Export Videos with ORIGINAL Creation Date under Photos App

No argument from me - it is a pretty poor experience, and Apple should (and most annoyingly - easily could) be doing better.

But they aren't - so we have to live with the workarounds, or vote with our feet, and go elsewhere.

It is up to the big companies to agree on a standard for tagging videos with a capture date and location data. After more than 20 years of digital video cameras it is about time to define a commonly accepted standard on how to embed a capture date into a video.

The least Apple could do would be to ensure, that capture dates will be preserved (as IPTC or EXIF tags) when editing or exporting videos using Apple's own software and that Apple's own software will respect and will recognise and respect the capture dates set by the own software.

• As soon as a video enters Apple's universe it should be tagged reliably with an IPTC tag with a capture date.
• This tag should be respected and preserved by iCloud, by iMovie, QuickTime Player, Final Cut Pro, Photos, on MacOS, iPdOS, iOS. When we adjust the date with "Adjust Data and Time" in Photos we should be able to export the video with the correct time stamp and when we reimport it to Photos or iMovie the date should be preserved.
• It is not user friendly to force to users to jump through the hoops to preserve the capture dates of our videos.

Before I export a video that does not yet have a still frame to save the metadata, I am extracting a still frame from the videos and lift and stamp all metadata from the video to the new still frame with this Apple Script: Script: Lift and Stamp all Metadata from one Photo to All Other Selected Photos

With the same script I can copy the date and time, locations, titles, captions, keywords back to the video after editing it. Any photo you take at the same time as the video will do as a template to save all metadata.

TonyCollinet wrote:

...

The added problem with a lot of video files is that many recording devices don't record the capture date/time inside the video metadata.

And to make it worse --- because there is no exif standard for videos, Photos will not export the capture date as a part of the exif or IPTC metadata, even when we add it manually in Photos. And if we use third-party apps to set the correct capture date as an exif tag, Photos will ignore it when importing the file. We have to set one of the file dates. I like Matti Haveri's user Tip: Movie dates and Photos.app

I am using brute force to save the date with my videos. My Lumix cameras are always taking a still frame as a sidecar file for the videos, with the correct capture date. I am using these still frames to lift and stamps the date and time to the videos, after importing them to Photos.

And when I am exporting a video, I am exporting a still frame with the same filename as the video to save the metadata.

Hi

I've just done a test on my Big Sur mac. In the screenshot you can see the Photos info pane for a video, and to the right, the result of the export unmodified original in finder. In each case the date shows the file creation date in my phone. The video is from an iPhone.

Do the videos you are creating from photos show a creation date in the photos info pane?

How have you been transferring the videos into photos?

What device are the videos recorded on.

It is different for me. All videos I am exporting as unmodified original, even iPhone Photos, are showing the date the original has been downloaded from iCloud Photos.

As I just got Mac back from Apple, with the system drive wiped, I am currently restoring my Photos Library from iCloud, and all exported videos are showing a creation date of today or yesterday.

For example, this video has been taken with my old iPhone 5s several years ago.

Photos is showing the correct, original capture date in the Info:

When I export the video as the unmodified original, I am seeing the download date from iCloud as the creation date:

I tries to include the XPM sidebar file, but it does not work - trying again with only the dates in the sidecar file: The GPSTimeStamp entry is wrong, but the photoshop:DateCreated correct.

   <exif:GPSTimeStamp>2001-01-01T00:00:00Z</exif:GPSTimeStamp>
   <photoshop:DateCreated>2016-06-10T18:30:27+02:00</photoshop:DateCreated>
 

Now, what is interesting on mine is the time is different. Both 4th November, but the capture time is 11:43, but the file time is 13:56

It is likely that I got back from that local trip at lunchtime, and the date on the file is the date it was downloaded to my Mac from iCloud rather than the actual capture time.

This seems to tally with your situation where you are seeing file dates associated with the iCloud download time.

For the OP:

You need to distinguish between the file metatdata (information about the file) and the image metadata (information about the image in the file)

If you copy a file the copies creation date will normally be set to the date the file was copied. The image metadata inside the file (which you can view in preview with the inspector window, iptc tab) will show the image capture date.

Summary:

The File metadata is kept in the file system, and represents when that copy of the file is created or modified

The image metadata is kept inside the file, as exif and IPTC data. This won't change when you copy / move the file.

The added problem with a lot of video files is that many recording devices don't record the capture date/time inside the video metadata.

I did a short (non-iCloud-Photos) test and my Mac mini 2018 Big Sur Photos.app 6.0 (surprisingly) exports original file dates correctly (dragged or exported from the file menu).

...but that 'MacOS:FileCreateDate' file date is fragile and can not be trusted...

[Keys]          CreationDate                    : 2004:04:04 12:04:04+02:00
[UserData]      DateTimeOriginal                : 2003:03:03 12:03:03+02:00
[QuickTime]     CreateDate                      : 2002:02:02 12:02:02+02:00
[MacOS]         FileCreateDate                  : 2001:01:01 12:01:01+02:00

So I use a belt-and-double-suspenders and always insert the date to the filename and the 'QuickTime:CreateDate' and 'MacOS:FileCreateDate' (and maybe also to 'Keys:CreationDate' especially in pre-1970 (or local pre-1921) movies).

You can, too, with GraphicConverter or exixtool.

> 3rd party apps to accurately "stamp" your video files

With GraphicConverter you can set the video file creation & modification dates to match the embedded metadata date down to year 1904 via:

GraphicConverter > Browse... [select folder & files] > Date menu > Set File Creation and Modification Date with Exif Date

The embedded 'Keys' metadata in iOS 8.4 or later seems to support years down to 1.

But I agree, Apple could do better and offer options for those that want to preserve file dates intact, if possible (foreign Windows etc file systems might break those file dates anyway).

As my second post. I spotted that the time was different (because the file was downloaded via icloud later than the video was taken - but still the same day)

So I concur that the file date applied is the date/time the video is transferred from iCloud to the mac.

The problem here, is you are expecting the *file* date to retain the same date as when the video was captured. But that is not what the file date is for. The file date is managed by the mac file system (not via photos), and is intended to keep track of when a file is created/modified etc. This is exactly what it is doing. The date/time the file is created on your mac is the date/time it is downloaded from iCloud. Of course - Photos could rewrite the file date to do what we want. But it doesn't, and there is no way to force it.

The problem for videos is that there is no standardised method of recording the capture date in the video metadata contained *within* the file. (As explained by Leonie)

So, no - there is no way of telling photos to keep the file date the same as the capture date. If it is important to us, we have to use one of the workarounds described by Leonie and Matt.

Question remains: How can we instruct the Photo App to export the Video File using the Originals Creation Date....

cape-carlo wrote:

Question remains: How can we instruct the Photo App to export the Video File using the Originals Creation Date....

It is impossible to force Photos to use a specific file creation date. If we render a new, edited version, the file creation date will be the date this version has been created. If we export the unmodified originals, we may be lucky, that the original file creation date will be used, but downloading from iCloud, copying between drives, or conversion to a different format may change it. as shown in my other post, Photos will export

It is much easier for photos than for videos, because Photos used to embed the capture date into photos. Currently (on Big Sur) it seems to depend on the file format, if Photos is really preserving all metadata when exporting photos. Currently I am exporting all photos as TIFFs, so the titles, locations, keywords will be embedded when exporting.