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dchahine
Participant
May 8, 2020
Answered

Adobe Bridge: How can I Organize Photos on External HD into Folders Organized by Year > Y-M-D

  • May 8, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 5823 views

 

Is there a way to batch organize thousands of photos on an external hard drive using Bridge 2020 the same way you can do with Lightroom (Attached Photo) ?
I dont have lightroom anymore but I was able to organize and "move" my photos on my external hard drive into folders organized by Year and under each year folders organized by YYYY-MM-DD. Can Adobe Bridge do the same? if yes how?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer gary_sc

Hi dchahine,

 

Bad news - good news: Bridge can't but you can.

 

Here's the deal: Bridge is only a viewer. It displays any and everything that's in the folder you're looking at. If you want sub-folders, you make them yourself in Explorer or Finder. If you want them organzied by date, you can create and name them in Explorer or Finder. 

 

You see where I'm going with this. My point is that you can accept the auto creation that LR does, or rename/create other folder structures in LR but all within LR. In Bridge you can also do all that but it's done in the Finder or Explorer.

 

Let me add that if you ingest images from your card into your computer via the Photo Downloader, you can control the naming of the folders to some degree and you can also control renaming of the files from within Bridge to some degree. 

 

The one advantage of Bridge is that unlike LR if you make any changes of your folder structure or image placement in Explorer or Finder, Bridge doesn't care. LR, as you probably know, is thrown for a loop when you do that and has no idea of where things are until you point that out to Lightroom. 

 

But remember, Bridge is NOT a DAM, LR is.

1 reply

gary_sc
Community Expert
gary_scCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
May 8, 2020

Hi dchahine,

 

Bad news - good news: Bridge can't but you can.

 

Here's the deal: Bridge is only a viewer. It displays any and everything that's in the folder you're looking at. If you want sub-folders, you make them yourself in Explorer or Finder. If you want them organzied by date, you can create and name them in Explorer or Finder. 

 

You see where I'm going with this. My point is that you can accept the auto creation that LR does, or rename/create other folder structures in LR but all within LR. In Bridge you can also do all that but it's done in the Finder or Explorer.

 

Let me add that if you ingest images from your card into your computer via the Photo Downloader, you can control the naming of the folders to some degree and you can also control renaming of the files from within Bridge to some degree. 

 

The one advantage of Bridge is that unlike LR if you make any changes of your folder structure or image placement in Explorer or Finder, Bridge doesn't care. LR, as you probably know, is thrown for a loop when you do that and has no idea of where things are until you point that out to Lightroom. 

 

But remember, Bridge is NOT a DAM, LR is.

    D
    dchahineAuthor
    Participant
    May 13, 2020

    Thank you very much! I appreciate your detailed reaponse. 

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