Question Sorting photos by date

[jestemprawiczkiem]

When I open a folder with thousands of photos in the system explorer and want these photos to be sorted by date, I have to wait a very few minutes. Especially when the disk is a platter disk. The file names are mixed up because the camera numbers the photos from one every now and then and there are photos from different cameras that start numbering photos from numbers and others from letters, so I can't use file names. Would it be possible after a long automatic sorting by date of these photos for the indexing service to remember how these photos are sorted so that after restarting the system, after opening the folder, these photos are sorted. Is it possible to set the system so that it creates a thumbs.db file or another file in this folder so that it reads from this file how the photos are to be arranged? I use 64-bit Windows 10 Pro 22H2.

 

[Eximo]

There are other file explorer options outside of Windows explorer. Not sure if they are any better at handling large amounts of files.

There may also be image specific tools that may do a better job.

But yeah, the concept of Windows and thousands of files has never been a good experience. Even small folders of videos can give Windows a struggle to create thumbnails.

 

[Misgar]

Windows adds to the confusion after you've copied your image or video files from the camera by appending several dates to each file.

Looking a a random JPG file using Properties in Windows 10 File Explorer I see:

Date Created: 21 November 2024, 13:11:25

Date Modified: 20 September 2024, 17:01:21

Date Accessed: 28 January 2025, 14:18:12

Somewhat bizarrely:-

Created shows the date when I copied the JPG file from my SD or CF card to my hard disk

Modified shows the time stamp and date recorded by the camera when I took the photo

Accessed is today's date and time when I selected Properties for the file

When I add more columns in File Explorer (right click top line) I get three columns, Date Created, Date Modified and Date Taken, but now Date Modified is exactly one hour later than Date Taken, presumably due to a Daylight Saving Time setting on camera being one hour different from the computer time or UTC? It's all very confusing to a bear with no brain.

Would it be possible after a long automatic sorting by date of these photos for the indexing service to remember how these photos are sorted so that after restarting the system, after opening the folder, these photos are sorted.

I suspect you (we) need some kind of dedicated photo library indexing software. I know someone who religiously enters every photograph taken into a very old version of Adobe Lightroom, then adds descriptive text detailing the subject matter. I suspect that Lightroom has the ability to sort by date taken. A trivial task for a database. The problem is, you can no longer buy a stand alone copy of Lightroom, but instead Adobe charge a monthly subscription.

Instead, consider Adobe Bridge. This software is free, but you do have to sign up for a (free) Adobe account. They will then try to persuade you into buying a subscription for Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, et al, but you can ignore these requests.

https://fixthephoto.com/best-free-photo-organizing-software.html

https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/bridge.html

If you have a Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Sony camera, why not download their own software package? They're similar to Bridge/Lightroom/Photoshop, but not as sophisticated.

The file names are mixed up because the camera numbers the photos from one every now and then and there are photos from different cameras that start numbering photos from numbers and others from letters, so I can't use file names.

I have the same problem wielding 3 DSLR bodies. When the frame counters reach 9999, they revert to 0000 and start incrementing the count. On a busy vacation, I can end up with several batches of files with identical file names, but different dates taken.

My solution regarding camera identification is to edit the 3-character prefix for each body making it unique, so I know which body the files come from. I backup the RAW + JPG files each evening into folders on my laptops, with the date and camera name. 3 cameras, 3 folders, per day. Not perfect but it narrows things down when seaching, unless I've taken 1000+ frames in one day.

I have to wait a very few minutes. Especially when the disk is a platter disk.

Exactly the same problem here. It can take Windows minutes to catalogue a folder with thousands of RAW files. I've not found a solution yet, but I haven't looked too hard. Even indexing an M.2 NVME drive is slow.

 

[TerryLaze]

Would it be possible after a long automatic sorting by date of these photos for the indexing service to remember how these photos are sorted so that after restarting the system, after opening the folder, these photos are sorted.

Irfanview. Free and very light weight, no sign up or account needed.
Go to file/batch conversion rename, on the left under "work as: "select "batch rename" navigate to the photo folder and add all, then press the sort button and sort by date (or any of the other options) on the left where it says image### you can select any pattern that is to your liking, the default is image and three numbers, each # represents one number.

 

[Misgar]

select "batch rename" navigate to the photo folder and add all, then press the sort button and sort by date

Thank you. I've been using IrfanView 'batch conversion/rename' for years to convert Adobe PSD files to JPG and append File name, Author and Copyright info in one corner before distribution or printing.

The simple solutions are often the best. Cheers.