Need persistent file names for exported photos & videos
I'm trying to build an offline digital diary (offline meaning a 2TB portable hard drive) with photos and videos accumulated over the past 20 years on various iPhones and Android phones owned by our family. I have 99.9% of content backed up, but when I use any export tool to send this data to the hard drive, I get a mishmash of extensions (png, heic, jpg, jepg, mov, mp4, mp3, avi, etc.) as well as the filename part - from simple like 'DCIM_115APPLE_IMG_0016.*' or 'IMG_1522.jpg' to ones that look like '69440047582_D32B6F49-FF42-4474-B68E-E8AA074DCD4C.jpg'. Also, the file timestamps sometimes reflect the day a backup was made, sometimes the day the transfer was done (to a new folder on the hard drive), and sometimes even the actual day a photo or video was taken. Regardless of the datestamp field I choose, there is no 'dependable' field. Also, the photos and videos come from different phones, so occasionally, a filename may exist more than once.
Given all of this, what's the best way to take these photos and videos (approx 35,000 total) and merge them onto that single portable hard drive, organized by 'date'? Most importantly, I need to see a file naming system that I can work with on exported images and videos!! PLEASE NOTE: I no longer use iTunes, and I have NEVER used iCloud (or any other cloud storage solution). The mass import/export to/from the cloud simply takes too long over wifi, and cloud space is not cheap. THANK YOU!
