Photos iOS 17: If the time displayed for photo is different from the time we adjusted
Written for the Photos.app on an iPhone with iOS 17 or later
Occasionally we need to fix the date and time of a photo, when we save photos to the Photos.app on our iPhone. And sometimes we will get the surprising result, that we are seeing a different time displayed above the photo after we enter the corrected time. This can happen, if the location assigned to the photo is different from the location where we are, when we assign the new date and time. We have to assure, that the timezone of the assigned date and time is the same as the timezone of the location of the photo.
On an iPhone with iOS 17 or later the location of the photo will determine how the date and time will be displayed. It can be quite confusing.
For example, I have just tagged a photo with the location "Tulcea, Romania" on my iPhone with iOS 17 by swiping up and adding a place.
Then I tapped the "Adjust" button next to the date and set the time to 3pm.
The Info for the photo is now showing the location "Tulcea" and the time 15:00 (3pm), just as I wanted it. But I forgot to adjust the timezone as well (at the bottom, below the calendar), so the time "3pm" has been added as European mid summer time (GMT+2) and not as the local time at Tulcea (GMT+3).
The iPhone will display the date and time I added converted to the timezone of the location, so the 3pm I entered will be displayed converted to the local timezone of Tulcea, Romania and is shown as 4pm, one hour off compared to the time I have just entered.
If we want to see the date and time we adjusted displayed correctly after we entered them, we have to be sure to assign first a location to the photo, then adjust the date and time and select the timezone of the location when we are doing this.
In the "Adjust" dialog for the date and time tap the name the closest city for the timezone and select the main city in the timezone. In this example I picked the capital of Romania.
Changing the timezone will adjust the displayed time to the new timezone, so we have to set the time back to 15:00.
Only then the date and time showing below the caption of the photo will be the same as set in the "Adjust" dialog.