Is anyone else having problems with Apertures Date fields?

Question

Is anyone else having problems with Apertures Date fields?

After experiencing a sysems failure I began restoring my images from backups. I have had no end of problems with Image dates. I have come to the determination that Aperture is NOT using either the "Create Date" or "DateTimeOriginal" as the image "Date" or "Date Created" data if other fields have other dates.

Here is a clip from my image metadata using exiftool:

File Modification Date/Time : 2012:09:23 19:53:15-04:00

File Access Date/Time : 2013:01:16 11:34:38-05:00

File Inode Change Date/Time : 2013:01:16 11:31:32-05:00

Create Date : 2006:02:20 11:51:12.10

Date/Time Original : 2006:02:20 16:51:12.10

Modify Date : 2006:02:20 11:51:12.10

And here is what Aperture utilized on import

Date: 9/23/12 7:53:15 PM EDT

Date Created 9/23/2012 7:53:15 PM

So Aperture utlized the File Modification Date/Time as the Create Date despite that the fact that the Create Date field is present and is properly formatted in the original image.

According to the Aperture mapping table, this shouldn't be happening.

Now, before someone recommends that I use Aperture's Date Adjust utility - I'm talking about slightly over 30,000 images. Editing images one at a time, or in blocks when you don't know what field Aperture is using as the Create Date would require individual inspection of each image followed by manual adjustment of each image. That approach isn't acceptable.

Dual 2.26 GHz Quad, Mac OS X (10.6.6), 12GB RAM

Posted on Jan 16, 2013 8:55 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 16, 2013 3:08 PM in response to Gilbert Blankenship1

Not sure what you are reporting or expecting? If an image was shot with a digital camera, the date Aperture will use will be that found in the EXIF of the image file. In general, the dates that would be associated with files as read in the Finder, are not the dates that would be expected. However, if images do not contain EXIF metadata, then Finder dates may be substituted. If I Import files w/o EXIF data, such as something I scanned once upon a time, the the time of the scanning is the file date and date created that Isee in the info.

But in general, file dates seen in the Finder are not related to image file dates in Aperture, unless produced by something other than a camera.

Ernie

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Answer 2

Jan 16, 2013 3:26 PM in response to Ernie Stamper

Hmm ok, let me restate the issue then, I thought I was clear. I could have pointed out in my original post however, that only the EXIF and IPTC date fields were displayed from the metadata dump.

The data set presented in my first post is the EXIF dataset from the file which clearly shows the image was captured by digital camera at

Create Date : 2006:02:20 11:51:12.10

Date/Time Original : 2006:02:20 16:51:12.10

(The delta of 5 hours is the result of Zulu versus local time offset)

But, when I ingested it into Aperture, the import routine utilized the IPTC field

File Modification Date/Time : 2012:09:23 19:53:15-04:00

which is updated by the OS whenever you move the file around outside of Aperture. (a number of image data fields are updated by the OS - filename for example is another.). This resulted in the image date fields being stamped in Aperture as:

Date: 9/23/12 7:53:15 PM EDT

Date Created 9/23/2012 7:53:15 PM

Which obviously came form the File Modification Date/Time field and not (either) the Create Date or Date/Time Original fields.

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Answer 3

Jan 16, 2013 3:44 PM in response to Gilbert Blankenship1

I have no instances where this has happened, when using Import Folder or File from File/Import or the Import button from the tool bar. How have you done the "ingestion" into Aperture? So far, I have not been able to replicate this, so more info about each step, please.

Ernie

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Answer 4

Jan 16, 2013 3:49 PM in response to Ernie Stamper

1. Open Apeture

2. Click on the Import function (down arrow) in the Menu Bar

3. Navigate import navigator to the directory holding the files to import

4. Import Settings;

Destination: New Project

Project Name: (null)

Split Projects On

Do Not Import Dupes On

Store Files: In the Aperture Library

Rename Files: None

Camera Time: GMT/GMT

Actual Time: America/New York

Metadata Presets: None

Effect Presets: None

Raw+JPEG Pairs Both

Applescript: (null)

Backup Locatoin: None

5. Import Checked

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Answer 5

Jan 16, 2013 3:51 PM in response to Gilbert Blankenship1

I've never seen it happen either.

What happens if you batch clear the IPTC fields on a few Images, and write the changes back to the Originals?

Just thinking out loud -- 😉 .

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Answer 6

Jan 16, 2013 4:08 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

Actually, thats what I am having to do now.

I am manually looking through all my photos sorted by Date. I have created an Info Panel with the Date and Filename fields. Theoretically - all files should be in proper order (Date and Filename).

One by one I go through looking for filenames out of sequence. When I find one I go back to the original file and look at the metadata using exiftool. Then, using exiftool I manipulate the data for the file, delete the master out of Aperture and re-ingest the master from disk.

It's a very laborious process. But in every case so far, the problem has been that Aperture is taking the date field from one of the other EXIF/IPTC date fields. If I had thought about it sooner, I could have kept a log and started to reverse engineer the issue to fully nail down the precedence of whice date fields Aperture is using as priority over the native camera EXIF date stamp.

As a side note - I will point out that I have learned more about EXIF and IPTC data in the past couple weeks than I have in years! For example, I was always of the opinion that EXIF data was permanent. Never knew that some fields are edited by your OS including FileName, Directory, FileSize, FileModificationDate, FileAccesDate, FileInodeChangeDate etc. But, it makes sense - I guess.

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Answer 7

Jan 16, 2013 4:13 PM in response to Gilbert Blankenship1

I meant using Aperture. "Metadata➞Batch Change" to clear the IPTC fields:

File Modification Date/Time
File Access Date/Time

(I don't know if this is possible.) Then "Metadata➞Write IPTC data to Originals".

What exactly do these steps comprise:

"Then, using exiftool I manipulate the data for the file, delete the master out of Aperture and re-ingest the master from disk."

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Answer 8

Jan 16, 2013 4:24 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

I don't know if you are familiar with exiftool....

So first I examine the entire metadata set for the file

exiftool -all {fname}

I visually verify that the Create Date or Date/Time of Original is valid

I identify which field Aperture used on import

Then overwrite the offending date field,

- for ease lets say the EXIF field DateTimeOriginal is correct but the EXIF field CreateDate is the 'corruptor' (or is corrupted and is causing issues)

exiftool '-CreateDate<DateTimeOriginal' {fname}

Results in writing the data from DateTimeOriginal to CreateDate

Now execute a normal import into Aperture

The same process would occur for whichever field Aperture has used to stamp the image when it uses a field other than CreateDate or DateTimeOriginal

I hand't even thought of the process you suggest:

1) Identify a problem image

2) Export that Image with NO IPTC metadata

3) Re-ingest it.

Ill run that test the next corruption I find and see if it works.

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Answer 9

Jan 16, 2013 4:37 PM in response to Gilbert Blankenship1

Gilbert Blankenship1 wrote:

I hand't even thought of the process you suggest:

1) Identify a problem image

2) Export that Image with NO IPTC metadata

3) Re-ingest it.

Ill run that test the next corruption I find and see if it works.

I'm suggesting using the commands I specified. You might not have to export and import.

Are you deleting from Aperture the Versions you identify as having incorrect time stamps?

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Answer 10

Jan 16, 2013 5:06 PM in response to Gilbert Blankenship1

I just made a test of importing 6 images from a folder on another of my internal drives. In the Finder, each of the six had creation, modification and last opened dates of 10/13/09. When Imported into Aperture, and checking in various Info displays, each of the six bore the date of 10/12/09, at the times of day each was taken -- the dates from the camera. Within Aperture, there was no capturing of any date seen in the Finder.

The behavior you are experiencing is very odd.

Ernie

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Answer 11

Mar 28, 2014 7:36 PM in response to Gilbert Blankenship1

I have problems too with "date and time adjust". Exemple: I scan 10 pictures today's date (2014-03-28) but those pictures were taken on the 1st of jan 2012! So I go to "metadata" and change use the "time and date adjustement" - I select the 10 pictures and change the date to 2012-01-01 and adjust the time to 00h01m00s (first picture) to 00h02m00s second picture, 00h03m00s the third picture. I ensure to check the box for the original files. Strange things happen, some file are in 2012-12-31, time gets all mixed up. If you found how to correct that problem, please help me out...

thank you!

Pierre

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Answer 12

Mar 28, 2014 7:52 PM in response to Pierre277

Hi Pierre,

How are you specifying a time for each selected Image?

The dialog works on all selected Images. The change is relative. You specify the date+time offset for the Primary Selection (the Primary Selection has a heavier border), and that same offset is applied to all the selected Images.

Here isthe small entry in the User Manual.

Note that the date that is applied to your scans is the date the scan was made. The scanner has no idea when the photo depicted in the print or slide being scanned was taken.

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Answer 13

Mar 28, 2014 8:18 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

I do exactly "in the small entry in the user manual". I did the change in "bulk" the 10 pictures at the same time. In this case, i change the date to 2012-01-01 time to 00h01m00s. All the pictures are suppose to have that same date and time. I go further since I want to have some order (in time) to display my pictures. So I go back to change one by one the time like first picture will be 00h01m00s, second will be 00h02m00s....and the last one I will put 00h10m00s. But a few strange things happen, the date and time get mixe up! date and creation date are different. Also, I name all my projets by years and in 2012 i have only one project which is 01 January 2012 and when I put my cursor on the icon 01 January 2012, the date that appears is 31 dec 2011? thank you for your reply Kirby.

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Answer 14

Mar 29, 2014 3:18 AM in response to Pierre277

Pierre,

if you have a compatible iPhoto version, you could use iPhoto to batch the dates of the scans in your Aperture library. The ability to adjust the dates of scans relative to the first selected photo is one of the tasks that iPhoto can do and Aperture not.

If you have a set of scans, all taken roughly at the same time, sorted by filename, set the the date and time of the first scan and you can set the times of the following scans incremented by constant intervals, like this:

The time will be stepped, so that the sorting by time will correspond to the sorting in the browser, when you change the time. Just use "File > Open library in iPhoto" to switch from Aperture to iPhoto.

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