How do you batch change the location and date of photos in Mac?

September 18, 2016 12:19 PM

So I took a bunch of photos on a trip to Japan and the time and date are wrong on all of them because of a mistaken camera setting. Is there a way to change the metadata for the files somehow all at once instead of one at a time?
posted by rileyray3000 to Technology (7 answers total)

Your search term is something like 'OSX batch file date change' or substitute bulk for batch.

I found this script on StackExchange which might just do the trick, and the top comment links to this script which is a bit more human-readable and explains the process a bit.

This will add or subtract time relative to the current date setting, apparently; be sure to run it multiple times on different batches if your photos have different offsets; for example, maybe the first batch of photos are just off by the time-zones, while the second batch are off because you changed the battery and the clock in the camera reset, etc.
posted by Sunburnt at 12:23 PM on September 18, 2016

In Photos, select the photos you want to change. Go to the Image menu. From there, "Adjust date and time..." That should do the trick.
posted by veggieboy at 1:20 PM on September 18, 2016

I just did this the other day. I think all I did was select all of the photos I wanted to change in iPhoto and then the menu option to change metadata applies to all of them.
posted by MsMolly at 1:20 PM on September 18, 2016

Response by poster: Unfortunately the changing time/date thing IN photos keeps you from changing location. And time/date it keeps sequencing according to when the photo's actual date is. For instance, I want ALL the photos to be at X exact time and date. It makes the first one that and then the other ones all changed by that many hours to what their current metadata date is. Which is NOT helpful. Especially when some are off by whole timezones.
posted by rileyray3000 at 3:54 PM on September 18, 2016

Ohhhhh. I bet mine didn't do that because mine were originally print photos that I scanned in, so they all had the same metadata originally. Sorry.
posted by MsMolly at 4:22 PM on September 18, 2016

You can accomplish this by using an EXIF editor to batch edit the photos. Here are links to seven for the Mac.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 4:22 PM on September 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

If I understand what you're after, it appears that Lightroom can do this: Metadata > Edit Capture Time > Adjust to a specified date and time
posted by praemunire at 5:14 PM on September 18, 2016