Folder of photos out of chronological order on desktop

Hi

You need to distinguish between the file metadata (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.

(Depending on your system version, if you export unmodified original from photos, you will usually get a file with the same creation date as the image)


You can also see the two different dates in finder, as shown in the screenshot with finder in column view. This is from an image I exported from photos in july 2019 - so the file has been created and last modified then, but the content creation date is still showing 2011...

However, finder (which is a file manager) can only sort by file dates, not by the photo metadata. You need a photo app for that.

Thanks, Tony,

Hmmmm. Yeah, I might have read this wrong. The Preview/Tools/Show Inspector/Exif box shows August 11, 2013, as the creation date. The Finder Get Info box shows a creation date of August 12, 2013. The Preview box Exif creation date is a day earlier. So, possibly the later August 12 date is the date that the photo was first placed into the Photos app file system. I assume that the sorting function then would sort by the later August 12 Get Info file date, rather than the August 11 Exif actual creation date. Is that what you are saying?

Here's the Preview Exif box:

And here's the Finder Get Info box:

The two different "creation" dates could be the same if one placed the photo into the Photos app file system on the same date that the photo was taken. Then the sorting by creation date would work, although operating on the identical file date rather than the actual creation date.

Still trying to sort out the mysteries of the various iterations of the Photos app.

-- Rich

I am running Mojave with Photos 4. As a test I dragged three photos, with three different creation dates, from the Photos app library to a folder on my desktop. The creation dates carried over. However, they were out of order. Then I selected the photos as a batch and did a View/Sort By/Creation date. The photos then were sorted in chronological order by creation date. I don't know what Photos version that you are running, but at least with Photos 4 the sorting works to sort chronologically by creation date.

-- Rich

There are apps you can get that will set the file creation date to match the image capture date. I am not familiar with any so cannot suggest.

Or just use a photo management app to manage your photos, rather than finder. (such as Photos)

It also depends how you get the file into your mac. If from an iPhone via iCloud, then my experience is the file is synced and retains its file date as when it was shot.

Other methods of transfer may set the file date to the date of transfer. When you export the image from photos, the exported file may get the date of export.

I always though export unmodified original exported the file with the creation date set as when the file was imported - though someone with an earlier verison of MacOS reported here that that didn't work for them.

The upshot - if you want to sort by image capture date, don't use finder, use a photo management app, such as Photos.

Photos will display them according to the EXIF data, not the file data.

Again though - that will be file creation date, not image metadata. Different versions of macos have not been consistent on how they set the file creation date when exporting from photos.