How to find photos with no original or digitized date?

Question

I have probably 500-1000 photos that have neither Original or Digitized Date info. They are scattered all throughout my iPhoto library (30,000). They do have Modified and Imported Dates; but of course, not only do those dates differ (sometimes substantially) from when the photo was taken, iPhoto seems to use the Modified Date for sorting purposes if the Original Date isn't there. That means these "dateless" photos are way out of sequence when View, Sort Photos is set to By Date.
What I need is some way to easily find these photos. I can't set the date search feature to a "null" value, nor can I create a smart album that filters for a null date value. If I slowly scroll through all my photos and watch the numbers carefully, I can usually see which photos have no Original Date because they're out of sequence, but with 30,000 photos, that's going to take forever.
Does anyone know any tricks or third-party software for this?
Thanks!

Answer 1

If a file doesn't have an EXIF date then the file created/modified date is used by iPhoto. Files that have been scanned or optimized for web use fall into that category.
The demo version ofMedia Expression can catalog an iPhoto library and then with a search for Date is after 1/1/84 you will find all files with an EXIF date. After applying a label to all found you can display all files without a label which would be your files. How you would then identify those so that they can be found in iPhoto I don't know. Any keywords you might add or other metadata would not be recognized by iPhoto unless they were reimported. If you are interested in trying that post back and I can give you a workflow. It would involve creating a new library and importing the Originals folder of the old library after you run Expression Media on it to embed the keywords (those from iPhoto and those you add to the dateless files), titles and comments to the files. It can be done but might be a bit involved.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
Note: There's now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.