Dates based on path (folder structure/filename)
It would be immensely useful if Immich would support photo data taken based on the folder structure instead of exif. I know of utilities like exiftool could be used to write folder-based data right in the image files, but this is a bit unflexible and I wouldn't want to mutate the files for metadata like this.
To clarify, the main use case for this would be external libraries (=not files directly uploaded via Immich).
The user could define date template - in the same format as Storage Templates. When the option is enabled, date fetching from metadata is disabled (or optionally would only work for ones not having exif date data?) and would be instead retrieved based on the path and this template.
If - as I guess - this is currently not possible, I would be also interested in contributing this code. But I don't know if the devs would be willing accept such a concept, tho I guess that belongs to another post.
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Successfully submitted, a tag has been added to inform contributors. :white_check_mark:You can ask in #contributing , I’m not sure if this is something we are looking to add right now
can you help outline some implementation plan that you have for this feature? I assume the starting point will be from the external library page settings where you can choose how to extract the metadata?
From my initial impression, this seems like a very niche use case?
Well, most features started as niche use cases: external libraries, folder view.
To make this cover a bit more use cases:
This feature could be "metadata based on path" per each external library. It would me a much faster/easier/user-accessible way of adding metadata without using XMP Sidecars. You could add description, datetime, or more in the future.
Apparent need:
You can search and find a lot of threads asking how to mass-update exif data to be properly ingested by Immich. Adding this via path/filename is accessible and it's how a lot of users already sort their collection. Storage templates also works via this principle (and it's how I first thought this already would work with Immich before discovering it's just for input). This would be the fastest way to update metadata indirectly in Immich.
My specific use case: my photo collection has a lot of photos that have no exif/date OR have a different one than the exif would suggest (with the filename being the correct one). Modifying path is the easiest way to add metadata. Date is purely presentational / for the timeline. Adding it as exif would be invalid/fake.
How it would work (without having dwelved to Immich's internal workings) - the following options per External library:
- metadata path template in the Storage Template format
- (maybe) prioritise or exclusive (take this as first source when searching for metadata or ignore the exif/creation date of the file completely)
When scanning metadata, Immich would then update the file's db-stored metadata based on this setting.
Thank you, I will discuss this with the team after the holidays and let you know