I'm embarking on a file tidying project and one of the biggest messes to clean up are my photos. They are currently scattered over many drives and locations. What I want to do is bring them together into a single location (my NAS) and then set a regular backup.
I've identified a number of issues that I need to solve. First, how to structure the folders. Having dabbled with subject-based folders, this is a time-consuming and labour intensive approach that I just don't have time for anymore. I think it would be best to have all the photos sorted into folders based on the date they were taken. But I'd rather not do this manually. What I want is to automatically create date-based folders and move the files to the new folders based on the date they were taken.
A second issue is finding the photos later. I think the best approach is to use tags - names of people, places, events, etc - that can then be searched. It would be best to have these tags written into the file's property sheet so that it is accessible to Windows and other programs (meaning it's not tied to the initial program setting the tags).
A third issue is duplicates. There is a high chance that I have created copies over the years, and it would be good to ensure that we have only one copy of the photo in the master location. So I also need the ability to search for duplicates (based on file name or property data).
I've experimented with Picasa in the past but it has always felt a bit clunky to me, and I seem to recall that it's being discontinued in favour of Google Photos (though I can't find a desktop version of Google Photos, and I want to manage my photos locally rather than in the cloud). Does anyone know of a program that does these three things really well? I'm not above paying for it if the software works really well.