Photos - Import using Capture date

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naoyamt Author

Level 1

8 points

Photos - Import using Capture date

I am having trouble preserving the capture date of photos when importing to Photos...

I've searched everywhere including communities, but I couldn't find a clear solution...

1: After doing some editing with my RAW file in Lightroom, I exported the photo to a JPEG.

The creation date of the JPEG file is the date I exported the photo. (Aug 12)

This makes sense because exporting a photo is technically creating a new file.

2: The exported JPEG file also has the EXIF info, with the correct capture date. (May 3)

3: But when I import the JPEG file to Photos, it only displays the creation time (Aug 12), and not the capture date (May 3), which I personally think is a lot more useful when sorting photos...

Is there a way to import using Capture Date (May 3)??

I want to share a bunch of photos with my collaborators using iCloud Photos,

but I don't want the sequence nor the dates to be messed up...

Posted on Aug 11, 2019 8:35 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

gusman

Level 1

62 points

Aug 11, 2019 5:11 PM in response to naoyamt

Hi

I think the quick answer is no, this is a bug in Photos. If you still have iPhoto or Aperture and import to them I would bet they would show it correctly but Photos is picking up the info from different fields than other Apps.

I can only suggest you change the date/time in Photos>Image>Adjust Date and Time. If only a few it won't be to bad, but if a lot or on many occasions it will be tedious until Apple come up with fix. Maybe in the the Autumn when the new version comes.

You can bulk change FYI. That is for instance if a group of photos is a week out of sync you can select the group and change to the correct date and they will all be changed, still keeping the time they were taken.

For me at the moment any video I upload that is not from my iPhone is always an hour in front of the pictures that are taken with them at the same time.

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Answer 2

Aug 15, 2019 3:14 AM in response to naoyamt

Photos handling of JPG EXIF dates and times is sometimes unreliable. Sometimes it displays only "0.00" time for some images exported from Lightroom. (Also Google Photos sometimes picks the wrong date instead using the EXIF date.)

Both apps must be babysitted and I always try to make sure imported images sort correctly and the info panels show correct dates and times. In the past I often frustrated and took a brute force attack and used GraphicConverter to zap ALL metadata and the re-inserted the correct EXIF date. Nowadays I use a more modest approach and use GraphicConverter's "use EXIF date in all date fields" command.

iPhoto and Photos store edited times and locations in their internal database and for some dumb reason export old incorrect info outside. So I always make corrections in GraphicConverter and re-import corrected photos back.

I use Photos only as a viewer and archive images and videos in plain folders.

Dates in video files is another headache but I use GraphicConverter also for them when correcting times and when renaming the files to YYY-MMDD-hhmm-ss.mp4 format, for example. In many devices the creation/modification times are correct and the EXIF times are several hours off depending on timezone and daylight savings time.

Fixing incorrect locations in video files seems impossible but fortunately I have only one iPad video that somehow is a few hundred km off.

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Answer 3

naoyamt Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 12, 2019 10:26 PM in response to léonie

Thank you gusman and leonie!

Here are my specifications for the OS and Photos version I am running:

The photo's creation date is the date exported (Aug 12):

Leonie: you are right, I used Preview and selected "Export", but the new photo's creation date and time in not configured, and will stay the same. I still don't see a reason why Apple Photos prefer to use the EXIF file's "Date Created" over the "File Creation Time". This wasn't an issue when I was using Aperture, but for obvious reasons, I decided to shift my photo editing process to Lightroom.

I guess the smarter option for me is to transfer to Google Photos, since they sort photos using the EXIF date.

I used to be an Apple loyal user, but ever since Photos was launched and Aperture was discontinued, it has become increasingly difficult to manage my photos within Apple platforms. I hope Apple takes this issue seriously...

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Answer 4

naoyamt Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 12, 2019 10:32 PM in response to naoyamt

My bad, the second Screenshot shows the IPTC date (May 3).

The Creation Date is as seen in the first screenshot of the first post (Aug 12).

Sorry for the confusion!

Leonie: "Photos will usually use the embedded capture date tag, if it is present and not the file creation date."

Isn't the embedded capture date tag the EXIF "Date time Original"? Which metadata are you referring to?

Thank you!

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

200,531 points

Aug 12, 2019 6:57 AM in response to naoyamt

Which version of Photos are you using?

Photos will usually use the embedded capture date tag, if it is present and not the file creation date.

In Photos 4.0 on macOS 10.14.6 Mojave the date displayed as "Content Created" will usually be used as the date for an imported photo. For example, I imported a jpeg as a test: after editing it in Preview. The date displayed in Photos is April 30, 2019, and not today. It is working as expected, if the edits have been applied in Preview or Graphic Converter.

Lightroom seems to have changed something that Preview does not change. What are you seeing in the Finder's Info as Content Created for your test photo?

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Photos - Import using Capture date

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