Photos is not using Exif original Date Time when I import

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Level 1

5 points

Photos is not using Exif original Date Time when I import

How can Photos match the Date Time Digitized or Original as the correct date for sorting?

In previous answers, I saw that "Photos (and pretty much any other photo management software) will use for sorting, " but that's not the case.

This is what I'm trying to do:

I'm importing some 2009 photos to my Photos for Mac so I can have them all organized in one place and synced with iCloud Photos across all my devices.

When I imported them into the Photos, I can see that it doesn't consider either the Date Time Digitized or the Date Time Original for sorting.

I attached a photo as an example.

This first screenshot shows the image in Finder, and the Content created metadata shows 04/09/2009, 11:43 AM (September 4, 2009). As you can see, the Exif information I in Preview shows the following metadata:

Date Time Digitized: 4 Sep 2009 at 11:43:00 AM

Date Time Original: 4 Sep 2009 at 11:43:00 AM

However, when I drag the image into Photos and press command + I to see the information, it shows that the photo was taken on September 30, 2022, at 10:56:24 PM (as shown in the screenshot below)

I know that I could modify the date in Photos by selecting the image and going to Image/Adjust Date and Time..., but I have multiple albums from different years and trips, so I think this process would be tedious.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Oct 1, 2022 2:25 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 2, 2022 12:09 AM in response to Stefgturc

> new user and imported the image there and it worked

There seems to be something wrong in your user account or the Photos library.

Try to option-launch Photos.app and create a brand-new test library (on the Desktop, for instance) and import images to it.

You can revert to the old library by option-launch Photos and navigate to the old library obviously at ~/Pictures -- set its as System library if necessary via Photos preferences.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,531 points

Oct 3, 2022 11:45 PM in response to Matti Haveri

Matti, I had the same problem with JPEGs on macOS 12.6.

While running Monterey I fall back on converting all JPEGs to HEIC or TIFF before importing them to Photos.

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Answer 3

Oct 1, 2022 10:50 AM in response to Stefgturc

Weird. So back to the basics. Where and on what format volume is the library stored (APFS, Mac OS Extended, FAT?)? How are the images imported to it? Does it work on another user account on a new library? Any 3rd party add-ons or virus apps (Avast, Bitdefender, Intego, MacAfee, Norton etc) and 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up" apps (CleanMyMac, MacKeeper etc). They produce only obscure errors and money loss.

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Answer 4

Oct 1, 2022 11:35 AM in response to Stefgturc

My routine troubleshooting voodoo is reset SMC and PRAM, safe-boot, check the volumes in recovery mode in Disk Utility.

Create a new user account and try the normal File > Import known-good .jpg images with dates to a new Photos library (you can then delete that account). Remember to backup.

Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

Repair a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

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Answer 5

Oct 1, 2022 10:45 AM in response to Stefgturc

Is this happening just with this image? Or all images?

What calendar do you have set in system preferences>language and region?

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Answer 6

Oct 1, 2022 12:22 PM in response to Matti Haveri

Might also be worthwhile restarting in safe mode.

Start up your Mac in safe mode – Apple Support (UK)

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Answer 7

Oct 1, 2022 7:50 AM in response to Stefgturc

I got the link for the .zip in private mail. In my macOS 12.6 Monterey Photos the unzipped .jpg imports and displays the date correctly and exiftool shows the following dates with 'ExifIFD:DateTimeOriginal' being the important one.

exiftool -a -G1 -s -Time:All Imagen\ 006.jpg 
[System]        FileModifyDate                  : 2022:10:01 17:31:41+03:00
[System]        FileAccessDate                  : 2022:10:01 17:42:27+03:00
[System]        FileInodeChangeDate             : 2022:10:01 17:41:49+03:00
[IFD0]          ModifyDate                      : 2009:09:04 11:43:00
[ExifIFD]       DateTimeOriginal                : 2009:09:04 11:43:00
[ExifIFD]       CreateDate                      : 2009:09:04 11:43:00

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