exifDateFix

Handy script to fix JPEG photos that lack the DateTimeOriginal EXIF field. It examines all the JPEG files inside a given folder and see which ones lack that field. Then, for each of those files, it sets its DateTimeOriginal to the value of the file's ModifyDate filesystem attribute.

Requirements

You need to install ExifTool first. Make sure it's properly configured, the executable is in PATH, etc.

Installing

bundle install

This project uses the awesome colorize, mini_exiftool and highline gems.

Usage

The script takes a single argument, the path to the directory you want to work on. Make sure there are some JPEG inside it and run:

ruby exifDateFix.rb path/to/some/directory

Notes

• mini_exiftool is used here to read the file's EXIF data, but not to write - writing is done by directly executing exiftools from inside the ruby script (using backticks). I did some tests with said gem and apparently it messed a little with the filesystem date attributes for the file I tried to change, even though I've only changed the DateTimeOriginal EXIF field.

• exiftools is run using options -P (preserve filesystem timestamps) and -overwrite_original_in_place (to prevent the creation of a .original file and preserve file's creation date on supported systems. Se more about those in ExifTool docs)