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A
aeiou112358
Known Participant
February 12, 2020
Question

Creation Date / Modification Date

  • February 12, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 1663 views

Hi there, I have two brief questions that are puzzling me for a long time already:

 

EXTERNAL APPS Modification Date

When I'm working on my photos I often work with external applications (such as Photoshop, Silver Efex, etc...). Sometimes I work on the files more than once, over the span of several years, creating different versions (eg one black and white version in 2017, one colored version in 2018, etc...).

 

Q1: why is it not possible to check the modification date of the file inside Lightroom? Maybe I'm just missing something? All I can find is the "Creation Date", but this date always stays the same" the date and time the photo was taken. Is it possible to sort files by their modification date inside lightroom? Right now I'm always going into the Finder to check when some of the work versions of my photos have been created.

 

MISSING FEATURE: EXPORT with DATE

When I am exporting my final versions of a photograph there's the option to rename my files. I would like to name my files "OriginalFileName_DateOfExport_FIN.tiff" but there's no option for that. I can only name my files "OriginalFileName_Date_FIN.tiff" whereas Date in this case is again the Creation Date of the photograph, which always stays the same.

 

Q3: Is there any plug-in that can do that and add the date of export to my file-names?

 

Q4: It would be nice if LR would add better naming options regarding the date. I often create several versions of the same photograph over a long span of time and would like to add "Export Date" to my file-names. It's a feature that I am missing a lot, it would keep my final files way better sorted.

 

Anyone here has maybe the same issues or knows workarounds for these missing features?

 

Cheers, S

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2 replies

johnrellis
johnrellis
Legend
February 16, 2020

[This post contains embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser to see the images.]

 

I released a new version of Any Filter that lets you filter and sort by the file modification date:

 

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A
aeiou112358Author
Known Participant
February 17, 2020

Hi John,

 

what an honor! Many thanks for providing these links! I already stumbled upon your AnyFiles-plugin but did not implement it yet!

 

Now I'll give it a shot!!

 

Thanks again!

 

S

johnrellis
johnrellis
Legend
February 12, 2020

"why is it not possible to check the modification date of the file inside Lightroom? Maybe I'm just missing something? ...Is it possible to sort files by their modification date inside lightroom?"

 

You're not missing anything -- LR doesn't have that ability.  I think that Adobe long ago decided to focus on photo metadata stored inside the photo according to industry standards (EXIF. IPTC, XMP).  Since file creation and modification dates maintained by the operating system are in general fairly fragile, with many applications and utilities changing them inadvertantly, Adobe has focused on workflows that use the industry-standard metadata instead.  (That's not to say your workflow or needs are "wrong", just that Adobe hasn't viewed it as something most users would want to do.)

 

It's been on my list to add file dates to my Any Filter plugin, which would let you search and sort by them. I have to put out a new release in a couple of days to accommodate LR 9.2, and I'll add file dates then.

 

"Is there any plug-in that can do that and add the date of export to my file-names?"

 

The Folder Publisher plugin has a very powerful token facility that lets you include the current date and/or time.

 

Adobe wants all product suggestions posted in the official feedback forum:
https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/categories/photoshop_family_photoshop_lightroom.
Product developers read everything posted there, but rarely participate here, which is primarily a user-to-user forum.

 

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