topic Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home) in Camcorders

PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

nigrntv — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:10:22 GMT

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.

Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

blaireau_photo — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:19:21 GMT

Hello Niels - Welcome to the Sony Forums

I have seen this question raised before in the forums, and I think the same advice would apply here:

http://www.sony-europe.com/discussions/message/1220755

At the time, my fellow user Mick2011 suggested using an external piece of software such as Regex to create your own naming system for your video files. In this manner, you will then be able to rename and organise a number of files at the same time, hopefully putting them into an order that is easier for you to navigate through.

Thanks,

Simon

PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

cmosse — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:00:52 GMT

you can use the "Bulk Rename Utility" to batch change the date format of folders from DD.MM.YYYY to YYYY.MM.DD

All you have to do is to use the "Move/Copy" feature and run the utility two times:

1. move the last 5 digits to the first place

2. move the last 3 digits to the position 5

you can select all folders at once so the whole renaming process will be finished within seconds.

You can download the utility from here:

http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php

Message was edited by: cmosse

Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

mehesj — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 11:44:58 GMT

I have the same problem!

I think its a shame that such a simple and important inquiery can not be solved by the SW PlayMemoriesHome itself ...

I will need to archive and sort my media files from my Notebook by date after a few months/years. It is not a userfriendly solution, and maybe I will do not want to use PMH for further processing/archiving my media files.

Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

BramJacobs — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 06:36:52 GMT

This is NOT solved. 'Solved!' How arrogant! Renaming folders yyyy-mm-dd should be an easy update for PMH. Can't believe it's still not done. Shame on you Sony.

Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

Alpha.Bravo — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 21:34:45 GMT

Ha, ha, ha! Of course it is NOT SOLVED!
Anyway, this is not the solution I was looking for…

Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

darkframe — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 20:08:25 GMT

Hi,

are you using a Windows PC? If so, maybe the following helps. Unfortunately I cannot say whether this is valid for MACs too.

Anyhow, I was facing the same problem on my Windows system (German language settings). Therefore my explanation might not completely match the wording on your systems. Whatsoever, here's what I found:

In PlayMemories check whether in the Import settings you've chosen the option to sort you're videos/images into folders named after the date of recording.
That alone will not help as PlayMemories is building folder names according to the "Short Date" setting (or whatsoever it's called on English systems) of your Windows system.
Well, on my German Win 10 the respective setting can be found on the "Time and Language" page of Window's settings. On that page, close to the bottom (in my case), there's a link named "Change date and time format". Click onto this link and you'll be presented a new dialogue. There should be an entry named something like "short date". That field should read YYYY-MM-DD if you wish PlayMemories to create folders like 2018-04-09.

That's it.

Hope that this is maybe the solution for you all as well.

Cheers,

darkframe

Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

Alpha.Bravo — Tue, 01 Jan 2019 21:27:30 GMT

Dear darkframe, thank you for your help.

I am sorry for the late reply, but I didn’t notice it until now.

Yes, your suggested workaround worked, but has also changed the date format in all applications, even in the file managers and calendars.

I do not know if I can keep it permanently. Perhaps I will change the date format only when I download new files from the camera and then I will revert it back.

Wish you have a Happy New Year!

Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

darkframe — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 14:54:19 GMT

Hi @Alpha.Bravo,

now it's my task to say sorry for the late reply but I was unable to log in for some time.

Glad that I could help you! Obviously I'm not using too many other applications which have suffered from this setting, at least I cannot remember having seen any unwanted side effect (or I've forgotten and/or can live with it).

And yes, have a happy new year as well!

Cheers

darkframe

Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

edit_by_tony — Sat, 09 Feb 2019 23:02:28 GMT

This was something that was a little thing that bothered me like it was a big thing.

I was manually changing the folders from dd-mm-yyyy to yyyy-mm-dd every time I uploaded new images via SONY PlayMemories software. Then I came across this solution that was both simple & dare I say it elegant.
In windows 10 change the short date format from whatever you have it set to yyyy-mm-dd and hit save or apply.

Thats it, it works.
Danke dir,

DarkFrame

Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

darkframe — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 18:52:50 GMT

Hi @edit_by_tony,

great that it's working for you.

Thank you for the "Danke dir"!

Cheers

darkframe

Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

PaulH2021 — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 14:05:52 GMT

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

Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

PaulH2021 — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 14:07:38 GMT

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.

Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

PaulH2021 — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 14:12:16 GMT

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.

Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

Strampke — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 12:57:35 GMT

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.

Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

darkframe — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 20:24:33 GMT

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

Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

Strampke — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 22:51:19 GMT

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.

Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

PaulH2021 — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 14:01:37 GMT

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!

Re: PMH: date sorting of recording (Play Memories Home)

Strampke — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 19:01:17 GMT

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

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