Add <Date of media created> in filename patterns

[charly81509]

Thank you for developing such a wonderful software. I use it almost every day to compress audio recordings created with iPhone for archiving purposes. To make this a better tool for productivity use, I suggest including <Date of media created> in filename patterns. Currently the available time related file patterns are <currentdate> and <currentdate>, which are not useful for organizing files that should be organized by the time of creation.

Thank you.

[Lee-Carre]

<currentdate> and <currentdate>

Hmm? They're the same. Typo?

useful for organizing files that should be organized by the time of creation.

Surely it would be better to use the file-system's own metadata for that, and have your file-manager sort files by that (instead of by name)?

Perhaps the problem you're encountering is that the original dates aren't being preserved during processing (transcoding, or whatever)?

Unless, by “organise”, you mean arrange them into per-date sub-directories, which would be different.

Could you, more generally, describe what you're trying to do; at the goal-level, rather than presuming what the next step would be. Read How to Ask Questions the Smart Way § Before You Ask § Describe the Goal, not the Step. There may well be a different (possibly better) approach, to solve the goal.

[charly81509]

<currentdate> and <currentdate>

Hmm? They're the same. Typo?

Yes these were typos. I meant "currenttime" and "currentdate"

Could you, more generally, describe what you're trying to do; at the goal-level, rather than presuming what the next step would be.

Thank you. I was trying to include "Date of media created" in filename patterns when outputting files. I would like to allow all output files to be arranged by filename containing media creation date information.

I don't like relying on metadata to sort files because, it's quite common to find that the metadata of files isn't preserved or is changed after processing. This may not only happen with fre: ac but also potentially with other apps. Thus what I always do is to put key information in filename and use filename for sorting.

Hope the above explanation is clearer.

[Lee-Carre]

I don't like relying on metadata to sort files because, it's quite common to find that the metadata of files isn't preserved or is changed after processing. This may not only happen with fre: ac but also potentially with other apps. Thus what I always do is to put key information in filename and use filename for sorting.

But, why would a file's datestamp for when it was generated, change in future? Maybe the last-modified datestamp, but not the ‘created’ one, surely?

What purpose does knowing the time you extracted the audio, matter?

[charly81509]

Hi Lee,

Thanks for the follow up. The audio files I processed were iPhone memo recordings. Their metadata denoted the date of creation on the iPhone. What matter to me for the file arrangement are the dates when these audio memo were recorded, not the date I processed them with fre: ac. However the metadata would not be preserved after fre:ac processing.

Thank you

Charly

On Wed, Sep 6, 2023 at 6:07 AM Lee Carré @.***> wrote:

I don't like relying on metadata to sort files because, it's quite common to find that the metadata of files isn't preserved or is changed after processing. This may not only happen with fre: ac but also potentially with other apps. Thus what I always do is to put key information in filename and use filename for sorting.

But, why would a file's datestamp for when it was generated, change in future? Maybe the last-modified datestamp, but not the ‘created’ one, surely?

What purpose does knowing the time you extracted the audio, matter?

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[Lee-Carre]

However[,] the metadata would not be preserved after fre:ac processing.

There's a configuration option to preserve the last-modified timestamp.

Failing that, you could use a filesystem tool to set the file's dates to match whatever you want.

Simpler still (drawing on my experience of preserving recordings generated by an Olympus LS-10); use filenames with ascending values, so that they're sorted in order by default; when starting each voice memo/note, include a pre-ample:

• date, time
• subject/purpose

This way, it's encoded into the actual audio, itself, so that even if the timestamps are lost or otherwise messed up, you've still got the context.

On MS Windows, you can use the robocopy CLI tool to preserve datestamps of files copied from elsewhere.

Their metadata denoted the date of creation on the iPhone. What matter to me for the file arrangement are the dates when these audio memo were recorded

Have your file manager interrogate & use that tag value, to group/sort files.