Getting earliest date from created/modified

Hi guys

I'm not sure if this has been asked before, however a quick search doesn't seem to show any really relevant answers to my questions. I did find one previous thread that actually asked this question but didn't get an answer, but it's old now and I'm not sure if the answer has been implemented (or if there's always been a way and I'm just not seeing it).

What I'm currently doing is getting Hazel to file my images for me in folders based on YEAR > MONTH. What I've noticed though in consolidating my images from disparate sources to one central place, is that the created date seems to be changed to today's date (or whichever date the file was moved), but the modified date retains the original date of the file. BUT, any new photos I take are automatically put into my new central repository.

I'm trying to work out if there's a way to get the oldest date of the file from either created or modified, then use that for the folder structure. My current rules are working fine, except when I have photos from 5 years ago being put into this month's folder. If someone has seen this answered elsewhere, please do point me in the direction of the answer, otherwise I'm hoping someone may have an answer. (Mr Noodle?)

Cheers in advance!

You might be able to do this with multiple rules. You can do something like "Date modified is before date created". Alternatively, if these are photos taken with any modern digital camera, you can try using "Date taken (Hazel)" in the attributes list.

Some of them are screenshots, some of them are saved images, so it's really a hodge-podge.

I might do something like check the dates, and then apply a tag, then run a rule on the tag to make it easier to make multiple rules without clashing.

Speaking of tags, and I know this isn't really directly related, but is there a way have a rule match against multiple tags at once with an OR? At the moment, the rule I created only works on an AND, which means that I need to duplicate the rule and change the tag, all to do the same thing. My rule is below. What I wanted was that any matches to any of the tags, so a file with just the "Sorted" tag would be picked up.

You can use a nested condition. Look it up in the help.

Ooooh! Thanks for that!

Hey Mr_Noodle

I'm running two rules, one with "Date Created is before Date Last Modified", and the other is "Date Last Modified is before Date Created". However, I'm finding the second rule is matching even when it shouldn't be. I've got images that are being tagged as an earlier modify date, despite me checking and the date created being earlier. I'm not sure what's going on with it.

Can you check it in Hazel's preview? See what the values for those dates are from Hazel's POV.

I'll see what I can do. I was having some troubles with my previous profile on my comp, so I've had to create a new one and set everything up. Thus far, everything seems to be working.