Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Retain dates of movies when exporting

Hi everyone,

iPhoto’s Export dialogue does a good job of retaining image dates when the "Original" option is set. But sadly this does not apply to movie files. When I do export an event that contains movies they will get the current date. Of course re-importing them later results in a screwed up sort order. Is there any way of retaining the file’s original date when exporting? I know of the way to show the original, but this is impractical in my case.

Thanks

Björn

Posted on Nov 23, 2013 6:30 AM

Best reply

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,396 points

Posted on Nov 23, 2013 8:44 AM

No. The dates on the photos are retained in the Exif metadata which records the date and time of the exposure on the camer, so the date on the file is unimportant. However there is no Exif for video.

There are various utilities that you can use to edit the date on a file

View in context

22 replies

Aug 24, 2014 11:06 AM in response to Old Toad

You can of course do that and there are several good utilities for that, correct. But this won’t help if you already have lots of videos imported without taking such precautions. And that was the case, at least for me.

léonie

Level 10

195,025 points

Aug 24, 2014 11:52 AM in response to Björn Herrmann

Once the videos have been imported to iPhoto, you can still rename them when exporting. If you add the date to the title of your video, set the "File Name" option in the export panel to "Use title". Then all exported videos will have the date in the title.

Aug 24, 2014 12:11 PM in response to léonie

You do notice that you reply to a thread which I marked as solved in 2013? 😉 I know that you can do this, but that is not the point. The point is that video files do not inherit EXIF data like photos, thus an export from iPhoto will always give the exported file the current date. The same is true for photos, but since they contain the EXIF data of when the photo was taken it’s no problem there. I could have gone crazy with a combination of Show Original and scripting touch -t… , but that’s exactly what I did not want.

I am thankful for replies, but resurrecting old threads is not neccessary. I solved the problem long ago using Aperture and I also sent a bugreport/feature request to Apple, but since both iPhoto and Aperture will be discontinued soon, we will have to see what the new Photos.app gives us anyway. 😐

léonie

Level 10

195,025 points

Aug 24, 2014 12:30 PM in response to Björn Herrmann

You do notice that you reply to a thread which I marked as solved in 2013?

I see now, thank you. When I answered, I saw a whole page with the date August 24. It is hard to see the history of a thread in the Activity Stream and to notice, the thread has been thread jacked. Sorry for the inconvenience. Tut mir leid, Björn 🙂

The point is that video files do not inherit EXIF data like photos, thus an export from iPhoto will always give the exported file the current date.

We all are seeing that problem, and since it cannot be changed, we keep offering (safe) work-arounds, when this problem gets posted again.

Old Toad

Level 10

207,685 points

Aug 24, 2014 1:36 PM in response to Björn Herrmann

Since there is no way to add EXIF data or file metadata to the video file, renaming in iPhoto with the Date and exported when needed with File Name = Title is a workaround that is being offered.

Dec 28, 2014 7:12 PM in response to Björn Herrmann

I only have this problem with the videos, but recently found a veryyy tedious solution.... I only do it because they're videos of my son 1,2 and 3 years of age and the dates are crucial to me :/

They have to be copied one by one>:o what a pain!!!!

1. In iPhoto select the video file you want to move/copy

2. Select File (at the top) > scroll down to Reveal In Finder > select Original File

3. (The file should already be selected in the new window) Select Edit > Copy

4. Paste it in the desired destination.