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When I export photos from Apple Photo App and use export unmodified originals it exports with the wrong file creation date. Could this this be because iCloud infrastructure may move/copies photo data around which changes the file creation date and not the meta data?
It is not correct that the file creation date is exported if it is exported as an "unmodified original". I've just done that today, and the file creation date at the new location is August 5th 2023. Now when I put these photos into other apps, they show up incorrectly in the project timeline. If you could please double check, and elaborate a better answer as to how to keep the correct file creation time.
So we're all on the same page, are you referring to the image creation data or the file creation date? They are two different entities entirely. The Finder must be in the column mode in order to see the Image Creation date.
The file creation date can change any time a new file is created, i.e. by exporting from the Photos library as a jpeg or other format, copying to another volume or drive.
If the photo is exported as the original the file created date will remain the same.
As Old Toad already said. The internal metadata image date (from iPhone etc) is usually preserved when moving images around.
But social media sites like WhatsApp and Facebook usually strip off such metadata so as a last resort many photos apps grab the date from the file creation or modification date. And those dates are very fragile and are often reset to current date when they travel through the cloud or different filesystems. I usually write internal metadata date to such images with GraphicConverter or Photos.app so the date is preserved.
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 if what the file date says, this is the actual time recorded by the camera.
Photo applications like Photos, Lightroom, Photoshop etc get their date and time from the Exif metadata not the file date.
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. You can edit the file creation date to match the Exif using a variety of apps, among them
File creation date when exporting photos
