How to download videos back from iCloud retaining original capture dates

Video is crazy-- codecs, formats, and metadata handling keep changing and there never seems to be a standard. Old videos are really hard to work with. But iPhone videos seem to be OK.

When I download an iPhone video from iCloud.com, I get a file with today's date on it. That's because the file was created today, even though the images were created earlier. Both pictures and videos have both dates, and the file creation date is the one you see in Finder.

But I notice that when I import that file into Photos, that Photos info shows the actual recording date for the video, the GPS data, the camera model, and so on. The same is true when I look at the video using Quicktime-- it shows all the original information. ExifTool Reader also has the original date and info.

Have you looked at your videos with a program that shows capture date, like Mac Photos?

Older videos that I tried, recorded with older cameras, don't seem to retain info. Videos from my Nikon Z5 do keep the date with them.

jewingy wrote: once you export the video out of iCloud, the meta data is gone

But that's not so. As I said earlier,

But I notice that when I import that file into Photos, that Photos info shows the actual recording date for the video, the GPS data, the camera model, and so on. The same is true when I look at the video using Quicktime

The metadata is still there--iCloud did not change or delete it. I mean, really, I just did this and looked.

The common internal movie metadata date 'QuickTime:CreateDate' is not readily displayed outside Photos.app but 'Keys:CreationDate' as well as GPS, Title, (or Headline), Author, Keywords, and Description are displayed in QuickTime Player.app > Window > Show Movie Inspector [Command-I].

Movie date tags can be checked with more detail with GraphicConverter > File > Browse... > [select folder] > [select file] > i [at lower right] > ExifTool tab.

Or with an exiftool command below (use a period '.' instead filename to check all files in that folder):

exiftool -a -G1 -s -n -fileOrder5 FileName -api QuickTimeUTC=1 -FileCreateDate -FileModifyDate -CreateDate -GPSCoordinates -DateTimeOriginal -CreationDate movie.mp4

[MacOS]         FileCreateDate                  : 2001:01:01 12:00:00-05:00
[System]        FileModifyDate                  : 2001:01:01 12:00:00-05:00
[QuickTime]     CreateDate                      : 2001:01:01 12:00:00-05:00
[UserData]      DateTimeOriginal                : 2001:01:01 12:00:00-05:00
[Keys]          CreationDate                    : 2001:01:01 12:00:00-05:00
[UserData]      GPSCoordinates                  : 40.74842 -73.98561 443.2
[Keys]          GPSCoordinates                  : 40.74842 -73.98561 443.2

More info at:

Movie dates and Photos.app - Apple Community

As I said, I can see the date info in Quicktime. Most of the video players I have, like VLC, don't show any of this kind of information. When I used NX Studio with a file I downloaded from iCloud it showed both the file date and the "Date shot" correctly. The creation info is definitely with the video file.

I think maybe the general rule is that, if you want to see photo or video capture data, you use a video or photo viewing tool. If you use a file management tool, you should expect to see the file date. Not surprising, really.

> Are there any good apps that can batch-process and copy captured exif dates of videos and photos to “date created”?

Yes, see the link in my previous message (search text "To copy movie and image metadata dates to filenames").

I use GraphicConverter and exiftool to copy internal image and movie metadata dates to file dates, and there is also A Better Finder Rename etc for this.

You can look in the App store for Exif and you'll find a number of apps that let your read or edit the metadata. I use ExifTool Reader, and I (and Matti) use GraphicConverter ($40) on the Mac. Clearly that is not free, but you can use it to lots of batch operations and editing.

Interestingly, I had tried GraphicConverter earlier to see the metadata for a video downloaded from iCloud, and it didn't show. I was using the Edit window, which works for images, but as I had always thought, that doesn't get to metadata for videos. But, after Matti pointed it out, I tried in the Browser in GraphicConverter, and it does indeed show metadata, and it allows you to edit in batches, just like for images. It is a very powerful program!

As an example of batch processing with images, I've been recently playing with a manual fixed aperture lens, and the metadata from the camera says the focal length is 0 mm. I used the browser to sort all the pictures in order of focal length, selected the ones at the top that said 0, and changed the Exif data for all of them to 300mm at once. Really cool!