Can LR reorganize images into dated folders after import?

[Jeena22389650a1ho]

Is there any way to have LR take a folder that contains images from many different dates, and have it automatically reorganize the content, and place all the images within that pre-existing folder into newly created folders, organized by date? Basically I am trying to take a pre-existing folder of a huge chunk of images that spans a large date range, and have LR reorganize them in the same way it offers to do on import. I could of course just remove the files from the catalog and re-import using the date function, but a bunch of them are edited,highlighted etc and I don't know if creating the XMP sidecar files will preserve every single thing, and also, it's just an extra step that i'd rather not have to take if there is a better way to do this.

Thank you so much folks.

[JohanElzenga]

No, Lightroom cannot automatically reoganise folders after import. If it is really important for you, then the reimport option with XMP files is your only option. XMP files contain all edits and most other metadata, but not flags, not stacks, not collection membership, and not virtual copies.

[richardplondon]

I would love this to be possible, but it is not.

Writing XMP will preserve the full editing state at that moment, but will not preserve any of the prior edit states that a Catalog can return to using the History panel. It will include a copy of all Snapshots (snapshots are held in common by a master image and by virtual copies of that). But it will not include the editing, nor even the existence, of any proofing copies / virtual copies you may have made. Organisationally you'd lose Collection membership, Pick/Reject flags. stacking, custom sorting, Publish or Print or Book involvement, etc etc.

If you can reorganise from inside the Catalog you retain everything, but that would be a manual task. You can use the Catalog's ability to filter e.g. by Year and by month etc, to assist doing this in a batch manner. Spend 5 mins each time you get a coffee, say!

I am a big advocate of the dated folder tree and did a similar exercise with prior photos back when I first adopted Photoshop Lightroom - as it was at that time. I chose a scheme that LrC would thereafter be able to match and auto-implement  - which it has continued to do uncomplainingly. I 've just checked how long ago this was: it has now been 10 years since I last had to dictate where (specifically) new photos were to get put.

[Jeena22389650a1ho]

Thanks @richardplondon , thats what I was worried about with XMP. Guess its onto the slog of doing this manually. So wild that in 2024 they still have not seen the utility of taking the resources to add this function. Lightroom is largely billed as an organization tool, sheesh!!

One thing I've thought of that seems to have the potentially to speed up this process is selecting the top level folder that I am trying to reorganize by date, and then Finding by "Edited Photos".

Then I can manually put that more manageable minority of images into dated folders, remove the rest from the catalog, and then reimport those using the organize by date function. How does that sound to you? This is of course provided that the "Edited Photos" search function will show me every image that I have done *anything* to in LR, such as labels, keywords, etc? Can you confirm if that is the case? Thanks!!

[richardplondon]

I am not sure which operations do or don't count to set an image as Edited, sorry. 

One reason for hesitating may be: if the (folder naming or hierarchy) current locations of these images are in some way meaningful, beyond just what day the photos were taken. If so, perhaps some strategic extra keywording may be needed. If for example one has been finding images via a search term in the folder name, that method will fail once the images are merely moved 'bare' into a strict date-based tree. Unless one re-creates the same folder naming, perhaps as a suffix to the properly sorting date info.

Another may be, if there are non-imported images alongside the imported images on disk, in which case a re-import might bring in unwanted photos - or unwanted extra versions of photos, for example, exported copies.

What I had in mind was to Library-filter the whole Catalog by date taken and then just start making folders and populating those. Prioritising the ones you may work on, then the ones you may return to soon.

Good luck with it!