How to recover files from exiftool JPG_exiftool_tmp files

[ubacher]

I used exiftool to remove iptc keywords from jpg files. Something went wrong - unfortunately I did not keep the error messages  nor does the log contain info -
and now I have .JPG_original and .JPG_exiftool_tmp files in place of the original jpg files. A total of 146 files.

Problem: The file name is abbreviated to something like 20CA21~1

The question: How to restore the original name?
( I know I can manually change the extension to .jpg)

I still have the (now off-line) files in Imatch and I can then get the off-line file (correct file name) and the renamed file (short filename) side by side when I sort by capture time.

[Mario]

The original file names are lost. I don't know how you "use exiftool" (in IMatch? In the ECP?) but IMatch uses the Windows 'short path' names if available to work around issues in ExifTool with file names containing non-supported characters. This means that ExifTool uses the short file names also for temp files and backup files it creates (IMatch itself never uses these). There are only Windows functions to get a short file name from a long file name, but not the other way round.

[ubacher]

I am using the exiftool inside Imatch.
Simply:

Code Select Expand

-G1
-IPTC:Keywords=
-a
{Files}

I tried the process again with a recovered file in order to see the error message.

The message is:
Error renaming H:/FotoAT/AAA200~1/2009-0~4/2020D3~1/20BBCC~1/20A51E~1.JPG


which is not very helpful. ( Should this message say ...1E~.JPG_exiftool_tmp? )

Since I can manually rename the file it should not be an access protection problem.
What should I try next?

[Mario]

You are using the ECP, running commands against ExifTool.
All error messages and warnings you see come direct from ExifTool.
Please see the ExifTool documentation for more info.

[ubacher]

IMatch uses the Windows 'short path' names if available to work around issues in ExifTool with file names containing non-supported characters

How does this work with non-supported characters in the path name?
It seems the errors occur in files where there is a Umlaut ü in the path name.

[Mario]

ExifTool supports UTF-8 en encoded path since a couple of releases ago.
Try using the

-charset
FILENAME=UTF8

in your custom argument file.
IMatch does this internally when it accesses exiftool.