How to import photos from Mail to iPhoto and preserve the date created?

Question

Level 1

8 points

How to import photos from Mail to iPhoto and preserve the date created?

I have several photos sent to me via email attachments in Mail which I want to "add to iphoto." When I do this, the original date of the photo changes to "today's date."

When I drag the photo to the desk top, the file (photo) properties change and the date changes to "today's date."

Is there a way to import photos and preserve the original date the photo was taken? For example, if my family finally got around to sending me photos from 4th of July, I know the date is 7/4/2012, not today's date, 10/9/2012.

I want to avoid the time/work of doing batch changes on countless photos I want to add to iphoto.

iphoto 11

mail 5.3

Lion 10.7.5

iPhone 3GS, iOS 5.1, iMac Intel Core 2 Duo, iCloud

Posted on Oct 9, 2012 12:01 PM

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Answer 1

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Oct 9, 2012 12:11 PM in response to zanyface

Photo properties are totally seperate from the file properties. If the photo properties are present and correctly formatted then iPhoto uses them. If they are not present (a scanned photo for example) then the file properties are used.

LN

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Answer 2

zanyface Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 9, 2012 12:50 PM in response to LarryHN

Larry, I need more information...

Using what you said, I ran some tests using photos taken with my digital camera in iPhoto. My photos show the following information in the "information" sidebar:

•type of camera

•Flash on

•Format size

•File size (MB)

•File type (jpeg)

•Frame "number"

•Month/day/year/hour/min/sec/AM-PM

Then I tried to email a photo to myself: I have tried: "share," "attach," "drag/drop" a photo into email and sent it to myself as a test. Once the photo arrives in my Mail inbox, I have tried various ways to add this "test" photo into iPhoto:

"Add to iphoto"

"drag into iphoto"

"export into iphoto"

Each time, iphoto created the photo with "today's date." In the past, I would get an alert: Photo already exists in iphoto, do you still want to import? Duplicate or Cancel

Can you elaborate on, "if the photo properties are present and correctly formatted then iPhoto uses them."

When I drag a photo to the desktop and double-click to preview the photo, the top of the preview window says:

P1009.jpg -- locked (gray lettering of the word "locked")

Is there a setting I need to change to "unlock" the properties of my photos?*

Thanks!!

MG

*My original post focuses on importing photos sent from other people. I am hoping if I can solve the matter with my own photos, other photos will import with original dates created, too.

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

207,667 points

Oct 9, 2012 1:43 PM in response to zanyface

Here is a screenshot of what metadata iPhoto 11 displays compared to older iPhotos:

iPhoto does not show all of the available EXIF or ITPC data that's available. You can use EXIF Viewer to view the EXIF data in an image file. The developer had discontinued the app but the last available version can be downloaded from Toad's Cellar.

OT

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Answer 4

zanyface Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 9, 2012 2:06 PM in response to Old Toad

Update: I right-clicked a photo on my desk-top, clicked the lock in the lower right corner to unlock, then draged the photo into iphoto. I got a pop-up: Would you like to import the following duplicate photo? Cancel, don't import, import

How do I make a global change to "unlock" photos so they will import and maintain the original created date?

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Answer 5

zanyface Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 9, 2012 2:08 PM in response to Old Toad

OT, how does this help me import photos from Mail with the original date created? If I recieve photos from others via email, I can't control the settings, but most photos have the date of the photo. That is all I want so the photos import and find their way when I "sort by date."

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Answer 6

Old Toad

Level 10

207,667 points

Oct 9, 2012 4:50 PM in response to zanyface

The date the photo was taken by a digital camer is embedded in the image file in the EXIF Capture Date field. It remains the same no matter if the file itself is coped and the file created date changes.

I don't know why files you're getting in emails are locked. That's a new one for me.

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Answer 7

TommyCH

Level 1

8 points

Mar 31, 2013 3:40 PM in response to zanyface

I have a similar issue. When I "add to iPhoto" from within the message in Mail, the date of the photo changes to the date it was added to iPhoto, not the date it was taken. The date info is deleted from the EXIF file when the photo is added to iPhoto in this manner. On the other hand, when I click and drag the photo to iPhoto in the dock, the original date and EXIF data are preserved.

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Answer 8

Old Toad

Level 10

207,667 points

Apr 1, 2013 8:19 AM in response to TommyCH

I can confirm that. Report it to Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html as will I.

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Answer 9

TommyCH

Level 1

8 points

Apr 1, 2013 8:32 AM in response to Old Toad

Thanks for the confirmation, I sent a report using that link.

Tom

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Answer 10

zanyface Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 27, 2013 10:50 AM in response to zanyface

Ack! This post is almost a year old and I am still facing the same problem. I never import photos from email because iphoto changes the photo's date to the date of the import.

I sent feedback again, as recommended by OT.

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Answer 11

Oct 24, 2014 1:02 PM in response to zanyface

I shared this frustration until a few minutes ago.

'Right click' (2-finger tap) on the photo in Mail and choose 'Open with...' in the popup.

In iPhoto 11, I have 'Jpeg to iPhoto.app' as one of the options.

This is working on MOST of the pics that were sent to Mail with an iPhone 5c, and even a few sent with a Samsung dumb fone!

(Lion 10.7.5)

Cheers!

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