macOS Automator script to rename photos/videos based on creation date. Blog post: https://paulgalow.com/macos-quick-action-rename-photos-videos-timestamp

rename-photos-videos-timestamp.sh

#!/bin/bash

# macOS Automator script to rename photos/videos based on creation date
# Blog post: https://paulgalow.com/macos-quick-action-rename-photos-videos-timestamp

export PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

# Create subfolder to store renamed files
createDestination() {
    readonly destination="$(dirname "$file")/sorted"
    mkdir -p "$destination"
}

# Check for file MIME type
hasMIMEType() {
    file -I "$file" | grep -q "$1"
}

# Send notification to user
sendNotification() {
    osascript <<-EndOfMessage
    display notification \
    "$1" \
    with title "Rename (Timestamp)"
EndOfMessage
}

# Determine file extension
setFileExtension() {
    if hasMIMEType "image/jpeg"
    then
        extension="jpg"
    elif hasMIMEType "video/quicktime"
    then
        extension="mov"
    else
        return 1
    fi
}

# Retrieve EXIF timestamp from media file
getTimeStamp() {
    local -r timestampRaw=$(mdls -name kMDItemContentCreationDate -raw "$file" | cut -d ' ' -f -2)
    timestamp=${timestampRaw//:/-}
}

# Rename file, handle timestamp collisions
renameFile() {
    # Exit function if file type is not supported
    setFileExtension || return 0

    getTimeStamp || return 0

    createDestination || return 1

    # Check if to be renamed file already exists
    if [[ -f "$destination/$timestamp.$extension" ]]
    then
        # If file exists append random string to file
        local -r randomString=$(md5 -q "$file")
        cp "$file" "$destination/$timestamp-$randomString.$extension"
    else
        cp "$file" "$destination/$timestamp.$extension"
    fi
}

# Send notification to user after the process has finished
presentResults() {
    # Count files in destination folder
    local counter=0
    for file in "$destination"/*.*
    do
        (( counter ++ ))
    done

    # Check if renaming was successful
    if [ $counter != 0 ] && [ -n "$destination" ]
    then
        sendNotification "$counter photos/videos have been renamed. Opening destination folder…"
        open "$destination"
    else
        sendNotification "Could not renamd any photos/videos."
    fi
}

# Main loop to collect input files from Automator
processFiles() {
    while read -r file; do
        renameFile
    done
}

sendNotification "Processing photos/videos.\\nThis can take a while…"

processFiles

presentResults

exit 0

mdls has an option for printing only a specific attribute's value: mdls -name kMDItemContentCreationDate -raw <filename>

Thanks for pointing me to this, @alisey. I have updated the gist after your suggestion. And sorry for my late reply. I somehow managed to completely miss your comment.

Hi, I am using your code, but there seems to be an error. The timestamp after the photo is renamed does not correlate with the actual time stamp on the photo. For instance, a photo was renamed to 2020-07-03 18 01 07.jpg, but the actual timestamp is at 11:01 am, not 6:01 pm. Everything else is correct except for the time. Also, how can I get rid of the dashes on the date? All the renamed dates are off by 7 hours too much.

Hi @Minagamb, the resulting timestamps are UTC based so perhaps that explains why your timestamps are 7 hours off. Regarding the dashes on the date, try replacing timestamp=${timestampRaw//:/-} with timestamp=${timestampRaw//[:|-]/}.

how do I change from UTC? The photos are collected PST

Also thank you for getting rid of the dashes!

how can I convert from UTC to my local time zone? or can I just subtract the 7 hours into the script so that each file has 7 hours subtracted from it? Sorry for bombarding you

Hi!

Sorry for being late to the party, but your script a the Link above helped me a lot! Thanks!

Solved the UTC Problem by using "date -f" and geplaced the whitespace between date and time:

mdls_date=$(mdls -rnkMDItemContentCreationDate "$file" )
creation_date=$(date -f"%F %T %z" -j "$mdls_date" "+%F %T %z" | cut -d ' ' -f -2 )
timestamp=${creation_date//:/}
timestamp=${timestamp// /_}

Hope it helps.

(Tested as zsh Script inside of Apple Automator)