PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

[nigrntv]

I use PMH to transfer from handycam HDR-XR500VE to PlayMemories Home, but my videos and pictures are then on my PC sorted in folders in order of days from 1 to 30, independently of which month or year it was actually taken. What a mess!!!

How can I change the sorting to Year-Month-date???

Best regards and thanks from Niels.

[darkframe]

Hi @edit_by_tony,

great that it's working for you.

Thank you for the "Danke dir"! 

Cheers

darkframe

[PaulH2021]

If you do that it upsets other programs and apps on the computer.

[PaulH2021]

Obviously someone who doesn't read previous posts in the thread as they would have seen that has undesirable effects on the rest of the computer.

[PaulH2021]

Huh!  This forum needs some work as well.  One would think that clicking the reply button in a post would reply to that post, but it doesn't, it just adds to the bottom of the thread with no indication of which post it is replying to.

Hence the apparently random nature of the previous two posts, which were replying to suggestions to change the system time format.

[Strampke]

Hi,

I don't see the problem.

In PlayMemoriesHome there are many options.

One can click on view and choose for year, month, date.

One can click on camera and I can retrieve my pictures from cameras I didn't even remember I owned them.

PMH does the sorting for you.

When you log in you can upload all your pictures in the Sony cloud for free.

Sony is the only one offering unlimited cloud backup for free nowadays now that even Google limited it's free upload (except for Google Pixel owners)

The other thing is how to retrieve your pictures on your computer.

That's where BulkRenameUtility is a handy tool.

Example:

Make BRU rename all pictures in a format like YYYYMMDD_MMSS_DSCxxxxx.jpg

For jpg rename on Date Taken (original) and for video rename on Item Date

When the Bulk renaming job is done Windows Explorer will be able to find any file on your computer starting with (example) 20210707*

So there's PMH for categorising and in Windows Exporer you will be able to do a search on date.

On alternativeto.net you can find other rename utilities and select your favorite.

My pick next to BulkRenameUtility is to try OpenSource solutions.

For the brave there is Picasa, good old Picasa, abandoned quite a while ago but still alive and kicking.

I'm using it for categorising my pictures localy, just to avoid uploading everything in the cloud.

Picasa is quite good for face recognition, which makes retrieving pictures anywhere on the computer easy.

[darkframe]

Hi @Strampke,

---

@Strampke  wrote:

I don't see the problem.

In PlayMemoriesHome there are many options.

One can click on view and choose for year, month, date.

One can click on camera and I can retrieve my pictures from cameras I didn't even remember I owned them.

PMH does the sorting for you.

---

yes, that's correct but some people, including me, would like PMH to create folders named in a YYYY-MM-DD scheme when using it to copy images from the camera onto hard disk. However, PMH is using Windows' setting "short date" for the creation of folder names which e.g. in Germany leads to 14.12.2021 instead of 2021-12-14 when you're using the standard setting.

Now, due to the sorting algorithm (normally ascending) the Explorer will display folders like in the following sequence (standard short date setting) in this order:

14.01.2021

14.02.2019

14.03.2021

If you set the Explorer to sort descending the year 2019 would still be shown in the middle.

However, I'd like to have them sorted like this:

2019-02-14

2021-01-14

2021-03-14

That's where changing the short date setting to YYYY-MM-DD can be used to alter the way in which PMH names folders during import. In case of any negative effect regarding other programmes you can change this setting back to standard quickly. The names of the created folders won't be changed thereafter and the sorting will still be working.

In fact it's a workaround. It would be easier if you could tell PMH to name folders regardless of Windows' date setting.

Cheers

darkframe

[Strampke]

Hi @darkframe 

You wrote:

Explorer will display folders like in the following sequence (standard short date setting) in this order:

14.01.2021

14.02.2019

14.03.2021

If you set the Explorer to sort descending the year 2019 would still be shown in the middle.

However, I'd like to have them sorted like this:

2019-02-14

2021-01-14

2021-03-14

I do understand your problem.

As you and others mentioned, changing the Windows date naming can cause unwanted side effects. So better avoid it.

My suggestion is as follows:

Let PMH download the lot in a directory and subderectory you selected.

Then use BulkRenameUtility go to the directrory above the directories created by PMH.

Use the right mouse button and select BRU.

The subdirectories will be displayed.

You can select a one, a few or the lot and change the names of these directories to 20190214, 2021-01-14, 2021.03.14 or whatever you like.

Choose date created for formatting.

Save this configuration for later and in the future your renaming style will popup the moment you have started BRU.

Simple as that.

When you open PMH you will see that nothing has changed.

Your files will be accessible as before.

In Explorer you will see your directories sorted the way you want it.

People who have a little courage  install Picasa, choose one of the latest versions of this program.

Picasa imports your files even more swift and easy than PMH plus it creates the directories in the YYYY-MM-DD format at once.

Picasa shows you the location where your pictures were taken (read the Howtos howto), it does automagic face recognition and everything offline on your own computer.

[PaulH2021]

What a ridiculous faff, and having to it every time.

I've resigned myself to being lumbered with reversed dates, but it's started a new trick now which is downloading pictures taken today into a new folder dated yesterday!

[Strampke]

Beter go with the flow and choose your own software weapons than fighting windmills.

Enjoy, don't try to bend metal with your hands.