dsmurrell / photocopier

Chronologically arrange your photos and videos, ensuring no duplicates.

Photocopier: Organize and De-duplicate Your Media

Photocopier is a Python script that organizes your images and videos by date and ensures you don't copy the same file twice. This is especially useful for large photo libraries where organization can get chaotic over time.

🌟 Features

• Organization by Date: Rearranges your media into folders by year and month.
• De-duplication: Uses MD5 hashing to avoid copying the same media file twice.
• Stock Take: A mode to get a quick overview of the extensions and the number of files in the source directory.
• Logging: Detailed logging to provide insight into the process.

🔧 Prerequisites

• Python 3.6 or higher

• Required Python libraries: pyexifinfo, click, hashlib, os, shutil, datetime

  Install them using:

  pip install click pyexifinfo

🚀 Usage

Basic Organization

Copy and organize your images:

python photocopier.py /path/to/source /path/to/destination

Stock Take Mode

For a stock take of extensions in the source directory:

python photocopier.py /path/to/source /path/to/destination -s

🛠 How It Works

1. Stock Take (Optional): Analyzes the source directory to display the number of files and the file extensions.
2. Load Existing Hashes: Before organizing, the script checks a hash file (copied_hashes.txt) in the destination directory to see which files have been previously copied.
3. Organization: Each media file is read, its date is extracted (from metadata or the file's modification date), and it's copied into the appropriate year-month directory.
4. Avoiding Duplicates: Each media file's MD5 hash is calculated. If the hash exists in the hashes file, it's skipped; otherwise, it's copied to the destination and the hash is saved.

💡 Note: The copied_hashes.txt file is essential and should not be deleted. It resides in the destination directory and serves as a record of what's already been copied. Deleting this file would lose that record and may result in duplicates.

🖥️ Output

Whenever a hash exists, a dot (.) is printed to show that this file has been found in your library already. When a file is not found and copied across, a plus (+) is printed. The output can look something like this:

🤝 Contributing

If you find any issues or have suggestions, feel free to open an issue or make a pull request.