How do I split thousands of pictures into multiple folders at once? - windows

Question

I have 33,000 photos in one folder. I want to divide all of the photos into multiple folders. The problem is I can’t even access the folder; every-time I open the folder the computer starts overheating. It doesn’t even load the photos; it freezes the computer every-time. Even if I did manage to load all 33,000 photos; It would probably take me all day to drag 100 photos at a time and put them inside a folder. There has to be an easier method, there has to be an application/software that could do that automatically.

Answer 1

It's not the most efficient way, but you can use PowerShell to move them into generic numbered folders using the below script. Simply change the 4x variables to suit and you should be good to go.
# Change these as preferred
$sourceFolder = "D:\source"
$destinationRoot = "D:\dest"
$extensions = #("*.png", "*.jpg", "*.jpeg")
$itemsPerFolder = 100
$folder = 0
while (#(Get-ChildItem $sourceFolder -Include $extensions -Recurse).Count -gt 0)
{
$tDest = "$destinationRoot\$folder"
mkdir $tDest
Write-Host "Moving to folder $tDest"
Get-ChildItem -File -Path $sourceFolder -Include $extensions -Recurse | Select-Object -First $itemsPerFolder | Move-Item -Destination $tDest
$folder++
}
For a more efficient way, try
# Change these as preferred
$sourceFolder = "D:\source"
$destinationRoot = "D:\dest"
$extensions = #("*.png", "*.jpg", "*.jpeg")
$itemsPerFolder = 100
$allItems = #(Get-ChildItem $sourceFolder -Include $extensions -Recurse)
for ($i = 0; $i -lt $allItems.Count; $i++)
{
$folder = [math]::Floor($i / $itemsPerFolder)
$tDest = "$destinationRoot\$folder"
if (!(Test-Path $tDest))
{
mkdir $tDest
}
Move-Item $allItems[$i] -Destination $tDest
}