Importing photos into bridge.

[michaela38849736]

I'm trying to use bridge to organize my photos.  Download from camera works well and I need to bring my old files into the same folder scheme (one folder per day in this case). 
The only way I've found to do this is to copy the files to a USB memory stick (or card) and run "get photos from camera" using the memory card.   Is there a better way to do this?

[gary_sc]

I think the problem you might be having is that you're making this too complicated, @michaela38849736 

Bridge is a viewer of "things" in folders. Unlike Lightroom Classic, which relies upon a catalog (and you do need to import images into Lightroom Classic), Bridge does not. If you download your images into a folder and "point" Bridge to that folder, you will see all of your images. Simply, there is nothing to import into. 

Can you let us know if you're on a PC or a Mac and we can supply some tips to help you along.

[michaela38849736]

I'm running Windows 11. I don't think I'm making things too complicated. Bridge can create a new folder structure that is better organized than my decade plus old collection of files. This new structure will make it easier to deal with the files going forward, but this can only be accomplished if the files are coming from an external source.  I even tried an exfat formatted external drive and bridge does not recognize it on the device list. That drive is the one I would use if I was recovering pro-res video on my iPhone. 

[gary_sc]

OK, it's now obvious you understand more than it first appeared; my apologies. However, as I am a Mac user, I'll have to defer to my PC friends here to help you with the importing challenges you are having. 

You probably already know the data I have here to show, but since you might not be aware of moving files around in Bridge from folder to folder, here is a short video on this function.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kereuAubGiM

Good luck!

[Erik Bloodaxe]

Whatever folder structure you create using Bridge is no different to what you might create using Windows Explorer. Bridge simply sees the folders and files as they exist on your drives. It is just another tool for doing the job. So when you say, "...this can only be accomplished if the files are coming from an external source", well all sources are external to Bridge, it doesn't have its own file system. From where are you trying to copy your files and to what destination?

[Lumigraphics]

Bridge is just a viewer, it sees whatever is on your hard drive. Just copy the files to your drive, organize them as you want. Bridge and Windows Explorer will see them the same way. There is no import into Bridge.

[michaela38849736]

I know how to create folders and move files, and I could automate the process of creating folders and moving or copying files to match the "get photos from camera" process.  I don't like the restrictions bridge puts on devices that are considered "cameras" and was hoping for a better solution. 

[Erik Bloodaxe]

The photo downloader is primarily for copying files from camera cards via a card reader to a specified location. It can perform other useful tasks in the process such as renaming, adding metadata etc. Where are your files currently located?

[michaela38849736]

1. I've tried files on my local ssd  as well as the external ssd I would use for pro-res video recording with my iPhone. I can't figure out what makes a drive become a camera, but that external ssd should qualify. I was hoping to use the photo downloader to take years of image files from 5 different cameras and move them to the same directory scheme I'm using when downloading new work.  I found a suggestion to use batch rename, but that won't create the new target directories. 
   
   

[Erik Bloodaxe]

Create whatever folder structure you require using Bridge. Then why not Copy and Paste your files from source to destination? Photo Downloader is not the correct tool for this. Bridge itself has the capacity to Cut/Copy/Move/Rename your files. I can't see a problem with this.

Oh, but you surely didn't mean that your years of photos are still sitting in your cameras?

[michaela38849736]

I'll try to explain this one more time.

Download from camera will automatically create one folder per day, which helps manage my photo collection.

I would like to have this scheme consistent across my entire collection, going back over 10 years and 5 different cameras.  Bridge rename will not automatically create this folder structure.  I would need to create each folder and run the rename process for each day in which the photos were taken.  all this work is already being done in the download from camera logic.  If I copy my photos to an external USB drive I can then use the download functon, but only if bridge sees that location as a "camera".  Some USB drives will work, but the SSD that I would use for pro-res video recording is not seen as a "camera" device.  if Adobe loosened their definiton of a camera, this function could help combine and organize images from multiple sources.

[Erik Bloodaxe]

"Download from camera will automatically create one folder per day,"

Not understanding this. Photo Downloader has various options but doesn't automatically do what you say. I really think you are barking up the wrong tree here and need to consider the alternatives suggested.

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

"Download from camera will automatically create one folder per day,"

Not understanding this. Photo Downloader has various options but doesn't automatically do what you say. I really think you are barking up the wrong tree here and need to consider the alternatives suggested.

By @Erik Bloodaxe

One needs to be in advanced mode, here is the right-hand sidebar with the sub-folder options:

Here is the result after importing files from 3 shooting dates using the ddmmmyyyy format:

https://helpx.adobe.com/au/bridge/using/import-camera-photos-bridge.html

[michaela38849736]

Download from camera in the latest version does exactly that, in fact it offers several date formats for the folder names. I've done this a few times from my Nikon camera.  The iPhone download is not as reliable, missing some images entirely, with one iPhone photo tagged  with the wrong date and a camera that I never used.  Windows 11 native photo import from the iPhone is even worse.  I'll probably have better luck with an old MacBook I can use.  I'm finishes with this thread, but Adobe needs to support download from ssds like the one I can attach to my iPhone. 

[Lumigraphics]

External devices can be accessed in different ways by a computer. Memory cards are handled differently than external hard drives. Photo Downloader doesn't work with hard drives.

I personally don't use it because its flaky and my workflow doesn't need it anyway. Just copy files with the Finder or Explorer.

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

@michaela38849736 

I use ExifTool for this task. Perhaps a Bridge script could be created, I usually create scripts for Photoshop, not Bridge, so my knowledge of what is possible is limited.

Presuming that you have "one root/top-level folder containing many loose images without any subfolders"...

exiftool '-directory<${directory}/${datetimeoriginal}' -d '%Y/%Y-%m/%Y-%m-%d' '/path to/source/images folder'

This command line code will create the following directory structure based on the shooting date, moving all files into the newly created sub-folders based on Year / Year-Month / Year-Month-Day:

 

This command line code is formatted for the Mac, Windows users would use straight double-quote marks.

One could also add the -r or -recurse argument before the path to the folder if there were sub-folders to process.

It's easy enough to create "droplet" type applications or custom contextual right-click commands in the Mac Finder or create "droplet" type shortcuts in Windows Explorer if you don't need to use the terminal.app or cmd.exe on a regular basis.