Applescript to take a file name element to change Date Created

on open of theFiles
-- This is executed when files are dropped on the script
repeat with i in theFiles
if folder of (info for i) then
processAFolder(i)
else
processAFile(i)
end if
end repeat
end open

on processAFile(theFile)
set theName to name of (info for theFile)
try
set dd to characters 1 through 2 of theName as text as integer
if dd < 10 then set dd to "0" & dd
set mm to characters 4 through 5 of theName as text as integer
if mm < 10 then set mm to "0" & mm
set yy to characters 7 through 8 of theName as text as integer
if yy < 10 then set yy to "0" & yy
do shell script "touch -t " & yy & mm & dd & "0000 " & quoted form of POSIX path of theFile
end try
end processAFile

on processAFolder(theFolder)
tell application "Finder"
set theContents to items of folder theFolder as alias list
end tell
repeat with i in theContents
if folder of (info for i) then
processAFolder(i)
else
processAFile(i)
end if
end repeat
end processAFolder

It will not run on .pages files

It would be nice to check/validate for the correct date at the start of the file name also.

Are you finding that touch is working reliably? I find I can use it once to change a creation date, but on subsequent runs it'll only change the modification date?

--SCRIPT
on open aa
 main(aa)
end open
on run
 open ((choose folder) as list)
end run
on main(aa)
 (*
 list aa : alias list of source directories
 *)
 set logf to (path to desktop)'s POSIX path & "creationdate_error_log" & (current date)'s time & ".txt"
 repeat with a in aa
 set a to a as alias
 if (a as Unicode text) ends with ":" then -- directory
 set p to a's POSIX path's text 1 thru -2 -- posix path without trailing /
 
 set sh to "path=" & p's quoted form & ";
logf=" & logf's quoted form & ";
find "$path" -name '[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]*' -print0 | while read -d $'\0' f;
do
 fn=${f##*/};
 dd=${fn:0:2}; ((d=10#$dd));
 mm=${fn:3:2}; ((m=10#$mm));
 yy=${fn:6:2}; ((y=10#$yy));
 if [[ ($d -ge 1 && $d -le 31) && ($m -ge 1 && $m -le 12) && ($y -ge 70 || $y -le 38) ]]; then
 if [[ $y -ge 70 ]]; then
 cc=19;
 else
 cc=20;
 fi
 res=$(/Developer/Tools/SetFile -d "$mm/$dd/$cc$yy 00:00" "$f" 2>&1);
 if [[ -n $res ]]; then
 echo "# $res ; failed for : $f" >> $logf;
 fi
 else
 echo "# invalid date in name : $f" >> $logf;
 fi
done"
 do shell script sh
 end if
 end repeat
end main
--END OF SCRIPT

Sorry to interrupt, but this is something I have been trying to do with my video files collection, because I need to convert them but the original date is not kept. I change the name of the file to simple like 20110108132326.mov with contains the yyyymmddhhmmss.mov.

I tried the first script that was posted. Copied into the applescript editor, compiled it and saved as an application. I tested by renaming my file like the original poster and it does not change the date. I also saved as script is ran from the menu with the files selected and it still did not work. I never tried applescript before so I may be missing something simple. It seems to be running, but nothing changes. Thanks for any help.

Thank you so much Camelot for this answer. Also thank you Jacjac for posting the original question! A 5-year old post that apparently is still very helpful for my issue.

A little background: I have an Android camera that stores files as "yyyymmdd_hhmmss.jpg", I store photos in Google Photos (usually using its auto-backup feature, or its Android app, except in certain cases), and use a Mac.

In some cases Google Photos takes the creation/modification date (unsure) as opposed to the EXIF data for some reason (not always consistent in my observation). However, being Android, every time you move or copy a file within it, the creation/modification date is also updated, and it so happens that I was not able to maintain the original times. The adjusted times causes my photos to appear out of sequence. Thus I needed to modify the times myself, based on either EXIF or filename, and here we have a solution based on the filename.

So here's the updated version of the above script, taking into account the seconds indicated in the filename. As you can see, I only modified it to fit my filename syntax.

on open of theFiles

-- This is executed when files are dropped on the script

repeat with i in theFiles

if folder of (info fori) then

processAFolder(i)

else

processAFile(i)

end if

end repeat

end open

on processAFile(theFile)

set theName to name of (info fortheFile)

-- Assumes file syntax begins with YYYYMMDD_hhmmss

try

set yy to characters 3 through 4 of theName as text as integer

if yy < 10 then set yy to "0" & yy

set mm to characters 5 through 6 of theName as text as integer

if mm < 10 then set mm to "0" & mm

set dd to characters 7 through 8 of theName as text as integer

if dd < 10 then set dd to "0" & dd

set hr to characters 10 through 11 of theName as text as integer

if hr < 10 then set hr to "0" & hr

set min to characters 12 through 13 of theName as text as integer

if min < 10 then set min to "0" & min

set sec to characters 14 through 15 of theName as text as integer

if sec < 10 then set sec to "0" & sec

do shell script "touch -t " & yy & mm & dd & hr & min & "." & sec & " " & quoted form of POSIX path of theFile

end try

end processAFile

on processAFolder(theFolder)

tell application "Finder"

set theContents to items of foldertheFolder as alias list

end tell

repeat with i in theContents

if folder of (info fori) then

processAFolder(i)

else

processAFile(i)

end if

end repeat

end processAFolder

Peace!