Formatting when renaming from Exif Data possible?

Hi everyone,

First off, what an awesome tool, kudos to the devs that bring us this, allowing us for proper organization in our media files!!

I have a question (maybe simple) on formatting the way the date is written, when grabbed from Exif tag:

<ExifTool:DateTimeOriginal>-<Name>

So I want to rename my MP4 files using this method, which gives the accurate time when the clip was taken; this tag brings back (the date time in) this format:

Date Time: 2024:08:01 20:22:42-04:00
Format on file name using the <> above: 2024_08_01 20_22_42-04_00-Name

I want it to be 2024.08.01.20.22.42-04_00-Name (don't really need the -04_00, but I can leave it there)

Is there a way to format it this way and incorporate it in this: <ExifTool:DateTimeOriginal>-<Name>?

Thank you kindly

Reply to #1:

Hello Teredactle, welcome,

First off, go to Options/Settings/Renaming and check the entry named "Replace unsupported with:". It's probably set to an underscore. Change it to a period and there's most of your problem solved.

You will still have a space, most likely, between date and time. Just add a Replace method below the current method and replace the FIRST space with a period. I say only the first occurrence so if there are spaces in <Name> they won't be effected.

I can't advise you about the -04:00 at the end of the Exif tag because that doesn't show on the files I tried this on. I can tell you that the colon will be replaced with a period, since it's an unsupported character. Therefore you can PROBABLY use a Replace method using a regular expression like this:
Replace: -(\d\d)\.(\d\d)-
Replace with: -$1_$2- [to leave that part in] OR just a dash - to leave it out.
(Make sure regular expressions is checked)

Best,
DF

Reply to #2:

Thank you; I figured out the dash with the decimal, a bit after posting :)
The replace part I didn't, but with your help, I have now my workflow possible for all iPhone videos!!

Thank you kindly!