Date Renamer Toolkit

Rename photos and videos deterministically using the best available capture timestamp with full transparency about where the timestamp came from.

Core principle: predictable results, safe renames, and a preview that always explains the chosen timestamp source.

---

Why this exists

Most media folders contain a mix of:

• proper EXIF/QuickTime metadata
• stripped messenger exports
• Google Takeout exports with sidecars
• files named by camera apps (DJI, IMG/VID, WhatsApp)
• videos where only MediaInfo knows the truth

Date Renamer resolves timestamps using a strict precedence order and shows the decision directly in the UI tooltip. That makes the rename output auditable and repeatable.

---

Download

✅ Recommended (no Python required)

1. Open Releases and download the latest build.
2. Start the app:
   • Windows: .exe
   • macOS: .app
3. Done release builds are standalone.

---

Features

🧠 Deterministic timestamp resolution

• Consistent precedence order, mirrors the actual code path.
• Tooltip shows the exact timestamp source (e.g. exiftool:QuickTime:CreateDate).

👀 Live preview before you touch anything

• See old/new names instantly.
• Built-in filter for large folders.

🛡️ Safe renaming

• Auto-conflict handling: produces unique names when collisions occur.
• Skips files without usable timestamp (unless you choose a fallback mode).

↩️ Undo support

• Undo for the last rename run (current session).

⚡ Performance for big folders

• Parallel scan mode for large directories.
• ExifTool batch calls (many files per call) for speed.

🧩 Deep mode for “metadata-poor” exports

• Parse known filename patterns (DJI, IMG/VID, WhatsApp, generic stamps).
• Read .xmp sidecars.
• Read Google Takeout .json sidecars.

---

How timestamp resolution works

For every file, Date Renamer selects the first usable timestamp in this order:

1. ExifTool tags (QuickTime / EXIF / XMP / Composite / PNG)
2. Google Takeout JSON sidecar
3. XMP sidecar
4. Classic EXIF parsing via exifread (images)
5. HEIC embedded XMP (Pillow + pillow-heif)
6. MediaInfo (videos)
7. Filename parsing (Deep mode)
8. Filesystem fallback (Created/Modified) — only if selected
9. Otherwise: skip the file

✅ The selected source is visible in the preview tooltip.

ExifTool tags checked

• EXIF:DateTimeOriginal
• EXIF:CreateDate
• XMP:CreateDate
• XMP:DateCreated
• QuickTime:CreateDate
• QuickTime:MediaCreateDate
• QuickTime:TrackCreateDate
• QuickTime:ModifyDate
• QuickTime:ContentCreateDate
• Composite:SubSecDateTimeOriginal
• Composite:DateTimeCreated
• PNG:CreationTime
• DateTimeOriginal (fallback)
• CreateDate (fallback)
• MediaCreateDate (fallback)

---

Deep mode

Deep mode extends timestamp detection beyond embedded metadata.

✅ Sidecars supported

• file.ext.xmp or file.xmp
• file.ext.json (Google Takeout)

✅ Recognized filename patterns

Examples (conceptual):

• DJI_FLY_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_*
• DJI_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_*
• IMG_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS* / VID_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS*
• YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS*
• YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS*
• IMG-YYYYMMDD-WA####* / VID-YYYYMMDD-WA####*

Date-only patterns resolve to midnight when no time part exists.

---

Naming patterns

You control naming via:

• Format (e.g. %Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S)
• Prefix / Suffix
• Pattern:
  • Date only
  • Date + Original
  • Original only
  • Original + Date

If a file has no timestamp:

• default: skipped
• optional: filesystem fallback (created/modified)

---

Known limitations

Messenger exports / transcoded files

Some exports remove capture metadata entirely. In those cases, recovery is only possible with:

• sidecars (XMP/Takeout JSON), or
• filename patterns, or
• filesystem fallback (usually import/download time, not capture time)

UUID-style filenames

UUID names often indicate “exported” or “processed” media. Without metadata/sidecars:

• only filesystem fallback remains
• accuracy depends on your file history

---

Run from source (developer)

1) Create a virtual environment

python -m venv .venv

# Windows
.venv\Scripts\activate

# macOS/Linux
source .venv/bin/activate

pip install -r requirements.txt

python date-renamer.py

Troubleshooting

1. Open Logs from the app menu.
2. Copy the log output.
3. Attach it to a GitHub issue.

Common cases:

• ExifTool not found or wrong mode selection.
• No timestamp available (use fallback or Deep mode).
• Permission or rename failure (Windows file locks).

The preview tooltip always shows the selected timestamp source.

Build (PyInstaller)

Prerequisites:

• Python 3.10+
• PyInstaller (pip install pyinstaller)

Build commands:

# Windows
py -m PyInstaller date-renamer.spec

# macOS
python3 -m PyInstaller date-renamer.spec

Output is written to dist/DateRenamer.

Bundled assets are taken from assets/ and tools/ (if present). ExifTool resolution order is bundled first, then system PATH.

Credits

• Built with PyQt6 and community-maintained Python packages.

Support

Open an issue at https://github.com/Ch4r0ne/date-renamer/issues with logs and a sample file list if you need help reproducing a timestamp issue.

License

MIT License