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A
Anonymous
June 17, 2017
Question

Elements 12 Organizer: sort by camera model?

  • June 17, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 247 views

So my external hard drive crashed with 10K+ pictures.  I had them sorted into chronological files.  I was able to find someone who could recover the pictures in FAT format, but now they are on my new external hard drive IN TOTALLY RANDOM ORDER!  One of the few specific identifiers for each photo is the camera model under its Properties.  If I could sort by camera model, It may help restore some order.  Any ideas?  Thank you.

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    1 reply

    MichelBParis
    MichelBParis
    Legend
    June 18, 2017

    richiem75103558  wrote

    So my external hard drive crashed with 10K+ pictures.  I had them sorted into chronological files.  I was able to find someone who could recover the pictures in FAT format, but now they are on my new external hard drive IN TOTALLY RANDOM ORDER!  One of the few specific identifiers for each photo is the camera model under its Properties.  If I could sort by camera model, It may help restore some order.  Any ideas?  Thank you.

    The files may seem in totally random order, but your OS (Explorer or Finder) lets you choose the common sort orders like chronological or by filename.

    Main question:

    Do you use the Organizer? That would give you more flexibility to organize your files, especially chronologically. You could select all the files from a given camera and tag them for easy retrieval.

    Even if you don't want to use it and stay with a folder tree organization, you can use its 'Downloader' module to create a folder tree structure.

    Other question: how big is your library in megabytes? I would open the organizer and use its 'Import' functionaly to create a folder tree based on the day (YYYY MM DD) template; it's available in the 'advanced' section of the import dialog. That does not work if you 'import' from the external drive (the catalog only 'links' to the location of the file on the external drive), but if you import from a thumbnail stick or a card reader, that will create the folder tree based on days. For a big library, if the card is not big enough, you can import by several batches. So, you might have to copy your restored files to the thumbstick or card before importing by batches to a new master folder you indicate in the import dialog.

    Elements Organizer Topics Page

    Restoring your library is worth taking the time to browse the above help file for the organizer. Ask for more details if needed.

    A
    Anonymous
    June 18, 2017

    Thanks for all the great info. Unfortunately when the files were recovered, the files names were wiped out and the date the photos were taken is now all the same date, the date of recovery. So in trying to find some unique identifying property that remained intact, I noticed that, under Properties for each photos, the camera model was listed. If I could sort by that, at least I could begin to group photos according to the camera I was using at the time. That would help me begin to establish some chronological order.

    I can see each photo on the screen, but to have to sort them one by one is not practical given the enormous volume. There is no pattern at all right now.

    Sent from my iPhone

    MichelBParis
    MichelBParis
    Legend
    June 18, 2017

    richiem75103558  wrote

    Thanks for all the great info. Unfortunately when the files were recovered, the files names were wiped out and the date the photos were taken is now all the same date, the date of recovery. So in trying to find some unique identifying property that remained intact, I noticed that, under Properties for each photos, the camera model was listed.

    I have no idea about why the file names and the date taken could not be recovered. Did you use the organizer 'Information' panel on the right panel to look at what info is still available? (general and metadata sections)

    Or did you use an external exif viewer software?

    What is sure is that if you have got the camera information, you select all the files taken by a camera and assign a tag to all at the same time. You can repeat it for all different cameras.

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