Batch change date by 1 year

[hhost05]

I know you can off set the time of a batch of photos by a certain number of hours (+8hrs). But I need to do this for years (e.g. keep the time and date, but change the year from 2015 to 2017). I need to do this for a few thousand photos. Is there any way I can automate it?

[F. McLion]

I never tried, however, you can do this with the same tool in LR you use for the hours offset.

Lr will keep the offset from the most selected to the other selected images and will correct accordingly.

[johnrellis · Accepted solution]

To build on F. McLion's reply, this article explains in detail how Edit Capture Time can do what you want: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/articles-page/time-camera-incorrect-change-capture-time/

[Curt Wrigley]

Unfortunately, there is still not a way to change the date on a batch of photos and not have the time reference ripple from the "most selected" photo to the others.   This is a disaster if you try to change the date on  a batch of photos all taken the same day but scanned in dozens of different dates/times.

I archive a lot of images from scanning and have to use exiftool to change the dates because lightroom can not do it unless you do one at a time.  All the other metadata LR does fine, but not create dates.

[johnrellis]

there is still not a way to change the date on a batch of photos and not have the time reference ripple from the "most selected" photo to the others.   ...and have to use exiftool...

The Capture Time To Exif plugin provides a convenient way to do this without having to run ExifTool from outside LR.

Though many of us rely on LR as a digital asset manager for scans and other documents, Adobe has always focused on its original conception of LR as a workflow tool for photographers using digital cameras, and it's given very low priority to bug fixes and feature requests for other DAM uses.

[Curt Wrigley]

Thank you for the reply

The link does not work for me.  but i found it here: In-Lightroom interface for Exiftool

This is exiftool.exe with a lightroom plugin gui.  Ill try it out, but its not too much different than what I am already doing (except this costs money)

How hard would it be to put a checkbox in LR that says "dont ripple date"!  Very frustrating.

[johnrellis]

I see you voted for the feature request in the official Adobe feedback forum, good: Lightroom: Edit Capture Time issue - Need a way to set all photos selected to same date & time | Pho... . Adobe product developers read everything posted there but are rarely seen in this forum.

The feature is quite easy to implement. The Photoshop Elements Organizer has had the feature for at least ten years.

[Curt Wrigley]

Thanks for your comments.  It at least comforts me that I am not the only one puzzled by the lack of this feature.

Also, many people do not even understand that it is a problem.  Folks that only take digital pictures dont get how frustrating this is for large batches of scanned images.

Thanks for your comments, and understanding.  Im trying the lightroom plugin now to see if that flows faster than an external tool

[Curt Wrigley]

Thanks again.  I just processed a bunch of photos using the plugin you pointed me to.  It is a better process than using the external tool.  Thanks for the tip.