Is Adjust Date and Time adjusting masters when it is not supposed to?

Leonie,

Thanks for the reply. I am indeed still using Aperture 3.2.4. (I have not upgraded my Mac OS to a version which can support anything newer than 3.2.4, and I was not even aware that there were newer versions of Aperture until a few weeks ago, since Software Update does not look for it on my computer.)

The behavior in 3.4.3 and 3.2.4 sounds the same. Your post made me think of something that might make it a bit easier for me to "undo" my date/time adjustments. As I mentioned, I let Aperture manage my masters. However, based on your post, I relocated all the masters for the project in question, so they are now referenced. They are unchanged. The timestamps on the photos (EXIF data) as well as the files' timestamps have not changed.

So, my 3.2.4 experiment agrees with your 3.4.3 experiment -- the originals are not changed, but the export of the original is modified upon export.

So, given all this, can someone help me get Aperture to use the masters' timestamps. Not sure if there's a brilliant way to do this. It seems to be the only adjustment which is not stored as a "recipe".

nathan

Fantastic, Léonie!

I thought about your suggestion and improved upon it for my own purpose. (Yes, my version of Aperture behaves the same as yours.)

I started this thread to begin with because I am a bit obsessive about the timestamps of my pictures. This includes timestamps of my files, too. As you and I know, the purpose of the Unix "touch" program is to set the timestamp of a file to the current time. So, I was creeped out by the thought of losing my original file timestamps (even though I knew the EXIF "time of creation" would be unaffected by "touch" or by Aperture).

I realized that your suggestion works because of the change in file timestamp. Obviously, a change in the content of the file without a change in the timestamp will not force Aperture to update anything. (Or else you wouldn't have a reason to come up with your set of steps to begin with!)

Your remark about ExifTool gave me an idea. I used ExifTool to manipulate the file's timestamp. Yes, it's weird, but ExifTool will allow you to change the filesystem timestamp of a file, even though it has nothing to do with EXIF. Basically, it's metadata, so ExifTool will allow you to change it.

So, I did this:

• Open Terminal
• Change to directory that contained the referenced masters for my project (It has nothing else -- only masters from the project in question)
• Run ExifTool: exiftool -FileModifyDate+=0:01 *

  This changes the filesystem timestamp of all files by adding 1 minute to the timestamp

• Go to Aperture and scroll through all of my pictures in the project so that Aperture rereads the files.

  This is the crux of your suggestion -- it makes Aperture reread the file creation timestamp in the EXIF data, which is exactly what I was hoping to do.

• Run Exiftool again: exiftool -FileModifyDate-=0:01 *
  • This subtracts 1 minute from the filesystem timestamp of all files
  • This gets my file system timestamp back to exactly its original value, and I am happy!
• Scroll through the pictures again to force Aperture to reread the files, since I know Apeture will want to do it at an inconvenient time otherwise.

Thanks again for your suggestions! My files' timestamps are back where they should be without losing any other changes I have made within Aperture.

nathan