG" )
        You can see different value of MyAEB for 0AV (0056.JPG= 9207676.0 and IMG_7056.JPG= 8934776.0)
        Maybe you have come up as another way to solve the problem.
        I will hopefully.
        Thanks!
        Mikle.
        Reply to this message
        
        Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 15 February 2008 12:27, by Mortimer
        
        Ok, found the problem, it was a version difference. I was still running (and providing with the action) version 6.81 of ExifTool when you probably had a later one. I now updated the action to 7.16 and it is now working. There must have been a bug in the older version of ExifTool.
        
        Get the new package from this site, released today on the 15/02/08, this should work for you now.
        
        Reply to this message
        
        Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 15 February 2008 18:36
        
        Ok!
        Now MetaDataMover works perfectly !!!
        Smallest problems remained:
        For example, I applied a Finder Plug-in automator’s workflow to the folder "Photo".
        Workflow Ñ onsists of two actions: GetFolderContents and MetaDataMover (:MyDir:/:OriginalDecisionData:).
        After the first applied, I add new photos in a folder "Photo".
        If I have left in a subfolder AV, OAV,-AV , then repeated launch Plug-in led to the suspension of the process until I do not delete the subfolders AV, OAV,-AV.
        This reperable? (But it is not heavily hampered.)
        Many thanks, Pierre!
        Reply to this message
        
        Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 15 February 2008 23:27, by Mortimer
        
        I am sorry, but I didn’t understand that.
        Reply to this message
Lost at Sea
9 May 2008 15:51, by Dayo

My issue is simple. There is no Automator folder under Machintosh HD:Library.

I am obviously missing something.

Reply to this message
- Lost at Sea 9 May 2008 17:15, by Mortimer
  Ok,
  
  you can either:
  - check in your home folder/Library if there is an Automator folder
  - create the missing folder
  that’s it
  
  Reply to this message
  - PDF text search 28 August 2008 23:51, by Chris
    
    This looks like a very interesting script.
    
    Maybe this could be modified to rename and sort PDF files according to text within the files. The Automator action should contain a set of pre-defined text strings. Let’s say you have a lot of the same kinds of PDFs (invoices, bills etc.). An example would be a scan (+OCR) of your electric bill. The scanner usually creates a file by date or number. The script could search for the text string "ConEdison" and the date in multiple files. If the string matches. The file could be renamed ConEd_052808.pdf and copied to a folder "utility".
    
    C
    
    Reply to this message
    - PDF text search 29 August 2008 11:03, by Mortimer
      
      This is a good idea, I guess it wouldn’t fit in this particular script, but it might be fun to implement.
      Reply to this message
Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...)
30 August 2008 23:46, by luke11

I am trying to use Metadatamover inside an automator workflow, to move jpegs into folders for each hour of the day. The input folder contains about 20,000 files, but each time I run the automator workflow, it only moves about 60 files and it stops. is this a limit of metadatamover??
Reply to this message
- Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 2 September 2008 11:13, by Mortimer
  
  I never managed to find out if it’s a problem from automator or the actual action. I did all I could for the action to be light but it doesn’t change anything.
  
  Indeed, some people around have been saying that Automator itself is not able to work on large number of files as it tries to load ALL of them at the same time. You might want to try CompleteDigitalPhotography Automator Batch Manager that offers a solution around this problem.
  
  When it’s only for one go, the other solution is to use a "get selected files" action to pass files to the metadatamover action (and other actions in your workflow) and select a little number of files at a time. However, with 20’000 files, you’ll have a hard time.
  
  I might end up releasing the action as a simpler, lighter command line tool to go around this problem.
  
  Reply to this message
  - Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 4 September 2008 23:10, by Lucien
    
    Thanks for the reply... my problem is that my files are databased in Microsoft Expression Media, and when I ask Media to resize the images down, instead of following the existing hierarchical structure of the files, it places the resized files all in a single folder, and that’s why there are as many as 20,000 in the folder and sometimes more.
    
    I will take a look at the solutions being offered here, or figure something else out.
    
    thank you though for the automator action you’ve created. It’s pretty awesome, and if I end up using it, I will be more than happy to send some $upport.
    
    :L
    
    Reply to this message
Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...)
2 September 2008 09:21, by andriy

The RenRot tool provides many interesting ideas and supports advanced renaming. I’m using RenRot in conjuction with exiftool. They both are very helpful stuff.
See online : RenRot freshmeat page

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- Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 2 September 2008 11:27, by Mortimer
  
  This looks pretty cool. At the end this script is also a perl script, hidden in the interface of Automator. RenRot seems to have sweet features for the photographers while MetaDataMover can move any type of file with metadata understood by exiftool (i.e. not only photos)
  
  I’ll give a go at renrot sometimes.
  
  Reply to this message
Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...)
13 January 2009 12:30, by noon

Hi, Is this still available for download? The download link seems to be broken, I got an 404 error message. Thanks
Reply to this message
- Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 13 January 2009 14:39, by Mortimer
  
  Hi,
  
  this should be availlable. From my computer, the download link works properly. If you can’t get it to work, try this link and if again it breaks, let me know where I can sent it to you by email at: mortimer.pa@free.fr
  
  Reply to this message
Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...)
19 February 2009 16:49, by Heinz

Thank you for this great automator action.

I am using %Y_%m_%d/%Y%m%d-h%Hm%Ms%S as the path pattern

and I get (example) 2008_04_04//20080404-h14m29s43.jpg

I assume the double slash is an error. How to fix? It couldn’t be fixed by removing the only slash in the path pattern

Best regards, heinz

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- Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 15 April 2009 09:51, by Mortimer
  
  The double slash shouldn’t be a problem.
  Reply to this message
Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...)
14 April 2009 18:55, by Molli

Hi! This action is a great idea, but special characters (äöü for example) still don’t work, as do spaces in filesnames (as mentioned earlier). I tried to create an action that allows exporting of files from iTunes, giving them custom names; works generally speaking, but as names need manual repairs, it’s not quite feasible yet.
Reply to this message
- Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 15 April 2009 09:47, by Mortimer
  
  Any special characters (and space) should be replaced by the underscore (_). This was just a security to avoid problems with the filesystem. But now it supports these kind of characters in file names I guess, I should check how to deal with that when I have some time.
  Reply to this message
  - Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 7 October 2009 02:57, by ASevero
    
    Is it only me or Metadatamover doesn’t work on Snow Leopard?
    Reply to this message
    - Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 7 October 2009 21:51, by Mortimer
      
      Hi,
      
      I haven’t switched to Leopard yet, sorry. If in Automator, you display the results of the output of Metadatamover (little result button at the bottom of the action), or in Console.app (clear the window, run the action), is there anything that seems odd?
      
      I will switch soon, promise
      
      Pierre
      
      Reply to this message
Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...)
3 January 12:54

Damn ! I used this to all my pictures, +5000 images but now a cople of hundred images lost there file extension =(
Reply to this message
- Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...) 3 January 22:34, by Mortimer
  
  The action is know to have trouble with large amount of files, try selecting only a few at a time.
  
  For the lost extensions, try to use the rename action (by default in Automator) to add them back.
  
  Reply to this message
Move/Rename files according to metadata (EXIF, ID3, ...)
7 February 23:55, by stu

hi,

how can i get folder’s for different extensions without the dot at the beginning.

i was trying to use the pattern as follows...

:ext:/%Y%m%d-%H%M-%S:cnt::ext:

...but it created folders called .jpg and .avi etc which in OSX are hidden folders. How can i get rid of the dot, and ideally make them uppercase too? Alternatively is there a way in automator to only process files with a certain extension? so i could create a couple of automator scripts (one for JPG and one for AVI) and then continue to select every file in the dir but it only renames the certain extensions.

Cheers

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