How can I modify the date format in Autoimporter?

Question

I am finding it impossible to get my iMac recognise my Canon SX200 camera and thus allow Picasa to import its pics.  Autoimporter, though, does see it and will create and populate a usefully date-named folder with them.
Useful up to a point - Autoimporter's date is in the system's format (for me, dd-mm-yyyy) which does not allow the folders to fall naturally into date order in Picasa.  International date format (yyyy-mm-dd) would be ideal.
Can anyone advice how Autoimporter's date format can be modified, please?
Or tell how they got their Canon SX200 to be recognised by Picasa?

Answer 1

I actually use a pretty manual solution for this with a few command line tools: ExifTool, bash, and AppleScript. It's fairly raw, but here's the process in case you're intereted.
First, make sure ExifTool is working. Install it if needed.
Create a bash script that moves the photos from your auto-import folder to yyyy-mm-dd folders.
Here's a sample bash script:
#!/bin/bash
SOURCE_DIR=“/Users/yourusername/Pictures/Imported"
DEST_DIR=“/Users/yourusername/Pictures"
if [ -d $DEST_DIR ]; then
     for i in $( find $SOURCE_DIR -type f ) ; do
          mkdir -p $(exiftool -d $DEST_DIR/%y%y-%m%m-%d%d/ -p '$DateTimeOriginal' $i);
          mv -n $i $DEST_DIR/$(stat -t %y%y-%m%m-%d%d $i | awk '{print $12}' | sed s/\"//g )/;
     done
fi
Create an AppleScript file that calls the bash script, example:
do shell script "~/bin/movephotos.sh”
Then right-click the folder where you auto-import files, go to Services > Folder Actions Setup, and connect the bash script as an action for the folder.
For more details, see http://designsimply.com/2013/12/30/moving-iphone-photos-with-autoimporter-exifto ol-bash-applescript/