Rectify File Locations after Import
I recently imported a large number of images (>1900) spread across several years from my iPhone into a catalog. I use the automatic distribution of the files into subfolders YYYY/MM/. Now here's my problem: For some reason my setup was Current Year and Current Month - though the results were everything else than current. Anyway, that's not the way I wanted them stored; I wanted to use the Image (exposure) Date for the YYYY/MM pattern. I've corrected my import dialog and stored the pattern as a user setting.
Now, How can I automatically re-distribute all those images on the file system using the same logic (but now with the image/exposure date)? I've got them all in the same album, which makes it easy to select the right lot from the catalog. But, which function can I use to mimic the features of the import process while I'm not actually importing (since the images are already in the catalog)?
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I don't think it is possible to auto-relocate the images into other folders.
Did you make (manual) adjustments or metadata enrichment already?
If not, just create a new catalog and import them again with your desired settings.
If you have done manual adjustment efforts already which you want to keep then you could export them "as originals", include adjustments and then import them from that exported location into a new catalog with your desired settings.
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Consider trying something like this:
- Have Capture One rename the files using your preferred YYYY/MM pattern. I'd suggest storing this as a counter that's applied during Import. Then your file numbers would be something like YYYY/MM/counter. Set the counter to be 5 or 6 digits, depending on your preference, and have it start at 00001 (or 000001).
- Create Smart Albums that populate based on the counter number. That would sort things as you seem to want.
- If you want your on-disk organization to match the above, just have Capture One create folders with appropriate names, and then drag each Smart Album's contents into the appropriate folder. This won't change the Smart Album contents, but will make the on-disk and catalog structures look similar.
Finally, be sure you've set your Import file numbering to use the counter I described above. I think you can also use tokens to have C1 create new folders based on the token, but I've never tried it.
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Thanks guys. I was afraid there wouldn't be an automatic process - even though the logic I need is already implemented in (the import procedure) in C1. Of course I could always delete and re-import. But that's quite some task for the machine and the storage (NAS). The idea with smart albums and then move the files through C1 to their intended destination. Let's see how many sets of files/smart albums that will be.
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1900+ images shouldn't be too much load on the machine and NAS, but sure, Abbott's proposal will save you 1900+ file writes, preview and thumbnails generation, and if "several" years of iPhone means 5 years then 60 months = smart albums shouldn't be too much to create and manually drag and drop the images into real albums. But it is far from automatic, it is rather a lot of manual effort.
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Well actually, it's much easier. There is a function "Batch Rename" under the "Image" menu, which does exactly what I need. Here's a quick explanation on the web for this: https://support.captureone.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002529997-Rename-multiple-files-Batch-Rename-.
I've come across another issue with my batch, however. Apparently, the catalog "lost" the location of some (quite a few, actually) files. I have no idea why and how I can "batch repair" that. I know from Lightroom that once you "locate" one file from a missing bunch that are all located in the same folder, LR will find the rest of the lot on its own. C1 doesn't :-(
What annoys me the most is that now that I Rodin the function I was looking for, I still can't use it due to those "lost" file locations. So, back to square one. C1 is truly the best raw converter out there - especially when you run with multiple camera makes. But their catalog functionality still sucks, is slow and buggy in 2023. It's a shame, actually.
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The batch rename re-distributes images on the file system?
Yeah, you can locate a missing folder or locate missing files, but in case of the latter you have to do this one by one. There is not even any mean to search, filter or sort for offline images. There's much to be wanted for C1's catalog system.
As an aside: What is a bummer really is that the release notes since many many years warns the Windows users: "Importing a catalog can result in the last picture not getting imported." This tells me something about C1 cataloging.
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Alex Hirsch --> C1 is truly the best raw converter out there - especially when you run with multiple camera makes. But their catalog functionality still sucks, is slow and buggy in 2023. It's a shame, actually.
I completely agree, C1 catalogue misses speed, basic functionnalities, and many other things, when compared with the main competitor in the field of RAW conversion.
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Try here, try there. Actually, the batch rename function appears to be "castrated" compared to the import function. It does not allow me to use slashes to compose the proper path. It seems indeed to be designed to just rename the files, not relocate them. This function is certainly missing.
So, I removed all files from the catalogue (and the storage) and re-imported all those images again. That revealed yet another bug. For some reason, about a third of all files had not been copied from the source (external SSD), while their entries in the catalogue (links) have been made. This resulted in many hundreds of files being "offline" again and C1 does not have a smart way to "batch locate" those files, nor is there a filter (e.g. for a smart album) to select only those images that C1 thinks are "offline".
With the remaining files, I discovered further bugs: Some files were placed in the 2023 folder, while even C1 itself shows the exposure date being in 2019. Maybe "Image Date" is not the exposure date I want, after all? Furthermore, some files have been placed into a folder "iPhone13,5" - though C1 shows in the meta data that the model is my iPhone 12 Pro. The import procedure also created the physical folder "iPhone13,5". Very strange.
Well, my research continues....
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Can you sort or even group them in Finder by exposure date? (I am a Windows user). Then you can manually copy them to the final destination folders and do a simple import (or synchronize) from the top folder. So, manual distribution but it will get you where you want to be.
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I do not know any file browser on any OS that could do that. The only date(s) you can use in OS-based file browsers for sorting are the file dates (created, last modified, last opened). But since we're talking about iPhone photos here - and C1 does not have any method for directly importing from the iPhone Photos library - one has to extract the images from the iPhone lib first. On Mac this can be done using ImageCapture. However, this will then "create" new files, which then carry the create date of the date of the export - which is not reflecting the image's exposure date. I suppose, C1's import module is sometimes mixing that up, too. Instead of reading the image's meta data for the exposure date, it takes some file create date. This is the only explanation I have, why a bunch of pictures I took in 2019 are stored under 2023/Jan.
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