How to retrieve the date a photo was taken from iCloud

This royally infuriates me.

I just downloaded all of my photos from iCloud (thank you Apple for this amazing service) and I see that there's no metadata on the date the photo was taken.

Obviously there is that data on my phone and in iCloud because they are somehow able to sort the photos by date but once its downloaded that line item in the metadata is missing.

This is absolutely atrocious. This is my data. I own it. Why is Apple cutting out key components of MY data? What in the actual F?

Can someone please tell me there's a way to get the capture times on my photos? This is devastating.

Posted on Mar 28, 2022 11:41 PM

Top-ranking reply

Matti Haveri

Level 6

19,700 points

Posted on Mar 29, 2022 1:03 AM

Check if the correct date is in the image:

a) Open the image in Preview.app > Tools > Show Inspector > "i" icon > Exif tab > "Date Time Original" should show the shooting date ("the date and time when the original image data was generated"):

b) In Finder > View > Show Preview > Show More > "Content created" should show the shooting date (IMHO it should also read "Date Time Original" there):

c) In some 3rd party tool show the dates and check which one is the correct.

The shooting date is 'ExifIFD:DateTimeOriginal' but sometimes the correct date can be in the filename, or in the fragile 'MacOS:FileCreateDate' or 'System:FileModifyDate' or maybe in 'ExifIFD:CreateDate' or maybe in some other date metadata. Many social media sites strip off dates so you must guess the correct date.

exiftool -a -G1 -s -time:all -api RequestAll=2 image.jpg 
[ExifTool]      Now                             : 2022:03:29 10:45:54+03:00
[System]        FileModifyDate                  : 2022:03:29 10:30:09+03:00
[System]        FileAccessDate                  : 2022:03:29 10:45:44+03:00
[System]        FileInodeChangeDate             : 2022:03:29 10:45:43+03:00
[MacOS]         FileCreateDate                  : 2022:03:29 10:30:09+03:00
[MacOS]         MDItemContentCreationDate       : 2001:01:01 12:00:00+02:00
[MacOS]         MDItemContentCreationDate_Ranking: 2001:01:01 02:00:00+02:00
[MacOS]         MDItemContentModificationDate   : 2008:08:08 08:08:08+03:00
[MacOS]         MDItemContentModificationDate_Ranking: 2008:08:08 03:00:00+03:00
[MacOS]         MDItemDateAdded                 : 2022:03:29 10:30:09+03:00
[MacOS]         MDItemDateAdded_Ranking         : 2022:03:29 03:00:00+03:00
[MacOS]         MDItemFSContentChangeDate       : 2022:03:29 10:30:09+03:00
[MacOS]         MDItemFSCreationDate            : 2022:03:29 10:30:09+03:00
[MacOS]         MDItemInterestingDate_Ranking   : 2022:03:29 03:00:00+03:00
[MacOS]         MDItemLastUsedDate              : 2022:03:29 10:31:37+03:00
[MacOS]         MDItemUsedDates                 : 2022:03:29 00:00:00+03:00
[MacOS]         XAttrLastUsedDate               : 2022:03:29 07:31:37
[IFD0]          ModifyDate                      : 2008:08:08 08:08:08
[ExifIFD]       DateTimeOriginal                : 2001:01:01 12:00:00
[ExifIFD]       CreateDate                      : 2008:08:08 08:08:08
[ExifIFD]       SubSecTimeOriginal              : 65
[ExifIFD]       SubSecTimeDigitized             : 65
[ICC-header]    ProfileDateTime                 : 1998:02:09 06:49:00
[XMP-exif]      DateTimeDigitized               : 2008:08:08 08:08:08
[XMP-exif]      DateTimeOriginal                : 2008:08:08 08:08:08
[XMP-photoshop] DateCreated                     : 2008:08:08 08:08:08
[XMP-xmp]       CreateDate                      : 2008:08:08 08:08:08
[XMP-xmp]       MetadataDate                    : 2022:01:04 16:47:15+02:00
[XMP-xmp]       ModifyDate                      : 2008:08:08 08:08:08
[XMP-xmpMM]     HistoryWhen                     : 2022:01:04 00:46:53+02:00, 2022:01:04 15:08:59+02:00
[Composite]     SubSecCreateDate                : 2008:08:08 08:08:08.65
[Composite]     SubSecDateTimeOriginal          : 2001:01:01 12:00:00.65

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How to retrieve the date a photo was taken from iCloud

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