Modifying the date of photos to come from another EXIF field

Make sure to delete the old image and empty Photos trash before importing the new image with edited metadata.

Anyway, your exiftool output is ambiguous because it does not list tag groups and other useful info. It is best to use these options when checking tags: show duplicate tags (-a), what groups they belong to (-G1) and actual tag names (-s). Actual tag names like 'DateTimeOriginal' are used when writing tags instead those maybe more human readable corresponding names like 'Date/Time Original' without -s option.

https://exiftool.org/faq.html#Q3

So: post the output of this command for that 14-old.tif:

exiftool -a -G1 -s -api RequestTags=FileCreateDate -Time:All 14-old.tif

It seems Photos grabs incorrect 2020 date for that .tif from incorrect 'IPTC:DateCreated' and 'IPTC:TimeCreated' tags which sometimes Photos might do instead importing date from the correct 1990 EXIF tag:

So it seems you might be a victim of the old Monterey-Sequoia Photos "IPTCDigest is not current" flaw:

With such images Photos, Preview and Finder preview erroneously grab the date from 'IPTC:DateCreated' and 'IPTC:TimeCreated' instead using 'ExifIFD:DateTimeOriginal' (luckily usually those dates are the same). Photos also displays the time as "0.00" if IPTC:TimeCreated is missing and the IPTCDigest is out-of-sync:

exiftool -a -G1 -s -ExifTool:Warning -File:CurrentIPTCDigest -Photoshop:IPTCDigest image.jpg 
[ExifTool]      Warning                         : IPTCDigest is not current. XMP may be out of sync
[File]          CurrentIPTCDigest               : 8a2526af49e0181dc6b0fcd563517484
[Photoshop]     IPTCDigest                      : a44c6491b26004f85a9ab6516deb2a53

As a test I wrote the correct 2000 year date with 'AllDates' shortcut to EXIF (and same name XMP) 'DateTimeOriginal', 'CreateDate' and 'ModifyDate' (as well as to the less important file dates), and deliberately wrote incorrect dates to the two IPTC datetime tags as 1977 or 1987:

exiftool -a -G1 -s -api RequestTags=FileCreateDate -Time:All image.tif 
[MacOS]         FileCreateDate                  : 2000:01:01 12:00:00+02:00
[System]        FileModifyDate                  : 2000:01:01 12:00:00+02:00
[ExifIFD]       DateTimeOriginal                : 2000:01:01 12:00:00
[ExifIFD]       CreateDate                      : 2000:01:01 12:00:00
[IFD0]          ModifyDate                      : 2000:01:01 12:00:00
[XMP-xmp]       CreateDate                      : 2000:01:01 12:00:00
[XMP-xmp]       ModifyDate                      : 2000:01:01 12:00:00
[XMP-xmp]       MetadataDate                    : 2024:11:01 12:41:53+02:00
[XMP-xmpMM]     HistoryWhen                     : 2024:11:01 12:38:48+02:00
[IPTC]          DateCreated                     : 1977:01:01
[IPTC]          TimeCreated                     : 12:00:00+02:00
[IPTC]          DigitalCreationDate             : 1987:01:01
[IPTC]          DigitalCreationTime             : 12:00:00+02:00
[ICC-header]    ProfileDateTime                 : 1998:02:09 06:49:00
[Composite]     DateTimeCreated                 : 1977:01:01 12:00:00+02:00
[Composite]     DigitalCreationDateTime         : 1987:01:01 12:00:00+02:00

I then imported that .tif to Photos and, sure enough, Photos IMHO incorrectly grabs the date from incorrect IPTC:DateCreated and IPTC:TimeCreated instead using the correct EXIF tag (with G1 exiftool displays ExifIFD:DateTimeOriginal specific location and with G0 EXIF:DateTimeOriginal general location).

It is possible to sync those out-of-sync IPTCDigests with the first command below but nowadays the best fix is to delete Photoshop:IPTCDigest with the latter command:

exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original -Photoshop:IPTCDigest=new image.jpg

exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original -Photoshop:IPTCDigest= image.jpg

So: try if deleting Photoshop:IPTCDigest fixes the date Photos imports. Then those incorrect IPTC dates should not matter. But if DateTimeOriginal is correct, you could copy that to those IPTC tags with:

exiftool -m -overwrite_original '-DateCreated<DateTimeOriginal' '-TimeCreated<DateTimeOriginal' '-DigitalCreationDate<DateTimeOriginal' '-DigitalCreationTime<DateTimeOriginal' image.tif

Or, if DateTimeOriginal is correct, delete those pesky IPTC date tags with:

exiftool -m -overwrite_original -DateCreated= -TimeCreated= -DigitalCreationDate= -DigitalCreationTime= image.tif

Internal image metadata date 'ExifIFD:DateTimeOriginal' can be checked in Finder > View > Show Preview > Show More > 'Content Created' date in the right side panel (this is DateTimeOriginal but for some reason Apple labels it differently here).

Or in Preview.app > Tools > Show Inspector > i > Exif > 'Date Time Original' field which shows also the possible Time Zone info.

...but if a scanned image has no proper EXIF date like in the example below where the correct date is only in the filename, then Finder incorrectly displays Content Created 2024:11:01 and Preview incorrectly displays Date Time Digitized 2024:11:01, even though there are neither DateTimeOriginal nor DateTimeDigitized tags:

exiftool -a -G1 -s -Time:All 2024-0601-1000-00.tif 
[System]        FileModifyDate                  : 2024:11:01 12:41:57+02:00
[System]        FileAccessDate                  : 2025:06:22 10:37:53+03:00
[System]        FileInodeChangeDate             : 2025:06:22 10:37:16+03:00
[IFD0]          ModifyDate                      : 2024:11:01 12:41:53
[XMP-xmp]       CreateDate                      : 2024:11:01 12:38:48+02:00
[XMP-xmp]       ModifyDate                      : 2024:11:01 12:41:53+02:00
[XMP-xmp]       MetadataDate                    : 2024:11:01 12:41:53+02:00
[XMP-xmpMM]     HistoryWhen                     : 2024:11:01 12:38:48+02:00
[ICC-header]    ProfileDateTime                 : 1998:02:09 06:49:00

The following proper EXIF date tags are in practice always set to the same time and I use DateTimeOriginal as the golden standard for images (movies use different date tags):

ExifIFD:DateTimeOriginal (the date/time when original image was created).

ExifIFD:CreateDate (called DateTimeDigitized by the EXIF spec is the date/time that the digital file was created).

IFD0:ModifyDate (called DateTime by the EXIF spec is supposed to be changed whenever the image is modified but in practice that is not done).

Additionally there are numerous other date tags like:

[MacOS]         FileCreateDate                  : 2001:01:01 12:00:00-05:00
[System]        FileModifyDate                  : 2001:01:01 12:00:00-05:00
[XMP-exif]      GPSDateTime                     : 2001:01:01 12:00:00-05:00
[XMP-xmp]       ModifyDate                      : 2001:01:01 12:00:00-05:00
[IFD0]          ModifyDate                      : 2001:01:01 12:00:00
[XMP-exif]      DateTimeDigitized               : 2001:01:01 12:00:00-05:00
[XMP-xmp]       CreateDate                      : 2001:01:01 12:00:00-05:00
[ExifIFD]       CreateDate                      : 2001:01:01 12:00:00
[XMP-exif]      DateTimeOriginal                : 2001:01:01 12:00:00-05:00
[XMP-photoshop] DateCreated                     : 2001:01:01 12:00:00-05:00
[ExifIFD]       DateTimeOriginal                : 2001:01:01 12:00:00
[ExifIFD]       OffsetTimeOriginal              : -05:00

So: you might check if the scanned images already have a correct date in some of those tags:

exiftool -a -G1 -s -Time:All image.jpg

...and then use exiftool to copy that tag to the EXIF tags that Photos can read. For example, if DateTimeDigitized (or the date in the filename) that Photos does not read is correct, you can copy it to DateTimeOriginal (and to file dates) with the command below ('AllDates' is a shortcut for the three most commonly used image timestamps 'DateTimeOriginal', 'CreateDate' and 'ModifyDate'):

exiftool -m -overwrite_original '-AllDates<DateTimeDigitized' '-FileCreateDate<DateTimeDigitized' '-FileModifyDate<DateTimeDigitized' .

I tested just which Lightroom workflow creates this problem and how to fix it also with GraphicConverter.

If input raw has ExifIFD:DateTimeOriginal, then Lightroom creates IPTC:DateCreated and IPTC:TimeCreated tags to its output. Lightroom also inserts IPTCDigest tags to exported images and sometimes they might get out-of-sync but I don't yet know which workflow causes that.

If that happens, then Photos grabs the date from those IPTC dates which might be different than the correctly adjusted EXIF date. Also Preview.app > Tools > Show Inspector > i > Exif > 'Date Time Original' and Finder > View > Show Preview > Show More > 'Content Created' then display a wrong date.

You can prepare such test .jpg. Optionally first remove (almost) all metadata:

exiftool -overwrite_original -All= image.jpg

Then simulate a situation where you have exported .jpg from Lightroom and it has inserted EXIF and IPTC:DateCreated and IPTC:TimeCreated dates to year 2020. Then you have adjusted EXIF to a correct year 1988. But some workflow has also caused IPTCDigest tags to be out-of-sync:

exiftool -overwrite_original -Caption-Abstract=Caption -Photoshop:IPTCDigest=00000000000000000000000000000000 '-DateCreated=2020:02:20 20:20:20' '-TimeCreated=2020:02:20 12:20:20' '-AllDates=1988:08:08 08:08:08' image.jpg

Then those tags are as...

exiftool -a -G1 -s -api RequestTags=FileCreateDate -Warning -CurrentIPTCDigest -IPTCDigest -Time:All image.jpg
[ExifTool]      Warning                         : IPTCDigest is not current. XMP may be out of sync
[File]          CurrentIPTCDigest               : bb41279fe9365542cbcddb6d6372c092
[Photoshop]     IPTCDigest                      : 00000000000000000000000000000000
[System]        FileModifyDate                  : 2025:06:23 19:53:10+03:00
[System]        FileAccessDate                  : 2025:06:23 19:53:15+03:00
[System]        FileInodeChangeDate             : 2025:06:23 19:53:10+03:00
[MacOS]         FileCreateDate                  : 2025:06:23 19:53:10+03:00
[IFD0]          ModifyDate                      : 1988:08:08 08:08:08
[ExifIFD]       DateTimeOriginal                : 1988:08:08 08:08:08
[ExifIFD]       CreateDate                      : 1988:08:08 08:08:08
[IPTC]          DateCreated                     : 2020:02:20
[IPTC]          TimeCreated                     : 12:20:20+02:00
[Composite]     DateTimeCreated                 : 2020:02:20 12:20:20+02:00

...and Photos, Preview and Finder preview incorrectly display IPTC year 2020 instead EXIF year 1988.

The best fix is to use exiftool to delete Photoshop:IPTCDigest, and either copy a correct DateTimeOriginal to those IPTC date tags or remove IPTC date tags (see above).

With GraphicConverter 12 a quick fix is to update some IPTC/XMP Caption or Keyword which deletes Photoshop:IPTCDigest (but it preserves those incorrect IPTC date tags that might cause problems later if IPTCDigest tags again get out-of-sync).

In GC it is also possible to remove ALL IPTC tags (which are being phased out anyway) but it also removes possible existing IPTC Captions (GC 12 writes the same info to XMP-dc:Description so it might survive there, though).

I doubt that you can do this inside of Photos.

You will need to use something like exiftool to do the processing and re-import them to Photos.

A quick google search found this:

https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=10322.0

Matti Haveri is the Exif expert, and I just want to agree that there is nothing you can do inside Photos to switch Exif fields, copying what's in one field to another. I've used GraphicConverter ($40) to do that sort of thing (as has Matti,) but only before importing the pictures to Photos. I'm not totally sure that GC access the field you used, though.

By all means, do not try to use any sort of Exif editor on pictures inside Photos-- the data you see in Photos is what was copied into the database from the pictures on import, and changing Exif data on the originals will not change what is displayed from the database.

Richard.Taylor wrote:

I've used GraphicConverter ($40) to do that sort of thing (as has Matti,) but only before importing the pictures to Photos. I'm not totally sure that GC access the field you used, though.

I tried to use GC to copy DateTimeDigitized to DateTimeOriginal but it did not seem to have that feature so I reverted using exiftool.

Metadata names that macOS and Windows report are often misleading and ambiguous so you might not know what actual tag they decide to display. So it is usually best to use exiftool or GraphicConverter (which uses exiftool under the hood) to check the tags when troubleshooting. And often those OSs might grab and display a different tag in the same field because there are many same name tags in different tag families (EXIF, XMP, MacOS, System etc). For example, I now realized that I should test which tags and in which preferred order Finder might display for its 'Content Created', but that might be a moving target anyway.

If the original poster does not want to use exiftool, a workaround is to set the dates with GC Browser, especially if the scanned files don't have any correct date tag that might be copied to a proper place.

Lightroom also inserts IPTCDigest tags to exported images and sometimes they might get out-of-sync but I don't yet know which workflow causes that.

IPTCDigest tags get out-of-sync if an app updates some IPTC tag without syncing the IPTCDigest tags. For example:

exiftool -overwrite_original -Caption-Abstract=Caption image.jpg

The proper way to do that is:

exiftool -overwrite_original -Caption-Abstract=Caption -IPTCDigest=new image.jpg

"The purpose of the IPTCDigest is to tell the program reading the data if it should ignore the XMP data. This will only happen if the IPTC data has been changed by a program that doesn't update the IPTCDigest.

It's important to note that the only comparison that a program might do is between the current MD5 hash of the IPTC data and the IPTCDigest. There is nothing that guarantees that the data is correctly in sync, as a program that edits only the XMP data and not the IPTC data will not change anything in regard to the IPTCDigest.

IMO, the IPTCDigest is an outdated tag that had use when XMP was new and IPTC IIM was the main standard, but most modern programs will use XMP, especially with RAW files, which very few programs will write to, favoring the XMP sidecar files instead."

https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=16548.msg88938#msg88938

p.s. For example, GraphicConverter 12 updates both IPTC:Caption-Abstract AND XMP-dc:Description (and displays XMP-dc:Description if they differ) and deletes IPTCDigest so they are always in sync so no major problem there.

Matti Haveri wrote: … Metadata names that macOS and Windows report are often misleading and ambiguous so you might not know what actual tag they decide to display.

Right! I've found that I have to do trial runs to make sure what I'm doing is what I think I'm doing!

Matti Haveri wrote: … ALL IPTC tags (which are being phased out anyway)

In what way is this phase-out happening. I ask, because I often put in Titles and Captions into IPTC (with Graphic Converter during a pre-edit) of scanned pictures before importing to Photos. You're saying that will go away?

Richard.Taylor wrote:

Matti Haveri wrote: … ALL IPTC tags (which are being phased out anyway)

In what way is this phase-out happening. I ask, because I often put in Titles and Captions into IPTC (with Graphic Converter during a pre-edit) of scanned pictures before importing to Photos. You're saying that will go away?

As I just wrote in my previous comment, GC updates both IPTC and XMP via its "Edit File Info IPTC/XMP" dialog, if possible. So the same input goes to both tag groups:

[IPTC]          Caption-Abstract                : Caption/Description
[XMP-dc]        Description                     : Caption/Description

So no need to be concerned about that. But IPTC is an old standard which does not support many features that XMP does. For example, there is a limit how long some tag's contents can (officially) be in IPTC so the input might be truncated, and .heic does not support IPTC at all.

Matti Haveri wrote: …p.s. For example, GraphicConverter 12 updates both IPTC:Caption-Abstract AND XMP-dc:Description (and displays XMP-dc:Description if they differ) and deletes IPTCDigest so they are always in sync so no major problem there.

Cool-- I just want a field to enter information that I get with a scan--so no worry for me!

Fascinating! I'm not sure I had noticed the origin date in IPTC. It's not in the unmodified original from my Nikon, but it is in the version I get from Lightroom and in edited versions in Photos.