Sort all the files inside a directory by extracting its creation date. Intended to be used with photos.

README.md

Requirements

pip install exifread

Usage

Replace path_to_sort by the path where all the photos are stored at

sort.py

import os
import shutil
import datetime
import exifread

def sort_files_by_date(path):
    """Sorts files within folders by capture date, then last modification date, then creation date.

    Args:
        path: The path to the directory containing the files.
    """

    for root, dirs, files in os.walk(path):
        for file in files:
            file_path = os.path.join(root, file)
            try:
                # Attempt to get the capture date from metadata
                capture_date = get_capture_date_from_metadata(file_path)
                if capture_date:
                    sort_by_date(int(round(capture_date.timestamp())), file_path)
                    continue
            except Exception as e:
                # If metadata fails, try last modification date
                print(f"Error getting capture date for {file_path}: {e}")

            sort_by_date(os.path.getmtime(file_path), file_path)

def get_capture_date_from_metadata(file_path) -> datetime.datetime|None:
    """Extracts the capture date from the file's EXIF metadata.

    Args:
        file_path: The path to the file.

    Returns:
        The capture date as a datetime.datetime object, or None if it cannot be extracted.
    """

    with open(file_path, 'rb') as f:
        tags = exifread.process_file(f)

    if 'EXIF DateTimeOriginal' in tags:
        capture_date_str = tags['EXIF DateTimeOriginal'].values
        try:
            capture_date = datetime.datetime.strptime(capture_date_str, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
            return capture_date
        except:
            # Use alternative format
            capture_date = datetime.datetime.strptime(capture_date_str, '%Y:%m:%d %H:%M:%S')
            return capture_date

    return None

def sort_by_date(date, file_path):
    """Moves the file to a new directory based on the given date.

    Args:
        date: The date as a timestamp.
        file_path: The path to the file.
    """

    date_time = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(date)
    year_dir = f"{date_time.year}"
    date_dir = f"{date_time.year}-{date_time.month:02d}-{date_time.day:02d}"

    new_path = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(file_path), year_dir, date_dir)
    os.makedirs(new_path, exist_ok=True)
    shutil.move(file_path, os.path.join(new_path, os.path.basename(file_path)))

# Example usage
path_to_sort = "/path/to/photos"
sort_files_by_date(path_to_sort)