How do I change the modified date of all photos in my library?

I forgot to make the title of the script a link to it. Here it is: Script: Batch Changing the Title to the Capture Date 2018,

If you have all of the photos in the folder that are in the library just do what Richard.Taylor said: create a new library to replace the current one.

However, if you nave a lot of keywords is the old library that you want to save the delete the photos from the current library and import the folder of photos into the current library. That will preserve the keywords but not associated with the files.

If you're concerned about the keywords then a new library would be more efficient .

Thomas:

What you're seeing in the Finder is the file's creation date and not the image Date Created. That can be seen in the Finder in the column view only:

To view the EXIF metadata you'll need an app that can read those fields in the file. Preview is one, Lightroom should be able to view it once it's opened the image file.

The thing is, there is more than one meaning for "Created Date." Finder is a file management system, so "Created Date" for Finder is the date the file was created. Sometimes that's the same as the date the picture was taken; sometimes not. The date the picture was taken, sometimes called the "Capture Date," is stored in the metadata of the image file, and stays the same even when the file is re-created with a different file date. Most Apps that handle images will read the Capture Date directly from the metadata and ignore the file date. Preview and Photos and Lightroom should all do that.

So, try importing a few of your images into Photos and see what date it shows. It's probably OK. The only downside would be if the app you used to change dates messed up the metadata--probably not.

In order to sort those files by creation date in the Finder you would have to use one of these user contributed AppleScript in the library, Script: Batch Changing the Title to the Capture Date 2018, and then exporting the photos to the folder with the option to use the Title as the new file name.

Hey, Thomas,

I'd create a new Photos Library (close Photos and option-click on the Photos Icon) and then, in this new empty library, use File>Import to load in the pictures. If you select a folder that has folders in it you can, before you say OK to import, tell Photos you want to maintain the folder structure, and you'll get folders with albums inside corresponding to your folders inside of folders.

The one crazy thing is that they will all be in a, to me, superfluous, super folder, and you have to drag them out of that--silly, but not so bad.