A PowerShell script to organize photos by date taken

PhotoOrganizer.ps1

Param(
    [string]$source, 
    [string]$dest, 
    [string]$format = "yyyy/yyyy-MM/yyyy-MM-dd"
)

$shell = New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application

function Get-File-Date {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    Param (
        $object
    )

    $dir = $shell.NameSpace( $object.Directory.FullName )
    $file = $dir.ParseName( $object.Name )

    # First see if we have Date Taken, which is at index 12
    $date = Get-Date-Property-Value $dir $file 12

    if ($null -eq $date) {
        # If we don't have Date Taken, then find the oldest date from all date properties
        0..287 | ForEach-Object {
            $name = $dir.GetDetailsof($dir.items, $_)

            if ( $name -match '(date)|(created)') {
            
                # Only get value if date field because the GetDetailsOf call is expensive
                $tmp = Get-Date-Property-Value $dir $file $_
                if ( ($null -ne $tmp) -and (($null -eq $date) -or ($tmp -lt $date))) {
                    $date = $tmp
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return $date
}

function Get-Date-Property-Value {
    [CmdletBinding()]

    Param (
        $dir,
        $file,
        $index
    )

    $value = ($dir.GetDetailsof($file, $index) -replace "`u{200e}") -replace "`u{200f}"
    if ($value -and $value -ne '' -and $value -match '../../.... ..:..') {
        return [DateTime]::ParseExact($value, 'dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm', $null)
    }
    return $null
}

Get-ChildItem -Attributes !Directory $source -Recurse | 
Foreach-Object {
    Write-Host "Processing $_"

    $date = Get-File-Date $_

    if ($date) {
    
        $destinationFolder = Get-Date -Date $date -Format $format
        $destinationPath = Join-Path -Path $dest -ChildPath $destinationFolder

        # If the file is already in the right place, then skip it
        $newFullName = Join-Path -Path $destinationPath -ChildPath $_.Name
        if ($_.FullName -eq $newFullName) {
            Write-Host "Skipping: Source file and destination files are at the same location. $_"    
            return
        }
        
        # See if the destination file (hard link) exists and skip if it does
        if (Test-Path $newFullName) {
            Write-Host "Skipping: Destination file already exists. $_"
            return
        }

        Write-Host "Creating hard link of $_ in $newFullName"

        # Create the destination directory if it doesn't exist
        if (!(Test-Path $destinationPath)) {
            New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $destinationPath
        }

        $path = ($destinationPath + "\" + $_.Name)
        $target = ($_.DirectoryName + "\" + $_.Name)

        # Creates a hard link https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/hard-links-and-junctions#hard-links
        New-Item -ItemType HardLink -Path $path -Target $target | out-null

        # OR: move the files instead of creating a hard link
        # robocopy $_.DirectoryName $destinationPath $_.Name /mov | out-null
    }
}

Changes from the original gist:

• Creates a Hard Link rather than moving the files.
• Skips files that already exist in the destination, rather than renaming them.
• Changed to UK date format,
• Piped output to out-null for cleaner output.