Changing EXIF Date in Photos for Mac while preserving editable image edits

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Changing EXIF Date in Photos for Mac while preserving editable image edits

Hi All,

I recently got scanned about 1,500 old family film frames.

I then changed the original EXIF, and file created date & time, from the scan date, to the date the photos were taken, by using A Better Finder Attributes (incredible software).

Unfortunately those dates were estimated, and I only learned they were wrong, after importing them to Photos for Mac, and after adjusting the levels, white balance, etc.

Does anyone know how I can BATCH edit the EXIF dates inside the originals in Photos, not only the adjusted in the Photos database, so I can preserve the ADJUSTABLE image edits?

Ideally I wouldn’t want to have to bake the edits into the photos, export, amend the dates, and re-import.

HoudahGeo can be (ab)used to do this, but it’s not meant for that, so it’s not as powerful as A Better Finder Attributes.

https://blog.houdah.com/2020/05/correct-the-date-and-time-of-photos-using-houdahgeo-6-0/

Anyone knows about any other way/software to do this?

I’ve been thinking of reimporting the pictures with correct dates, and copying and pasting over the image edits a bit at a time for the 1500 pics, but the edits copy/paste in Photos is not reliable.

Thanks

[Edited by Moderator]

Mac mini, macOS 14.5

Posted on Jul 18, 2024 11:07 AM

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Answer 1

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Richard.Taylor

Level 6

18,379 points

Jul 19, 2024 8:35 AM in response to varvale

You cannot change the Exif dates in Photos without messing things up.

The Original files do retain their Exif data, but that information has been passed to the Photos database. After the original image is imported, its embedded Exif data are not directly used in Photos. So if you did change the date in the original file's Exif data, it wouldn't affect what you see in Photos info, and the contradiction with the database might eventually cause disastrous corruption.

You can change the date in Photos using the menu choice Image>Adjust Date and Time. This is recorded in the database, but does not change the "Unmodified Original," since, well, that's what "unmodified original" means. If you Export this "Adjusted Picture" with File>Export>Export nn Photos, then the Creation Date will the the new, adjusted date. If you Export with File>Export>Export Unmodified Original, it will have the original, perhaps wrong, date as the creation date.

You can certainly export all the "unmodified originals" and change the date with a batch program, and then reimport them. It sounds bad, but it may be that, using software that does batch Exif edits, it won't take too long. But you'll lose any edits or notes that you've added in Photos.

Personally, I wouldn't want to do that with every picture I've ever entered a wrong date for. Frankly, I just put the date in the title-- it's easier.

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Changing EXIF Date in Photos for Mac while preserving editable image edits

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