Group Photos Into Country, City, and Town Subfolders

This example groups photos into a country/city/town folder hierarchy based on their GPS coordinates, and names each file with the taken date and address. The original folder structure is discarded entirely; the new structure comes from the locations embedded in the photo EXIF data.

Command

photo-cli copy \
  --process-type FlattenAllSubFolders \
  --group-by AddressHierarchy \
  --naming-style DayAddress \
  --reverse-geocode OpenStreetMapFoundation \
  --openstreetmap-properties country city town suburb \
  --number-style OnlySequentialNumbers \
  --no-taken-date AppendToEndOrderByFileName \
  --no-coordinate InSubFolder \
  --input photos \
  --output organized-albums

photo-cli copy -f 3 -g 4 -s 6 -e 2 -r country city town suburb -n 3 -t 4 -c 3 -i photos -o organized-albums

Key arguments

Argument	Value	What it does
`--process-type`	`FlattenAllSubFolders`	Ignores the original folder hierarchy and pools all photos together before grouping.
`--group-by`	`AddressHierarchy`	Creates nested output folders from the address components: `[country]/[city]/[town]`.
`--naming-style`	`DayAddress`	Names each file as `{yyyy.MM.dd}-{address}.ext`, with the date followed by the address.
`--reverse-geocode`	`OpenStreetMapFoundation`	Uses the OpenStreetMap Nominatim API to resolve GPS coordinates into address fields.
`--openstreetmap-properties`	`country city town suburb`	Selects which address fields to use when building folder names and file names.
`--number-style`	`OnlySequentialNumbers`	Appends `-1`, `-2`, etc. to disambiguate files that would otherwise share the same name.
`--no-taken-date`	`AppendToEndOrderByFileName`	Photos with no taken date are appended at the end of their folder, ordered by original file name.
`--no-coordinate`	`InSubFolder`	Photos with no GPS coordinate are placed in a `no-address` subfolder at the root of the output.

Before and after

Before (photos/):

├── DSC_5727.jpg
├── GOPR6742.jpg
├── Italy album
│   ├── DJI_01732.jpg
│   ├── DJI_01733.jpg
│   ├── DSC00001.JPG
│   ├── DSC03467.jpg
│   ├── DSC_1769.JPG
│   ├── DSC_1770.JPG
│   ├── DSC_1770_(same).jpg
│   ├── DSC_1771.JPG
│   ├── GOPR7496.jpg
│   ├── GOPR7497.jpg
│   ├── IMG_0747.JPG
│   └── IMG_2371.jpg
└── Spain Journey
    ├── DSC_1807.jpg
    ├── DSC_1808.jpg
    └── IMG_5397.jpg

2 directories, 17 files

After (organized-albums/):

├── España
│   └── Madrid
│       ├── 2015.04.10-España-Madrid-1.jpg
│       └── 2015.04.10-España-Madrid-2.jpg
├── Italia
│   ├── Arezzo
│   │   ├── 2008.10.22-Italia-Arezzo-1.jpg
│   │   ├── 2008.10.22-Italia-Arezzo-2.jpg
│   │   ├── 2008.10.22-Italia-Arezzo-3.jpg
│   │   ├── 2008.10.22-Italia-Arezzo-4.jpg
│   │   ├── 2008.10.22-Italia-Arezzo-5.jpg
│   │   ├── 2008.10.22-Italia-Arezzo-6.jpg
│   │   ├── 2008.10.22-Italia-Arezzo-7.jpg
│   │   ├── 2008.10.22-Italia-Arezzo-8.jpg
│   │   ├── 2008.10.22-Italia-Arezzo-9.jpg
│   │   └── 2008.10.22-Italia-Arezzo-10.jpg
│   └── Firenze
│       └── Quartiere 1
│           └── 2005.12.14-Italia-Firenze-Quartiere 1.jpg
├── Kenya
│   └── 2005.08.13-Kenya.jpg
├── no-address
│   ├── IMG_2371.jpg
│   └── IMG_5397.jpg
├── photo-cli-report.csv
└── United Kingdom
    └── Ascot
        └── Sunninghill and Ascot
            └── 2012.06.22-United Kingdom-Ascot-Sunninghill and Ascot.jpg

11 directories, 18 files

What you see in the output

Photos are organized by location, not by their original album names. All ten Arezzo photos from the Italy album land in Italia/Arezzo/, named 2008.10.22-Italia-Arezzo-1.jpg through 2008.10.22-Italia-Arezzo-10.jpg. The one Florence photo goes into Italia/Firenze/Quartiere 1/. The two Madrid photos from Spain Journey land in España/Madrid/. The folder depth matches the number of distinct address levels returned by OpenStreetMap for each location. A single photo taken in Kenya resolves to only a country, so its folder is Kenya/ with no city or town sub-level.

Two photos land in no-address/: Italy album/IMG_2371.jpg has a taken date but no GPS coordinate, and Spain Journey/IMG_5397.jpg has neither a date nor a coordinate. Both are placed in no-address/ at the root of the output because --no-coordinate InSubFolder routes GPS-less photos there. Their original file names are preserved.

Combine this strategy with --folder-append DayRange and --folder-append-location Suffix to also show date ranges on each location folder. For example, Arezzo would become Arezzo-2008.10.22-2008.10.22. This gives you both geographic and temporal context in the folder listing.

Get Started

Reverse Geocoding

Commands

Copy Examples

Configuration

Reference

Group Photos Into Country, City, and Town Subfolders

Command

Key arguments

Before and after

What you see in the output

​Command

​Key arguments

​Before and after

​What you see in the output

Command

Key arguments

Before and after

What you see in the output