Video dates always wrong (and not only)

Thanks Devlin,

Your reply is very helpful.

Please see replies below if you can.

1. Videos do not have Exif metadata. Basically, there is no way tot rack the date of a video.

Many formats do, but that's not the point. Why don't they use the File Modification or File Creation Date???

2. Search the forum. There are many posts offering Applescripts that will do this batch change for you.

Thank you I hope I find a solution. I didn't know about the scripts. I still think Photos App should have built in date utilities. It is THE most difficult thing for a user to repair in huge picture and video libraries. GPS locations don't matter as much. But having memories pop-up in irrelevant dates surely do!

3. I suggest that you look more closely at the editing panel. It's far more powerful. Check out the disclosure triangles. There are a lot of tools in there. As for video, it's seamlessly connected to iMovie.

The disclosure triangles you mean in the menu? Which one of them is helpful? I can't find anything useful.

What tools are there and what is the "editing panel"? Is it the toolbar? For videos, everything on the toolbar is greyed out (adjust/filters/crop/rotate/autoadjust).

"Seamlessly" with iMovie? Not in my case. You have to open iMovie and locate the video there in order to edit it. Why can't I simply hit "edit in iMovie" from within Photos App? (If not edit those simple things from within Photos!)

4. The internals of the package of the Photos Library is designed for the use of the app only. There are no user accessible parts there. If you want to recover originals or whatever use the Export command.

My view: Exporting is extremely complicated and tedious for thousands of pictures and cross-linked albums and shared albums. The user should be able to have direct access to their library through Finder and other apps. Finder and Photos should be able to work interchangeably. There is absolutely no need for the Photos App to copy all your pictures and videos in a different random location with random names. Photos App could simply have its own database for its own stuff and info in a separate folder and no original pictures or thumbnails within it. The user should be able to simply move entire media subdirectories to and from their library. Finder should also have the option for EXIF and metadata information in the columns of Details view. Finder or Photos App should also have batch Date and other metadata utilities. Photos Import should be smarter, and when it notices a discrepancy between EXIF and Filesystem dates the user should be asked which one is the correct. Simple basic things. The Apple way!

Also remember, using Photos is not compulsory. If it doesn't suit you, or work the way you prefer, then use some other app. There are plenty to choose from.

Most Apple apps are used across all other platforms (my iPad, my iPhone etc) so if not "compulsory", I could definitely characterise it "necessary". Apple should try to make us users feel it is "indispensable", - not "optional" as you propose, neither "unnecessary", nor "complicated", nor "inflexible", nor "cumbersome"!

Again thanks for your helpful reply - I'll check "scripts", but I can't find any helpful tool in the "editing panel" nor in the disclosure triangles.

Old Toad wrote:

Yes. Photos is primarily for photos. It can import videos, pdf files and sound files but is not designed to edit them. It imports videos because iPhones take both videos and photos.

Sorry but I cannot follow the logic of the excuse. Photos for Mac app should be able to edit videos just as well as it does it on my iPhone. More so to be exact. A computer software should have higher capabilities than a phone software. Not lower.

That's what the iCloud Library is for. It syncs libraries on all devices that are signed in to the same iCloud account. It does require purchasing additional iCloud storage space to accommodate all of the image files from all of the devices.

Probably my phrase was taken out of context because this is a peculiar reply. I argued that the ease with which iPhone users use their Photos library cannot be matched by any third party software because Photos is integrated to the iOS: eg pictures and videos appear in it as soon as they are shot - eg2 All other apps (mail, drawing, photo-editing etc) "save" photos to the Photos app etc etc. - All this cannot be done with a third party app so fast.

Unfortunately Apple decided to retire Aperture and that was a big loss to photographers, amateur and pro alike.

I don't know it, but I'll take your word for it.

2 - using a renaming app I would rename the image files with the date taken, a brief description and sequential padded number at the end. I would end up with something like this;

That way there's no wondering about the content of the image nor date. I would then import into the library. With the current library, Photos V 5.0, you can import folder of image files and have the folder organization maintained with a folder and album in the library's sidebar with the same name as the folder imported:

A little effort up front saves a lot of time later on.

Yes, I'm already doing this, but it doesn't change the fact that these videos appear in my Photos Library like as if they were shot today! I hate this! I want them in their place in time! I have smart folders for the. 80's and every decade and year since! I want the video showing the first steps of my kid to appear exactly on the date it was shot. Not to be deciphering it through awkward name tags.

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Guys, I really don't understand what you're defending here??? Why would any user argue against such a basic and simple issue with crazy workarounds that do half the job when the solution is so simple??

Now the Photos app imports all videos in today's date and time with the excuse that there is no metadata in videos! This is wrong!

They don't need to take the date from the metadata! They can simply use the file data as it appears in Finder! It's a VERY SIMPLE addition in the code for the next version of Photos to have an option to use the File Creation or File Modification date which appears in Finder and everywhere else!

I hired an AppleScript expert via Upwork.com and he created the script for me!

Details and instructions in my other post: Script requested for changing dates

You are the one who was trying to convince me that videos can be edited on the Mac like the can on the iPhone, and you even posted a screenshot to show me how, when in fact you thought we were talking about pictures... You are the one who then used the argument that "Photos app is only for photos because it's in the name", when it is absolutely awkward for a computer app to have less features than its version for a phone!

File dates vs non-existent video metadata dates is a very simple and basic thing which doesn't need more than 10 lines of code in the next update.

With all this "what you (I) think Photos should be" rhetoric you are blowing it out of proportion. It's a very little thing, not a "feature"! A feature is to have "smart albums" (they do). A feature is to have "face recognition" (they do). A feature is to have "memories" (they do). A feature is to "sync automatically" (they do). Changing the field where the imported videos get their timestamp from is not a "feature" compared to all that! It is a bug fix! It is a tiny improvement!

And this very tiny improvement can save thousands of man-hours and frustration from thousands of users! Stop acting like it's a special and sophisticated "feature request" because this does not help. Personally I treat it as a bug. And this is how I classified my feedback request when I did it before posting here for additional help: As a bug!

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Experienced users and programmers that really want to help fix this, can answer or support this Script requested for changing dates which could be a clever workaround until the bug is fixed by Apple.

Leonie thank you! You're the one I've been searching for! Could you adapt your super useful script to get the date from the filename instead? Please take a look at my Script requested for changing dates for details! This would solve the issue entirely!

léonie wrote:

I am very optimistic, that the next version of MacOS X will make these available in Photos as well, or iCloud Photos would be severely limited.

Leonie thanks, I am very optimistic too. Can you see my script request? I think it's easily doable and it solves the issue with the dates!

Yes you're right, thank you. I mean sophisticated batch edits. Like copying the file creation date to the exif creation date or like editing a bunch of files with specific time increments.