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Photo timestamp

Hey fam,


I notice that you can change the photo or video time stamp date/hour/minute/second on your Mac. When you do this and send the photo/video to someone, is there any way that person can find out the real timestamp?


Appreciate any input, thanks.


MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Sep 28, 2022 5:43 AM

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Posted on Sep 28, 2022 8:49 AM

So, if you change the date in Photos>Image>Adjust Date and Time, and you then choose Export> 1 Photo, then the resultant file will have the date you exported it as the file date, and it will have your adjusted date in the metadata as the capture date. The original date will not be stored anywhere in the exported image or its metadata.


Most viewers will see only the file date in Finder, which will be the date it was exported. Someone who looks at the metadata will see the creation date that you assigned.

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Sep 28, 2022 8:49 AM in response to Matti Haveri

So, if you change the date in Photos>Image>Adjust Date and Time, and you then choose Export> 1 Photo, then the resultant file will have the date you exported it as the file date, and it will have your adjusted date in the metadata as the capture date. The original date will not be stored anywhere in the exported image or its metadata.


Most viewers will see only the file date in Finder, which will be the date it was exported. Someone who looks at the metadata will see the creation date that you assigned.

Sep 28, 2022 7:00 AM in response to ChrissDog

Any decent photo-related app should have an option to show the EXIF metadata datetime. (On the other hand, file creation & modification dates are fragile and often change).


Photos.app exports the original metadata via export originals. It exports modified metadata via .jpg or .tif export (or with the originals as .xmp sidecar file but this is clumsy).

Photo timestamp

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