A photo file can hold hundreds of metadata tags, but any one job needs about a dozen. The Workspace is ExifToolGui’s answer: a definition of exactly which tags the Metadata panel shows and lets you edit. In V6.3.12, maintained by Frank Bijnen as a fork of Bogdan Hrastnik’s GUI for Phil Harvey’s ExifTool, the Workspace manager lets you define that tag set, save it under a name, and load it whenever the job comes around again.

This guide explains how workspace definitions work, how they are stored, and how to build three practical panels: one for date repair, one for descriptive credit work, and one for location review. It underpins editing Artist, Copyright and Keywords and every other tutorial in the Tutorials hub. The program itself is on the download page.

What a Workspace Definition Actually Is

A workspace definition is a list of tags. The Metadata panel renders that list for the selected file, showing current values and offering the listed fields for editing. Change the definition and the same file suddenly presents a different face: a date panel shows capture times and nothing else, while a rights panel shows Artist, Copyright and Keywords. Nothing in the file changes when you switch panels; only your view and editing surface change.

Definitions are managed in the Workspace manager, the menu the GUI has carried since the original documentation. Settings are stored in ExifToolGUIV6.ini beside the program, and definitions can be saved and loaded as named files through Export and Import, with names in the style of MyWorkspace_XMP.ini given as the documentation’s example.

Build a Panel: Add Tags in the Forms V6 Accepts

Open the Workspace manager and start from the default definition rather than a blank page. Remove tags you never touch, then add the ones your job needs. V6.3.12’s release notes state that file-list and Workspace field definitions accept tag forms G0:G1:Tag, G1:Tag, G0:Tag or a bare Tag, so you can name a tag loosely when only one exists, or pin it to a specific group when precision matters.

Order the fields the way you work through them, top to bottom, because you will tab through this panel on every file of a batch. A small panel you fully understand beats a forty-field panel that shows everything and gets used for nothing. Save the result under a job name, not a date, so future-you can find it by purpose.

• Start from the default definition and prune it.
• Add job tags using bare or group-qualified names.
• Save under a purpose name, for example a dates panel.

Three Panels Worth Building First

A date panel groups DateTimeOriginal and its EXIF and XMP companions, supporting the fixes in changing DateTimeOriginal. A credit panel groups Artist, Copyright and Keywords for the workflow in the Artist and Copyright guide. A location panel groups the GPS tags, which makes reviewing what a sharing copy would reveal, before removal, a ten-second check.

Build each panel when the job first appears, not in advance. A panel designed against real files, with the fields you actually reached for, matches the work. Export the finished definitions as files and keep them with your photo-workflow notes; they are plain configuration, small enough to back up with the archive they serve.

Switch Panels Per Job, Share Them Per Machine

Switching definitions is a view change, so it is safe to do mid-session and mid-folder: load the location panel to audit a set, then the credit panel to stamp it, then the date panel to fix its timeline, all against the same selection. This is the rhythm that makes batch-editing a whole folder feel organised rather than improvised.

Because definitions export and import as files, a panel built on one Windows machine moves to another with your setup, and a team or a household can share one standard credit panel so every archive carries identical fields. Keep the exported files beside your ExifToolGUIV6.ini backup, and a rebuilt machine returns to your exact working layout in minutes.

Keep Panels Small Enough to Actually Use

Resist rebuilding the entire tag universe into one panel. A workspace earns its place when every field on it gets touched regularly; fields added for completeness slow the tab order, crowd the panel and get skipped mentally, which is when errors slip into the fields beside them. If a tag matters twice a year, it belongs in a specialist panel loaded for that job, not in your daily definition.

Version your exported definitions the way you would any configuration: when you change a panel, export the new version under the same purpose name and keep the previous export until the new one has survived a real batch. Panels are small files, and the ability to return to yesterday’s layout after an experiment is worth more than the disk space the old export occupies.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where are workspace definitions stored?
In ExifToolGUIV6.ini beside the program, and they can also be exported and imported as named definition files, for example MyWorkspace_XMP.ini.

Does switching workspaces change my photos?
No. A workspace only defines which tags are shown and edited. Files change only when you edit a value and save it to the selected files.

How do I name a tag that exists in several groups?
Field definitions accept qualified forms: G0:G1:Tag, G1:Tag, G0:Tag, or a bare Tag when no qualification is needed.

A personal set of small, purpose-built panels is the difference between a generic metadata viewer and your metadata workshop. Build them job by job via the Tutorials hub, and every later task in ExifToolGui gets faster.

Descriptive metadata is how a photo carries its author, its rights and its subjects with it. The three workhorses are Artist (who made it), Copyright (the rights statement) and Keywords (what it shows). ExifToolGui edits all of them through its Workspace: in V6.3.12, maintained by Frank Bijnen as a fork of Bogdan Hrastnik’s GUI for Phil Harvey’s ExifTool, the Workspace is the editing surface, and users define which tags are shown and edited there.

This guide covers setting the three tag groups on single files and on batches, reusing values across a folder, and verifying what was actually stored. It pairs naturally with batch-editing a whole folder and Workspaces explained, all in the Tutorials hub. The program is on the download page.

Find or Add the Tags in Your Workspace

Select a photo and look for Artist, Copyright and the keyword fields in the Workspace panel. These descriptive tags appear in the default workspace examples described in the GUI’s documentation, where Artist is a standard shown tag. If a field you need is missing, the Workspace manager is where tag sets are defined: add the tag to the definition once, and it stays available for every later session.

V6 field definitions accept several tag forms, noted in the V6.3.12 release: G0:G1:Tag, G1:Tag, G0:Tag or a bare Tag name. In plain terms, you can address a tag generally or specify its metadata group when the same name exists in more than one group, which matters for descriptive fields that live in EXIF, IPTC and XMP in parallel.

Write Artist and Copyright Once, Correctly

Type the Artist value as the name you want credited everywhere the file travels, and the Copyright value as a complete rights statement, for example the copyright symbol, year and name in the form you use professionally. Consistency matters more than cleverness: the same string across your whole archive makes credit searches and rights checks reliable.

The original GUI manual documents a handy reuse pattern through ExifTool direct: copying one stored tag into another, shown there as -Exif:Copyright

• One consistent Artist string across the archive.
• Copyright as a complete rights statement.
• Artist and Copyright kept in agreement.

Add Keywords That Describe, Not Decorate

Keywords pay off when they describe what a future search would ask: the place, the subject, the event, the people where appropriate. Add them in the Workspace’s keyword field for the selected file, using a small, repeatable vocabulary rather than inventing synonyms per photo. The same word for the same subject across years is what makes a keyword archive searchable.

For a folder from one event, most keywords are shared: select the whole set, apply the shared terms in one batch save, then open individual standout photos and add their specific terms. That two-layer approach, uniform base plus per-photo specifics, keeps batch speed without flattening every photo’s description into the same generic set.

Save to the Selection and Verify Storage

Saving in the Workspace writes the entered values to all selected files through ExifTool. As with every write in this program, verify by re-reading: click to another file and back, and confirm the stored Artist, Copyright and Keywords are what you intended, on the first and last files of a batch at minimum.

These three tag groups are exactly what stock and marketplace pipelines read, so the same verification habit carries into preparing photo metadata for marketplaces. They are also the tags worth keeping when you clean a sharing copy: strip location, keep credit, as strip metadata before sharing explains.

Build a Small Keyword Vocabulary and Keep It

The difference between a searchable archive and a pile of tags is a controlled vocabulary: a short written list of the keyword forms you use, singular or plural settled, place names spelled one way, people’s names in one format. Keep the list with your workspace exports. When a new subject appears, add its term to the list first, then to the photos, so next year’s shoot uses the same word this year’s did.

Review the vocabulary when you prepare marketplace sets, because buyer language and archive language genuinely differ in the words, the spelling conventions and even the level of detail a searcher expects to find. Your archive may file a shoot under a family surname where a marketplace buyer searches for an activity or a concept. The Workspace makes adding the commercial terms to the upload copies a short batch job, and your masters keep the archival vocabulary untouched, each set of terms serving its own audience.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I edit Artist and Copyright in the GUI?
In the Workspace. It is the editing surface of ExifToolGui: the Workspace manager defines which tags are shown, and values are edited inline and saved to the selected files.

Can I apply the same credit to a whole folder?
Yes. Select the folder’s files and save the Artist and Copyright values once; the GUI writes them to every selected file in the batch.

Do keywords belong in one group only?
Descriptive tags can exist across EXIF, IPTC and XMP. Workspace field definitions can address a specific group using the G0:G1:Tag style forms when that precision is needed.

Credit, rights and subjects, written once and written consistently, travel with the file forever. For the panel-building side of this workflow, continue with ExifToolGui Workspaces explained in the Tutorials hub.

Camera file names such as IMG_4832 tell you nothing and collide between cameras. Names built from the capture date sort chronologically in any program, survive moves between folders, and make two cameras’ files interleave in true order. ExifToolGui V6.3.12, Frank Bijnen’s maintained fork of Bogdan Hrastnik’s GUI for Phil Harvey’s ExifTool, includes renaming from DateTime in its Modify menu, and ExifTool itself is documented as renaming files and organising them by date or other metadata.

Renaming trusts the stored capture date completely, so this guide starts there: a wrong DateTimeOriginal produces confidently wrong names. Fix dates first with changing DateTimeOriginal or shifting EXIF time, then rename. More workflows are in the Tutorials hub; the program is on the download page.

Fix and Verify Dates Before Any Renaming

Sort the folder by DateTimeOriginal in the file list and scan for outliers: a file dated years away from its neighbours, or a run of files stamped with a camera’s factory default date, will be renamed into the wrong place in the sequence. Correct those files first, individually or by an offset shift, and re-check the sorted order until the timeline looks true.

Pay special attention to merged sets. Two cameras with two different clock errors produce a merged folder whose files interleave wrongly even though each camera’s internal order looks fine. Align both cameras to true time before renaming the combined set, or the new names will bake the misalignment in permanently.

Choose the Modify Menu Renaming Entry

Select the files to rename and open the Modify menu. The V6 documentation lists file renaming entries in the style of File: Name=DateTime+Name, which build the new name from the file’s DateTime value. Using the stored DateTime means the name reflects when the photo was taken, not when the file was copied or exported, which is precisely the property that makes date-based names useful in an archive.

Rename in a copied test folder first and live with the result for a minute. Check that the names read well, that files from a burst taken within one second do not collide, and that the folder sorted by name now matches the folder sorted by capture date. Only then run the same operation on the real set.

• Dates verified in sorted view first.
• Test rename on a copied folder.
• Name-sorted order matches date-sorted order.

Handle Bursts, Duplicates and Mixed Types

Fast shooting produces several files with the same second, and exports can add same-named companions such as a JPEG beside a RAW file. A date-based scheme must keep those files distinct and adjacent. After the test rename, look specifically at the densest burst in the set: every frame should still exist, with names that keep the sequence unambiguous.

Mixed folders of photos and videos can also share timestamps. If the result in the test folder tangles types together in a way you dislike, split the batch by type and rename each group separately. The operation is cheap to repeat; untangling a badly renamed mixed batch by hand is not.

What Renaming Does Not Change

Renaming changes file names only. The metadata inside the files, including DateTimeOriginal itself, stays as it was, which is why the date work had to come first. Sharing copies renamed this way also still carry whatever metadata they carried, so a renamed file is not a cleaned file: use strip metadata before sharing for copies that leave your machine.

Keep a note of the scheme you used in the archive folder if a Library spans many years. Consistent naming across years is what turns renaming from a one-off tidy into a retrieval system: any file’s name then tells you when it was taken before you open it, in any tool, on any system.

A Naming Scheme You Can Keep for Years

Choose the simplest scheme that answers your retrieval questions. For most archives the capture date, with enough time detail to order a day’s shooting, plus a short sequence or the original name fragment, is sufficient, which is the spirit of the Modify menu’s DateTime-based entries. Schemes that try to encode place, subject and camera into every file name become brittle, because those facts belong in metadata, where they can be edited without renaming anything.

Apply the scheme to new imports as they arrive rather than in annual purges. A folder renamed on import joins a consistent archive immediately, and the habit reinforces the date checks that renaming depends on: a new set whose dates are wrong gets fixed while you still remember the shoot, not discovered years later when the evidence for the true date has faded.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does renaming use the capture date or the file date?
The Modify renaming functions build names from the file’s stored DateTime metadata, the capture time, not the Windows file-system date of the copy.

What if two photos share the exact same second?
Check bursts in a test rename first. The files must remain distinct after renaming; if a scheme collides, split the set or adjust the approach before renaming originals.

Should I rename before or after editing metadata?
Dates first, always: renaming reads DateTimeOriginal. Descriptive edits such as keywords can happen before or after, since they do not affect the name.

Date-based names make an archive self-sorting forever. Combine this with accurate dates and clean descriptive tags from the Tutorials hub, and a folder explains itself without any catalogue software at all.

Editing photos one at a time does not scale past a handful of files. ExifToolGui was designed for the opposite approach: its earliest documentation already states the goal that you can select multiple files and modify them at once. In the current V6.3.12, maintained by Frank Bijnen as a fork of Bogdan Hrastnik’s GUI for Phil Harvey’s ExifTool, batch work flows through two surfaces: the Workspace for tag values, and the Modify menu for operations such as date shifts and metadata removal.

This guide gives the safe batch pattern that every other tutorial on this site relies on: prepare copies, select deliberately, apply once, and verify by re-reading. Specialised batch jobs have their own guides, including shifting EXIF time and removing all metadata. Find them all in the Tutorials hub; the program is on the download page.

Select Deliberately: The Batch Is the Selection

Every batch operation in the GUI applies to the files currently selected in the file list, no more and no less. That makes selection the safety-critical step. Open exactly the folder you intend to change, sort or filter it so the target files are together, and select them as one conscious act. A stray file included by a careless select-all inherits the edit, whether it needed it or not.

Mixed folders deserve two smaller batches instead of one big one. Files from two cameras may need different date offsets; originals and exports may need different descriptive tags. Splitting by need takes a minute and prevents the classic batch injury, where one correct operation is applied to a set it only half fits.

• Open only the folder you intend to change.
• Sort so target files are together before selecting.
• Split mixed sets into per-need batches.

Apply Tag Values Through the Workspace

For descriptive values, the Workspace is the batch surface: it shows the tags in your current workspace definition, you enter the value once, and saving writes it to all selected files through ExifTool. This is how a folder gains a uniform Artist, Copyright or keyword set in one pass, a workflow detailed in editing Artist, Copyright and Keywords.

Think about which values are truly uniform. Copyright and photographer credit usually are; captions and per-photo keywords usually are not, and stamping one caption across a whole folder destroys information. Batch the uniform fields here, and leave per-photo fields for individual edits afterwards, when the bulk of the work is already done.

Apply Operations Through the Modify Menu

The Modify menu holds the batch operations that are not simple value typing: DateTime shift and DateTime equalize for clock and timezone problems, renaming from DateTime for file names, geotagging from a log file, and the Remove metadata entries for cleaning. Each operates on the current selection in one run, which is why the preparation in the first section matters so much.

Run one operation at a time and verify before starting the next. Chaining three unverified batch operations makes any error hard to attribute: you will know something is wrong without knowing which step caused it. A verified step-by-step sequence, shift then equalize then rename, stays debuggable at every stage.

Verify by Re-Reading, Then Scale Up

After any batch, click away from the selection and click back, or reopen the folder, so the GUI re-reads the files from disk. Check the first file, a middle file and the last file against what the operation should have produced. Re-reading matters because the stored file is the truth; a value visible in an editing field is only a claim until the file itself shows it.

Prove the whole pattern on a copied folder of a dozen files before running it on a full archive. Once the pattern is proven, the same steps scale to hundreds of files unchanged, which is the real productivity of this program: careful once, then fast. For a panel layout that makes repeated batches quicker, see ExifToolGui Workspaces explained.

Order of Operations for Multi-Step Batches

When a folder needs several kinds of batch work, order the steps so each one can rely on the previous result. Dates come first, because renaming and geotagging both read capture times. Descriptive stamping comes next, on files whose dates are final. Removal operations come last and usually on a separate copy set, because a cleaned sharing file should be derived from the finished master, not edited further afterwards.

Write the intended order down for any batch larger than a screenful of files, even as a three-line note. Under interruption, and batches do get interrupted, the note is what tells you which steps the folder has already received. Re-running a value stamp is harmless; re-running an offset shift doubles the shift. Knowing which steps are done is therefore not bookkeeping, it is the difference between a resumed batch and a corrupted one.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many files can I edit at once?
Batch editing of multiple selected files is a core design goal of the GUI. In practice, prove the operation on a small copied set first, then apply it to the full selection.

What happens if one file in the batch is read-only?
A file that cannot be written cannot be changed, so check for read-only or locked files if a batch result looks incomplete, and re-run the operation on the affected files after fixing them.

Should batch edits go on originals or copies?
Copies, until the operation is proven. Keep untouched backups of irreplaceable photos, run the batch on duplicates, verify, and only then repeat it on originals if needed.

Selection, one operation, re-read verification: that rhythm makes every batch in ExifToolGui safe. Continue in the Tutorials hub with the specialised batch jobs, dates, geotagging and renaming, or clean a sharing set with the guides in the Metadata Tasks hub.

A GPS track log records where a logger or phone was, second by second. If your camera was with that logger, each photo’s capture time points at one spot on the track, and the position can be copied into the photo as GPS metadata. ExifToolGui V6.3.12, Frank Bijnen’s fork of Bogdan Hrastnik’s GUI for Phil Harvey’s ExifTool, supports geotagging files in batch from a log file, and ExifTool itself documents geotagging from track logs with time drift correction.

Success depends almost entirely on time. The photo timestamps must be accurate before you start, so fix a wrong camera clock first with shifting EXIF time by an offset. This guide then covers choosing the reference time, running the batch, and checking results on the map. It sits in the Tutorials hub; the program is on the download page.

Prepare: Accurate Times and a Matching Log

Gather the photos and the track log that covers the same outing. The log must contain the time window in which the photos were taken; a photo outside the logged window has no position to match and will be left without coordinates. Check a photo taken at a recognisable place, such as the start of a walk, and confirm its DateTimeOriginal is right to within a minute or so.

The V6 documentation flags a PC timezone note for this workflow, and it deserves attention: matching is done by comparing timestamps, so the timezone basis of the camera times and the log times must be understood before you run the batch. If the camera recorded local time and the log is in UTC, apply the offset to the photos first, otherwise every photo will be matched hours away from where it belongs.

• Photos and log cover the same time window.
• Camera clock verified against a known moment.
• Timezone basis of photos and log reconciled.

Run the Batch Geotag From the Log File

Select the files to geotag in the file list, then use the GUI’s geotagging function with your log file. The documented flow is: select the files, choose the log, and choose the Reference DateTime value the matching should use. The GUI, through ExifTool, then looks up each file’s capture time in the track and writes the corresponding latitude and longitude into the file’s GPS tags.

Work on copies for the first run, as with every batch write in this program. Geotagging adds tags rather than changing existing descriptive metadata, but a wrong timezone assumption writes confidently wrong positions into hundreds of files at once, and removing a bad batch is slower than testing a small one. Ten photos are enough to prove the setup before you select the whole folder.

Check Positions on the Map Pane

After the batch, open the map view and step through several photos, including the recognisable one from your preparation. Their markers should fall on or near the route in the log, at the places you remember. The V6 GUI shows an OpenStreetMap-based map (MapTiler layers, updated in V6.3.12, need the optional WebView2 components) and the original GUI tradition also allows manual placement: select files and write the map position into them, which is the right fix for a photo whose time was too far off to match.

Scattered markers far from the route almost always mean a time problem, not a log problem: return to the offset guide, correct the times, delete the wrong coordinates using the removal steps in removing GPS and location data, and geotag again from clean copies.

Decide What to Do With the Coordinates Afterwards

Geotagged originals are valuable in your own library: mapping software, timelines and place searches all use the GPS tags. The same tags deserve a decision before anything is published, because a precise coordinate reveals where a photo was taken. Many photographers keep geotagged masters at home and strip location only from copies they share.

That sharing-side workflow is covered in strip metadata before sharing or selling photos, and the removal mechanics are in remove GPS and location data from photos. Geotag first, archive the geotagged masters, and clean only the copies that leave your machine.

Keep the Log With the Photos

Archive the track log file alongside the geotagged folder. Months later, the log is the evidence for why a photo carries its coordinates, and it is the raw material you need if you ever re-geotag the set with corrected times. A log stored in a downloads folder that gets cleaned monthly will not survive to serve either purpose, while a copy in the shoot folder costs a few kilobytes.

Also record, in the folder or your archive notes, which reference time basis the matching used and any offset you applied to the photos first. Geotagging results are only reproducible when those two facts survive. A future re-run, on a new computer with a fresh ExifToolGui V6.3.12 setup, should be able to reproduce your positions exactly from the log, the photos and that note.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did some photos get no coordinates?
Their capture times fell outside the track log’s window, or their timestamps were too inaccurate to match. Confirm the log covers the full outing and the camera clock was correct.

Does the camera need built-in GPS for this to work?
No. That is the point of the workflow: positions come from a separate logger or phone track, matched to the photos purely by capture time.

Can I geotag one photo manually instead?
Yes. The GUI’s map workflow lets you place selected files at the map position and write that position to them, which suits single photos or fixing individual mismatches.

With positions verified on the map, your library gains a place dimension it did not have. The Tutorials hub covers the neighbouring skills: accurate dates, batch descriptive edits, and renaming, which together turn a folder of files into an organised archive.

A camera clock that was wrong by two hours, or a timezone forgotten on a trip, leaves every timestamp wrong by exactly the same amount. Re-typing each date would destroy the real spacing between shots. The fix is a shift: move every DateTimeOriginal by one computed offset. ExifToolGui V6.3.12, Frank Bijnen’s maintained fork of Bogdan Hrastnik’s GUI for Phil Harvey’s ExifTool, exposes this in the Modify menu as the DateTime shift function.

Use this guide when the relative times are correct and only the absolute time is off. When a single file needs one exact new date, use changing DateTimeOriginal instead. Both live in the Tutorials hub, and the program is available from the download page.

Work Out the Offset From One Known Moment

A shift is only as good as the offset you feed it, so derive the offset from evidence. Find one moment you can time independently: a photo of a clock or departure board, a phone picture taken alongside the camera photo, or an event with a recorded start time. Compare that known time with the DateTimeOriginal the camera wrote for the same moment. The difference, hours, minutes and seconds, with its sign, is your offset.

Write the offset down before touching the software, including whether the camera was ahead or behind. A sign error doubles the problem instead of fixing it, and on a batch of hundreds of files that is an expensive mistake. As always with batch writes, test the shift on copied files first and read the results back before applying it to originals.

• Find one independently timed moment.
• Subtract the stored DateTimeOriginal from the true time.
• Note the offset and its direction (forward or back).

Run Modify, DateTime Shift on the Selection

Select every file that shares the same wrong clock in the file list. Files from a second camera with a correct clock must not be in the selection, because the shift applies to all selected files at once. Then open the Modify menu and choose the Exif/XMP DateTime shift entry. The V6 documentation describes this function as shifting all selected files by a computed amount, which is exactly the offset you derived.

Enter the offset carefully, double-checking the direction against your notes, and apply it. The GUI passes the operation to ExifTool, which rewrites the timestamps in place. A shift across midnight, a month end or a year end is handled as real date arithmetic, so a photo taken at 01:00 with a minus-three-hours shift correctly lands at 22:00 on the previous day.

Equalize EXIF and XMP After Shifting

Files may store capture time in both EXIF and XMP, and a library that reads the other copy will still look wrong if only one moved. The Modify menu’s DateTime equalize function aligns EXIF and XMP date-times, so run it on the same selection after the shift to bring both into agreement with the corrected value.

This pairing of shift then equalize is the standard tidy pattern for clock errors. It also matters before geotagging: matching photos to a GPS track log compares timestamps, so shifted, equalized times geotag far more reliably, as explained in geotagging photos from a GPX track log.

Verify the Shift on the Timeline

Verification is visual and quick. Sort the folder by capture date and check the known moment first: it should now show the true time you derived the offset from. Then check the first and last files of the set: both should have moved by the same offset, and the gaps between consecutive shots should be unchanged from before.

If the known moment is now off by twice the offset, the sign was reversed; shift back by the same amount to undo, then re-apply in the correct direction on your copies before touching originals. Once the timeline reads correctly, downstream tasks such as renaming by capture date and merging two cameras’ folders into one sequence will behave as expected.

Shifts, Timezones and Travel Sets

The most common real-world shift is the forgotten timezone: a camera left on home time through a trip abroad. The offset is the timezone difference for the destination, but check whether the trip crossed a daylight-saving boundary at either end, because a set spanning that boundary can contain two different true offsets. Split such a set by date and shift each part separately rather than forcing one number onto both.

Merged travel sets deserve the same care per camera. Derive each camera’s offset from its own known moment, shift each selection separately, and only then combine the folders. Verified separately, the two timelines land on the same true time; shifted together under one camera’s offset, the second camera’s photos would be wrong by the difference between the two errors, a subtler fault than the one you started with.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should I shift instead of setting a new date?
Shift when every file is wrong by the same amount, such as a wrong clock or timezone. Set an exact date when one file, or a set of scans, needs a specific timestamp regardless of the old value.

Does shifting preserve the order and spacing of photos?
Yes. Every timestamp moves by the same offset, so the intervals between shots and their chronological order stay exactly as they were.

Can a shift fix photos from two cameras with different errors?
Only one offset applies per run. Select each camera’s files separately and shift each set by its own derived offset so both timelines converge on the true time.

A correct shift restores a whole trip’s timeline in one operation. From here, the Tutorials hub leads on to geotagging the corrected photos, batch-editing their descriptive tags, and renaming them by their now-accurate dates.

DateTimeOriginal is the capture time a camera writes into a photo, and it is the field that sorting, renaming and timeline tools all trust. When it is wrong, because a camera clock was never set, a battery reset it, or a scan carries the scanning date instead, ExifToolGui lets you correct it visually instead of typing ExifTool commands. The tool here is ExifToolGui V6.3.12 by Frank Bijnen, the maintained fork of Bogdan Hrastnik’s Windows GUI for Phil Harvey’s ExifTool.

This guide covers setting an exact new DateTimeOriginal on one file or a selected batch. If every photo from a trip is off by the same amount, an offset shift is the better tool, covered in shifting EXIF time by an offset. For scans with no real capture date at all, see fixing dates on scanned photos. All guides sit in the Tutorials hub, and the program itself is on the download page.

Before You Edit: Copies, and Knowing the True Time

Metadata edits write into the file itself, so work on copies until the workflow is familiar, and keep an untouched backup of any photo whose date you cannot reconstruct later. You also need the true capture time from somewhere outside the file: a phone photo taken at the same event, a message timestamp, a ticket, or another camera whose clock was right. ExifToolGui can write any date you give it; it cannot know which date is correct.

Open the folder in the GUI and select one file first. Read its current DateTimeOriginal in the Metadata panel so you can see the size of the error. A wrong year or a dead-clock value such as 2000-01-01 points to a camera that was never set. A date that is exactly the scanning day on an old print points to the scanned-photo case, which the guide linked in the introduction handles in full.

Set a New DateTimeOriginal in the Workspace

With the file selected, find DateTimeOriginal in the Workspace panel. The Workspace is the editing surface of the GUI: it shows the tags your current workspace definition includes and lets you type new values inline. Enter the correct date and time in the same format the field already displays, then save the change so the GUI hands the edit to ExifTool for writing.

If DateTimeOriginal is not visible, your workspace definition does not include it yet. Add it through the Workspace manager, or switch to a definition that shows the EXIF date fields. Building a personal date-fixing panel is covered in ExifToolGui Workspaces explained. After saving, click to another file and back: the panel re-reads the file, and the value shown is what is now stored, not what you typed into a form.

• Select the file or files in the file list.
• Enter the correct date and time in the DateTimeOriginal field.
• Save, then re-select the file to confirm the stored value.

Apply the Same Correction to a Batch

Batch capability has been a design goal of this GUI since its first versions: you can select multiple files and modify them at once. When a whole folder shares one wrong date, for example a set of scans from one sitting or photos from a camera used for a single event, select all of them, set DateTimeOriginal once, and save to write the same value to every selected file.

Be careful about the difference between same date and same offset. A batch set writes one identical timestamp to every file, which erases the seconds-apart ordering of a burst. If the individual times are right relative to each other and only the clock was wrong, do not overwrite them here; use the offset method in shift EXIF date and time by an offset instead, which moves every timestamp by the same amount and preserves the gaps.

Check EXIF and XMP Agree Afterwards

Photos can carry capture time in both EXIF and XMP, and other software may read either one. The GUI’s Modify menu includes a DateTime equalize function that aligns EXIF and XMP date-times, which is the tidy-up step after a manual correction: run it on the same selection so both stored times match the value you just set.

Finish by verifying outside the editing field: sort the file list by date, confirm the files now sit in the right chronological place, and, if you rename by date, preview the result using rename photos by capture date. If a value did not change, the usual causes are a read-only file or editing a copy in a different folder from the one you are checking, so confirm you are looking at the same file you saved.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between setting and shifting DateTimeOriginal?
Setting writes one exact timestamp you type, which suits a single wrong date. Shifting moves every timestamp by a computed offset, which suits a camera clock that was wrong by a fixed amount.

Will changing DateTimeOriginal change the file’s Windows date?
DateTimeOriginal is metadata inside the photo. It is separate from the file-system dates Windows shows in Explorer, which is why photo tools sort by the metadata value instead.

Can I change the date on many photos at once?
Yes. Select multiple files in the file list and save the new value to all of them, but only when one identical timestamp is truly correct for every selected file.

A corrected DateTimeOriginal pays off everywhere: timelines sort properly, date-based renaming produces meaningful file names, and merged folders from two cameras interleave correctly. Return to the Tutorials hub for the offset, geotagging and batch guides that build on this one.

The first launch of ExifToolGui decides whether every later task feels easy or broken. ExifToolGui V6.3.12, maintained by Frank Bijnen as a fork of Bogdan Hrastnik’s original GUI, is only a front-end: all reading and writing is done by Phil Harvey’s ExifTool, a separate program the GUI must be able to find. This guide assumes you have the files from the download page and covers the checks to run before you edit anything that matters.

You will confirm three things in order: that the GUI can find exiftool.exe, that the file list and Metadata panel show real values for a test photo, and that a small test edit on a copied file saves and reads back correctly. If you have not installed yet, start with how to install ExifToolGui on Windows 11, then return here. More guides live in the Tutorials hub.

Make Sure the GUI Can Find exiftool.exe

If you used the installer and let it fetch ExifTool, exiftool.exe already sits in the installation folder and this step is a formality. If you use a portable build, place your renamed exiftool.exe in the same folder as the GUI executable, together with the exiftool_files folder that ships in the ExifTool zip. The GUI shows an error at startup when ExifTool cannot be found, and that error always means a pairing problem, not a damaged photo library.

A common cause is the file name. The Windows zip ships the program as exiftool(-k).exe, a name meant for drag-and-drop viewing. For command-line and GUI use it must be renamed to exiftool.exe (or simply exiftool if your Windows hides file extensions). Check the name first, check the folder second, and only then suspect anything else.

• exiftool.exe sits in the same folder as the GUI executable.
• The exiftool_files folder sits next to exiftool.exe.
• The file is renamed from exiftool(-k).exe to exiftool.exe.

Read the Main Window: File List, Metadata and Workspace

Open a folder containing a few JPEG photos. The file list shows one row per file, and clicking a file loads its metadata into the Metadata panel. The panel is driven by the current Workspace definition, which decides which tags are displayed and which can be edited. The default workspace already covers the frequently used tags, so there is no need to customise anything on day one.

Pick a photo you took yourself and sanity-check three values against reality: the camera model, the capture date and time, and one descriptive field such as Artist if your camera writes it. Correct values prove ExifTool is reading the file. Blank values on a phone photo may simply mean that tag was never written, which is normal and different from a pairing failure, where every file shows nothing.

Run One Safe Test Edit on a Copy

Before trusting the setup with originals, copy one photo to a test folder, open that folder in the GUI, and make a tiny reversible edit: select the copy, find a descriptive tag in the Workspace, type a test value, and save. Then click away and click back onto the file. If your test value is still there, the full read, write and re-read loop works.

This ten-minute habit protects you later. Batch features in this program apply changes to every selected file at once, which is exactly what you want once the setup is proven, and exactly what you do not want to discover is misconfigured on a folder of originals. The same copy-first approach runs through batch-editing a whole folder and the date fixes in changing DateTimeOriginal.

Know Where Settings Live and What Is Optional

The V6 GUI stores its settings in ExifToolGUIV6.ini beside the program, rather than scattering values through the Windows registry, so a portable setup stays portable when you move the folder, as long as exiftool.exe and exiftool_files move with it. Workspace definitions can be saved and re-used, a topic covered in depth in ExifToolGui Workspaces explained.

Two extras are optional on first launch. Language DLLs only matter if you want a non-English interface. The map needs WebView2Loader.dll and the Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime and is only used for geotagging work such as geotagging from a GPX track log. Neither affects basic viewing and editing, so you can ignore both until you need them.

Keep the Pairing Intact When You Move Folders

Most first-launch problems return later for one mundane reason: the folder moved and ExifTool did not move with it. If you relocate a portable setup, move the GUI executable, exiftool.exe and the exiftool_files folder together as one unit, then repeat the thirty-second read test from this guide on arrival. A setup that was verified after its last move is a setup you can trust for the next batch.

The same discipline applies after downloading a newer ExifTool. The latest release overall is 13.59 (May 27, 2026) and the latest production release is 13.55 (April 7, 2026); swapping versions means replacing exiftool.exe and its companion folder as a matched pair, not dropping a lone new executable beside an old exiftool_files folder. Re-run the test edit after any swap, before the folder of originals, every time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does ExifToolGui say ExifTool was not found?
The GUI cannot see exiftool.exe. The portable builds do not bundle ExifTool, so download it separately, rename exiftool(-k).exe to exiftool.exe, and place it next to the GUI with its exiftool_files folder.

Which ExifTool version is current?
The latest release overall is 13.59 (May 27, 2026); the latest production release is 13.55 (April 7, 2026). Either pairs with ExifToolGui V6.3.12.

Where does ExifToolGui store its settings?
In ExifToolGUIV6.ini beside the program. Workspace definitions are stored there and can also be exported and imported as named definition files.

Once the test edit reads back correctly, your setup is done. Work through the Tutorials hub in any order from here: fix a date, shift a camera clock, or clean location data, knowing the pairing underneath each task has already been proven on a copy.

ExifToolGui is a Windows-only graphical front-end for Phil Harvey’s ExifTool, the command-line tool that reads and writes photo metadata. The version covered here is ExifToolGui V6.3.12, released on May 8, 2026 by Frank Bijnen. It is a maintained fork of the original GUI created by Bogdan Hrastnik, and it is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0. ExifTool itself is a separate program with its own licence, described by its author as free software under the same terms as Perl itself.

The one fact that decides whether the installation works is this: the GUI and ExifTool are two downloads, not one. The portable GUI builds do not bundle ExifTool at all, while the installer can download ExifTool for you during setup. This guide walks through both routes on Windows 11, explains which ExifTool version to pair, and finishes with the checks that prove the pairing worked. All files are listed on the download page, and the wider Tutorials hub collects the follow-on guides.

Choose the Installer or a Portable Build First

The V6.3.12 release offers three files: an installer (updated to 6.3.12.1, an installer-only change with no functional changes to the GUI itself) and two portable executables, ExifToolGUI_X64.exe for 64-bit Windows and ExifToolGUI.exe for 32-bit Windows. On a typical Windows 11 PC the 64-bit route is the right one, and the installer also installs 64-bit files by default on 64-bit Windows. Passing the /Win32 parameter to the installer forces the 32-bit files instead.

Pick the installer if you want ExifTool fetched automatically: during setup you can choose the ExifTool zip package by Phil Harvey, which is downloaded and renamed into the install folder, or the self-installing package by Oliver Betz. Pick a portable build if you want no setup program at all, but then you must download ExifTool yourself and place it next to the GUI, as the next sections describe.

• Installer: simplest route, can fetch ExifTool during setup.
• Portable X64: no installation, you pair ExifTool manually.
• Portable Win32: for 32-bit Windows, you pair ExifTool manually.

Install With the Setup Installer

Download the installer from the download page and run it. Work through the setup steps and, when the ExifTool step appears, choose to download ExifTool during setup rather than skipping it. The Harvey option downloads the official zip and renames the executable to exiftool.exe inside the installation folder for you. The Betz option runs a self-installing ExifTool package after the GUI installation finishes.

Either choice leaves you with a complete pairing in one folder. After setup completes, launch ExifToolGui and open any folder of photos: the file list should populate and selecting a file should show its metadata. If the program reports that ExifTool was not found, the pairing step did not complete, and the manual method in the next section fixes it. For a guided tour of what to check next, see ExifToolGui first launch setup.

Pair ExifTool Manually With a Portable Build

For a portable build, download the ExifTool Windows executable zip from exiftool.org. The latest ExifTool release overall is 13.59 (May 27, 2026), while the latest production release is 13.55 (April 7, 2026); either pairs with the GUI, and the production release is the conservative choice. Unzip the archive and find the file named exiftool(-k).exe. Rename it to exiftool.exe, because the GUI looks for that exact name.

Copy exiftool.exe into the same folder as ExifToolGUI_X64.exe or ExifToolGUI.exe, and keep the exiftool_files folder next to it: if you move the executable later, that folder must move with it. Then start the GUI. There is no separate registration step; the GUI finds ExifTool because it sits beside it. Keep both files together in one folder you control, rather than scattering them across system directories.

Verify the Installation and Note the Optional Map

Verify with a real photo, not with the absence of errors. Select a JPEG in the file list and look at the Metadata panel: camera make and model, DateTimeOriginal and exposure values should appear. Then open the Workspace, change nothing, and confirm the values you see match what your camera recorded. If metadata displays correctly, ExifTool is paired and working, and you can move on to editing tasks such as changing DateTimeOriginal.

One component is optional: the map pane uses WebView2Loader.dll together with the Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime to show OpenStreetMap layers. It is only needed for map-based geotagging. The V6 documentation also notes the GUI should run on Windows 7 and 8, with Windows 10 or 11 recommended, and V6.3.12 improved HEIC support, noting that Windows 11 ships the codec needed for those files.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does ExifToolGui include ExifTool?
No for the portable builds: ExifTool is a separate, required download. Only the installer can fetch ExifTool for you during setup, from the Phil Harvey zip or the Oliver Betz package.

Which ExifTool version should I pair with V6.3.12?
The latest production release is 13.55 (April 7, 2026) and the latest release overall is 13.59 (May 27, 2026). Both work as the companion; the production release is the conservative pick.

Is ExifToolGui available for Mac or Linux?
No. Both the original GUI and Frank Bijnen’s V6 fork are Windows-only. There is no Mac or Linux build of this GUI.

With the pairing verified, the natural next steps are the first launch setup checks and your first real edit, such as batch-editing a whole folder. Keep the GUI and exiftool.exe together, work on copies while you learn, and every later tutorial in the Tutorials hub will assume this installation layout.