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how to keep actual dating of pictures when download them from icloud to mac computer.

When I download photos from iCloud to "photo" app on Mac computer, why are the date of the photo becomes the day of transferred/downloaded, not the day of photo taken, it is really annoying. Is there way to fix this?

Posted on Dec 2, 2020 3:57 PM

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Posted on Dec 3, 2020 4:00 AM

The original files downloaded from iCloud Photos Library will not always keep the original file creation date, not even when syncing using the Photos.app. But iCloud Photos will preserve the IPTC capture date or exif capture date, when the photo has been taken (depending on the image format). In the Finder I am seeing for nearly all my photos in the Photos Library package the file creation date of September 14, 2020 or newer - that is the date, when I synced a new copy of the Library from iCloud to my Mac after reinstalling the system. The Finder will show the date of the download from iCloud as the file creation date, when you sync your Photos Library with iCloud. When you open the originals from the library package in Preview and look at them with the Inspector, you can see the capture date.


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 3, 2020 4:00 AM in response to jj21516

The original files downloaded from iCloud Photos Library will not always keep the original file creation date, not even when syncing using the Photos.app. But iCloud Photos will preserve the IPTC capture date or exif capture date, when the photo has been taken (depending on the image format). In the Finder I am seeing for nearly all my photos in the Photos Library package the file creation date of September 14, 2020 or newer - that is the date, when I synced a new copy of the Library from iCloud to my Mac after reinstalling the system. The Finder will show the date of the download from iCloud as the file creation date, when you sync your Photos Library with iCloud. When you open the originals from the library package in Preview and look at them with the Inspector, you can see the capture date.


Dec 3, 2020 2:57 AM in response to jj21516

How are you downloading from iCloud? If just downloading from icloud.com to a folder, why not use iCloud photos to sync with the photos app?


If you are downloading from the web, the file date will change to the date the file was created on your system - when you downloaded it.


However the "content created" date in the exif data of the file will remain, and will be the date that any image organising app uses to sort images. Open one of the downloaded images in preview, and then look at the inspector at the date time digitised, and date time original

how to keep actual dating of pictures when download them from icloud to mac computer.

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