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Hi,
I think this might be a bug, but when I export my photos from Apple Photos (As Originals) it mistakenly sets the create date and modified date as the date of export, not the original photo date. This is with the latest MacOS and Photos app, on a drive that is formatted at APFS.
There are two kinds of metadata involved when you consider jpeg or other image file.
One is the file data. This is what the Finder shows. This tells you nothing about the contents of the file, just the File itself.
The problem with File metadata is that it can easily change as the file is moved from place to place or exported, e-mailed, uploaded etc.
Photographs have also got both Exif and IPTC metadata. The date and time that your camera snapped the Photograph is recorded in the Exif metadata. Regardless of what the file date says, this is the actual time recorded by the camera.
Photo applications like Photos, CaptureOne, Lightroom, Mylio, Photoshop etc get their date and time from the Exif metadata.
When you export from iPhoto to the Finder new file is created containing your Photo (and its Exif). The File date is - quite accurately - reported as the date of Export.
However, the Photo Date doesn't change.
The problem is that the Finder doesn't work with Exif.
So, your photo has the correct date, and so does the file, but they are different things. To sort on the Photo date you'll need to use a photo app.
There are apps that will edit the file data to match the Exif. This is one:
https://www.publicspace.net/ABetterFinderAttributes/index.html
There are two kinds of metadata involved when you consider jpeg or other image file.
One is the file data. This is what the Finder shows. This tells you nothing about the contents of the file, just the File itself.
The problem with File metadata is that it can easily change as the file is moved from place to place or exported, e-mailed, uploaded etc.
Photographs have also got both Exif and IPTC metadata. The date and time that your camera snapped the Photograph is recorded in the Exif metadata. Regardless of what the file date says, this is the actual time recorded by the camera.
Photo applications like Photos, CaptureOne, Lightroom, Mylio, Photoshop etc get their date and time from the Exif metadata.
When you export from iPhoto to the Finder new file is created containing your Photo (and its Exif). The File date is - quite accurately - reported as the date of Export.
However, the Photo Date doesn't change.
The problem is that the Finder doesn't work with Exif.
So, your photo has the correct date, and so does the file, but they are different things. To sort on the Photo date you'll need to use a photo app.
There are apps that will edit the file data to match the Exif. This is one:
https://www.publicspace.net/ABetterFinderAttributes/index.html
It doesn’t even seem to do that. It does seem somewhat inconvenient to have it export the file and not even put the original create /modify date. What about if you want to put it in a new application. The information is correct in Apple photos.
What makes it look even more like a big is it actually used to do the correct thing but now doesn’t.
It depends on how the originals will have been moved around in Photos or if they are exported to a different volume. For example, if you are using iCloud Photos, the creation date of the originals is usually the date, they have been downloaded from Cloud. If you are using iCloud Photos with "Optimize Mac Storage", the original file creation date will vanish, sooner or later. Photos will still know the original capture date of your photos, as the capture date will have been written into the EXIF tags of the image file and is independent of the creation date of the file.
Not a bug. You’re creating a new file when you export. It will always have the current date. The date the photo was taken is included in the metadata
Photos original export sets incorrect date
