Bulk Rename Utility

The Item Date info is taken from Windows (you can see it also in Windows Explorer) and Windows cuts the seconds ...

I see, thank you for the clarification. I thought I found a universal property to rename JPG, HEIC and MOV files in one go .. seems I need to find another way (I need seconds at least for the images files). "A Better Finder Rename" (link) has this nice feature of file filters, so you can apply a different set of rules based on those. Anyway, thanks for the help

Its unfortunate that Windows likes to camouflage the seconds with "00", after getting them from the exif.
So another way with images, is instead of asking Windows to present them, is to directly ask the exif instead.
But this needs a checkmark in the menu "Renaming Options, ID3/ExifData/FileProperties, Extract Exif Data (Photos)"

This to grant things like <(exif:DateTimeOriginal)> or <($exif:DateTimeOriginal)> inside Add(7) to include the truthful seconds.
The $ grants using a custom-format inside AutoDate(8) by using Mode=None and any Custom like %Y-%m-%d %H-%M-%S.

I find it very unhelpful that Windows drops the seconds from all times/dates (also in Windows Explorer) ...
I think we will need to add HEIC to the list of image formats where BRU extracts the data by itself like it's done for JPG.

Admin wrote:[...] I think we will need to add HEIC to the list of image formats where BRU extracts the data by itself like it's done for JPG.

I very much support this

Luuk wrote:Its unfortunate that Windows likes to camouflage the seconds with "00", after getting them from the exif.
So another way with images, is instead of asking Windows to present them, is to directly ask the exif instead.
But this needs a checkmark in the menu "Renaming Options, ID3/ExifData/FileProperties, Extract Exif Data (Photos)"

This to grant things like <(exif:DateTimeOriginal)> or <($exif:DateTimeOriginal)> inside Add(7) to include the truthful seconds.
The $ grants using a custom-format inside AutoDate(8) by using Mode=None and any Custom like %Y-%m-%d %H-%M-%S.

I'm using exactly that custom format already (in "Auto Date (8)") and it works well. And "Taken (Original)" does get the data from EXIF, as far as I see it. But that only works with JPGs. Not with HEICs (or even video files lacking EXIF data altogether of course).

Yes, I saw the problem "with JPG ones too", so just trying to invent some solutions. It looks like "Taken(Original)" inside AutoDate(8) does come directly from $Exif:DateTimeOriginal, and I dont believe that "Taken(Original)" will consider any other dates, when this one exif-date does not exist?

Im not have any .heic files, but if they support exif-data, there is also exiftool commands like...
exiftool -ext heic -d "%Y-%m-%d %H-%M-%S" -if "$Filename !~ /$DateTimeOriginal/" -TESTname"<${Filename;s/\.[^.]+$//} from $DateTimeOriginal.heic" "FolderPath"

Since using -TESTname instead of -FILEname, it only presents a preview for how the new names to look like.
First, it looks to see if DateTimeOriginal is already in the filename, and if not, then conducting like...
SomeName.heic ===> SomeName from 2019-12-22 01-30-55.heic

The exiftool also conducts your other two file-types, but Im not understanding the "universal property" to rename them.

Luuk wrote:Im not have any .heic files, but if they support exif-data, there is also exiftool commands like...
exiftool -ext heic -d "%Y-%m-%d %H-%M-%S" -if "$Filename !~ /$DateTimeOriginal/" -TESTname"<${Filename;s/\.[^.]+$//} from $DateTimeOriginal.heic" "FolderPath"

Since using -TESTname instead of -FILEname, it only presents a preview for how the new names to look like.
First, it looks to see if DateTimeOriginal is already in the filename, and if not, then conducting like...
SomeName.heic ===> SomeName from 2019-12-22 01-30-55.heic

I have never used these commands before. And to be honest I'm not entirely sure where to .. type them. But I'll give it a try, thank you

Luuk wrote:The exiftool also conducts your other two file-types, but Im not understanding the "universal property" to rename them.

Sorry, I described this poorly. I meant to say that I was looking for an universal setting (like "Item Date" or "Taken (Original)") to rename all the file types I have, with as little adjustment (for each type) as possible. And maybe this exiftool command you mentioned might be it.

Its unfortunate, but that exiftool command will only conduct .heic files, if having the metadata $DateTimeOriginal.
I wish there can be some universal metadata date for all file-types, but the exiftool also grants to specify priorities like...

exiftool -q -m -ext jpg -ext heic -ext mov -d "%Y-%m-%d %H-%M-%S" -if "$Filename !~ /(19|20)\d{2}-\d\d-\d\d \d\d-\d\d-\d\d/"
-TESTname"<${Filename;s/\.[^.]+$//} from $MetadataDate.${Filename;s/.*\.//}"
-TESTname"<${Filename;s/\.[^.]+$//} from $ModifyDate.${Filename;s/.*\.//}"
-TESTname"<${Filename;s/\.[^.]+$//} from $CreateDate.${Filename;s/.*\.//}"
-TESTname"<${Filename;s/\.[^.]+$//} from $DateTimeOriginal.${Filename;s/.*\.//}" "FolderPath"

So if making all of that onto one line, with spaces before each -TESTname, this how it conducts on the command line...
First, it looks to see if any YYYY-MM-DD HH-MM-SS is already in the filenames, so then knowing to leave them alone.
Then it looks for $MetadataDate to create the new name
Then it looks for $ModifyDate to create the new name (so if this exists, it overrides $MetadataDate)
Then it looks for $CreateDate to create the new name (so if this exist, it overrides the first two)
Then it looks for $DateTimeOriginal to create the new name (so if this exists, it overrides them all)

You can add more $Metadata if you discover anything to be more reliable, but remember the most reliable ones always go last. Its unfortunate, but Im not expert with the metadata, so not knowing if that order is really the best for your file-types. But there is an exiftool forum, with experts who can probably know the best order for your $Metadata.

You might even need a different order for each file-type, but I think this really just depends on the users files. There is also -r to recurse, and -TESTname just presents previews, and Im just pretending that you want to append from Date to your names. If you wanted to make names with only dates, you might add something like %-3c, so then exiftool would append -001, -002, etc to create unique names if any of the files have the exact same date and times.

Thank you Luuk for the detailed explanation. I will play around with the examples you gave