CRichard11

Q: Photos is no longer displaying the correct capture time

Until recently, jpegs imported into Photos from Lightroom displayed the correct Capture Time in the Info panel. Now the Modification time is displayed. Does anyone know why this has changed? Jpegs imported on 15 Mar 2016 behaved properly, but since 21 Mar 2016 the Modification time has been displayed. I can not remember if we had an update for Photos in March; I am currently using Photos 1.5. Any advice would be welcome.

Posted on Apr 24, 2016 1:15 PM

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Q: Photos is no longer displaying the correct capture time

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  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Apr 24, 2016 2:43 PM in response to CRichard11
    Level 10 (84,646 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 24, 2016 2:43 PM in response to CRichard11

    I would look at LR and your export workflow - Photos does not care where the imaged comes from - it uses the EXIF/IPTC data within the photo as it is - LR is putting that there, Photos is just the messenger

     

    Photos 1.5 came out with El Captain 10.11.4 on March 21, 2016  --  http://www.macrumors.com/2016/03/21/apple-releases-os-x-10-11-4/ so that

    release seems to have affected your workflow - I still suggest looking to LR for the incompatibility

     

    LN

  • by CRichard11,

    CRichard11 CRichard11 Apr 25, 2016 2:35 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 25, 2016 2:35 AM in response to LarryHN

    Thanks, LarryHN. I am not aware of any changes to Lightroom or my export workflow from it. I use a custom preset for this that I have not changed, so it is hard to know were to start looking. I use Lightroom 4.4. The export preset has metadata set to "all". Other software, eg Affinity Photo, displays the correct metadata from the exported jpegs.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Apr 25, 2016 9:28 AM in response to CRichard11
    Level 10 (141,105 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 25, 2016 9:28 AM in response to CRichard11

    Run this test:

     

    1 - Take a test show and add a location with Lightroom.

     

    2 - download the free   EXIF Viewer for Mac OS X and launch it.

     

    3 - drag the exported file onto the EXIF Viewer in the Dock and check the Capture Date. Does it match what you added in LR?

     

    4 - import the file into Photos and check the location in Photos?  Does it match?

     

    OTsig.png

  • by CRichard11,

    CRichard11 CRichard11 Apr 26, 2016 9:53 AM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 26, 2016 9:53 AM in response to Old Toad

    Thanks for your reply, Old Toad. No, it doesn't. The Capture Date/Time for the exported jpeg is correct but Photos displays the jpeg creation time (today) not the image capture time (yesterday). If I import the DNG file into Photos the time displayed is the capture time. If I check the metadata of the jpeg file in Photos Master folder, the capture time is correct but Photos displays the jpeg creation time. I guess this must be a change introduced in March as my workflow is unchanged as is my copy of Lightroom. From my viewpoint (and I suspect others might agree) this is a bug. I want to see the original capture time displayed, I don't really care when the jpeg file was created.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Apr 26, 2016 10:00 AM in response to CRichard11
    Level 10 (141,105 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 26, 2016 10:00 AM in response to CRichard11

    You are getting the date from the Info pane for the photo, right?

    Pinfowindow.jpg

  • by CRichard11,

    CRichard11 CRichard11 Apr 26, 2016 10:43 AM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 26, 2016 10:43 AM in response to Old Toad

    Yes, that's right.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Apr 26, 2016 11:10 AM in response to CRichard11
    Level 10 (141,105 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 26, 2016 11:10 AM in response to CRichard11

    Try repairing the library according to the instructions in this Apple document: Repair Your Library.

    Warning: If you use iCloud Photo Library with Photos, this action will cause Photos to upload all your pictures again (from Fix missing or incorrect thumbnails in Photos - Apple Support).


  • by CRichard11,

    CRichard11 CRichard11 Apr 26, 2016 12:31 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 26, 2016 12:31 PM in response to Old Toad

    Repairing the library does not appear to have had any effect. Jpegs imported 15 Mar 2016 and earlier still show Capture Time in the Info panel while those imported on 21 Mar 2016 and later show the creation time for the jpeg file, not the image capture time. Incidentally, where I corrected the time with the Adjust Date and Time... the correction is preserved, so I guess that the Repair process is not re-reading the Date/Time information directly from the jpeg file.

  • by CRichard11,

    CRichard11 CRichard11 Apr 26, 2016 1:08 PM in response to CRichard11
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 26, 2016 1:08 PM in response to CRichard11

    As a further experiment I exported two jpegs from Photos then reimported them.

     

    Case 1: this file was originally imported before this problem surfaced in March so it was displaying the correct capture time. When exported then reimported it now displays todays date and the export time, not the correct capture time.

     

    Case 2: this file is more recent but I had corrected the Date and Time using Photos menu item for this purpose. When exported and reimported it also displays the the export date and time, i.e. just now.

     

    I think the evidence is mounting that Photos was changed in March so that it no longer reads the Capture Time from the EXIF data during the import process but reads the file creation or modification date instead.

  • by Old Toad,Helpful

    Old Toad Old Toad Apr 27, 2016 4:58 PM in response to CRichard11
    Level 10 (141,105 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 27, 2016 4:58 PM in response to CRichard11

    It has to be something to do with either your library, user account of OS X installation as it's not happening to others.

     

    As a test launch Photos with the Option key held down and create a new, test library.  Import some photos and test to see if the same problem persists. Does it?

     

    If it does log into another user account on your Mac and try the same test from there.

  • by CRichard11,

    CRichard11 CRichard11 Apr 27, 2016 1:55 AM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 27, 2016 1:55 AM in response to Old Toad

    The new library created within my usual user showed the same behaviour, i.e. Creation Date not displayed. In a different user the behaviour did not occur and newly imported jpegs displayed the correct Creation Date.

     

    I keep a copy of my Photos library on a MacBook Pro. On this system the problem does not occur. I copied the Photos library from the MacBook Pro onto this iMac and the problem appeared.

     

    So now I'm guessing that there is something in my user folder on the iMac but not within the Photos library that is causing the problem and this something was introduced between 16 and 21 March 2016. The iMac is older than the MacBook Pro so may have more stuff left over from older systems that has survived the more recent updates, could that be the problem? There are two Preference files with Photos in the title but deleting them has not helped. They didn't seem to contain much anyway.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Apr 27, 2016 9:46 AM in response to CRichard11
    Level 10 (141,105 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 27, 2016 9:46 AM in response to CRichard11
    In a different user the behaviour did not occur and newly imported jpegs displayed the correct Creation Date.

    There must be some preference pane or other file in the User/Home/Library/Preference folder that is interfering with iDVD.

     

    First find and delete the following files/folders:

     

    1 - in the Library/Preferences folder:

    Finder001.jpg
    2 - in the Library/Caches folder:

    Finder002.jpg

     

    Reboot and try iDVD again.

  • by CRichard11,

    CRichard11 CRichard11 Apr 27, 2016 12:57 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 27, 2016 12:57 PM in response to Old Toad

    Thanks for all the effort you are making for me here. I'm not sure why you are suggesting the deletion of iDVD files when the problem is in Photos.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Apr 27, 2016 1:03 PM in response to CRichard11
    Level 10 (141,105 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 27, 2016 1:03 PM in response to CRichard11

    Duh.  Had too many topics running concurrently and posted in the wrong one.   I wonder if I put my reply to your problem in the iDVD topic.  I'll have to check.

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