This is the companion script for: Video re-encode script
It uses exiftool to copy the video date atom(s) and setfile (is or was included with Apple’s Developer Tools) to change the file system dates. It will more than likely throw exiftool “File not found” errors and I’m not quite sure why. It has never failed to actually work despite this in my experience, however be very careful to not use this on your original source videos.
Hopefully the settings and prompts make sense.
(* http://strawhousepig.net/
This uses Apple's command line developer tools command 'setfile' to set the filesytem dates.
https://developer.apple.com/download/more/
I believe an Apple Developer account is required for that, but I am not sure.
Uses 'exiftool' to set track date atoms.
https://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
*)
-- Set to 'false' to omit initial dialog prompts. Does not affect final confirmation prompt.
property prompt_me : true
-- UTC timezone. Leave blank ("") to not use the timezone setting.
property tzone : "-8:00"
on run
do_it(false)
end run
on do_it(redo)
repeat
if tzone is not "" then set tzone to "-timezone=\"" & tzone & "\" " -- There is a trailing space here.
if prompt_me is true then
if button returned of (display dialog "Choose a TARGET file to set creation and modification dates of.") is "OK" then
set newfile to choose file with prompt "Select TARGET file to set creation and modified dates of:"
end if
else
set newfile to choose file with prompt "Select TARGET file to set creation and modified dates of:"
end if
set filepath to newfile as string
if prompt_me is true then
if button returned of (display dialog "Choose a SOURCE file to *get* creation and modification dates from.") is "OK" then
set oldfile to choose file with prompt "Select SOURCE file to get dates from: " & filepath
end if
else
set oldfile to choose file with prompt "Select SOURCE file to get dates from: " & filepath
end if
set newfilename to name of (info for of newfile)
if newfilename is not (name of (info for of oldfile)) then
set warn_button to button returned of (display alert "File names do not match. Proceed?" as warning buttons {"Cancel", "Start Over", "Proceed"})
if warn_button is "Cancel" then
return
else
if warn_button is "Start Over" then
set redo to true
exit repeat
end if
end if
end if
tell application "System Events" to set [c_date, m_date] to [creation date of oldfile, modification date of oldfile]
set [p_date_c, p_date_m] to [c_date, m_date] -- Saving "pretty" date for dialog prompt.
set c_date to ((month of c_date as integer) & "/" & day of c_date & "/" & year of c_date & " " & hours of c_date & ":" & minutes of c_date & ":" & seconds of c_date) as string
log c_date
set m_date to ((month of m_date as integer) & "/" & day of m_date & "/" & year of m_date & " " & hours of m_date & ":" & minutes of m_date & ":" & seconds of m_date) as string
log m_date
if button returned of (display dialog "This will set the creation and modification dates of file " & filepath & " to:" & return & return & p_date_c & return & p_date_m & return & return & "Proceed?") is "OK" then
try
-- Have to include full path to exiftool binary because AppleScript uses the Bourne shell which doesn't have /usr/local/bin in its path? *rolls eyes*
do shell script "/usr/local/bin/exiftool " & tzone & "-*date=\"`/usr/local/bin/exiftool -time:CreateDate " & quoted form of POSIX path of oldfile & "`\" -wm w " & quoted form of POSIX path of newfile
on error theErr
-- Will throw a "File not found" error if this takes over a certain amount of time. rm must be running faster than exiftool can finish?
display dialog "The 'exiftool' command said: " & theErr
end try
delay 1
try
-- Ready for this, exiftool adds "_original" to the end of the file it's going to modify tags/atoms of. This is still 'newfile' but with a new name.
-- If we manually add "_original" to 'newfile' rm will throw an error looking for newfile_original_original... Wha?
do shell script "rm " & quoted form of POSIX path of newfile
on error theErr
display dialog "The 'rm' command said: " & theErr
end try
delay 1
try
-- Ready again? The original path to 'newfile' is valid again for this... Wha??
do shell script "setfile -d '" & c_date & "' -m '" & m_date & "' " & quoted form of POSIX path of newfile
on error theErr
display dialog "The 'setfile' command said: " & theErr
end try
end if
exit repeat
end repeat
if redo then do_it(false)
end do_it