Harward8
Level 1 (12 points)
Photos for Mac

Q: What is up with the Time Stamp?

I set my cameras (or they set themselves) to the time zone I am in when taking the pictures (Central Europe summer time). My home time zone is Mountain Time.  When I import my photos the time zone always shows as Mountain, not European.  The time stamp adjusts so I wind up with pix that show the time it was taken IN COLORADO!  I was in Sweden! So instead of the 11:00 AM it was in Stockholm, my pictures say it was 3 AM! I vaguely remember being asked about this when I first started with Photos but I cannot find the screen to change from use home time to use local time (or whatever it says).

 

Just one of my many, many problems with Photos.

 

Linda

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4), iPad and iPhone as well

Posted on Sep 8, 2016 8:01 PM

by Rysz,Apple recommended
Rysz Rysz
Level 7 (20,274 points)
iTunes
A:

You can change the Time Zone in Image > Adjust Date & Time > click on the one you want to use.

Posted on Sep 8, 2016 9:16 PM

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Harward8

Q: What is up with the Time Stamp?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Rysz,Apple recommended

    Rysz Rysz Sep 8, 2016 9:16 PM in response to Harward8
    Level 7 (20,274 points)
    iTunes
    Sep 8, 2016 9:16 PM in response to Harward8

    You can change the Time Zone in Image > Adjust Date & Time > click on the one you want to use.

  • by léonie,Apple recommended

    léonie léonie Sep 8, 2016 10:09 PM in response to Harward8
    Level 10 (105,806 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 8, 2016 10:09 PM in response to Harward8

    When you import photos, the Photos app will by default use the time zone of the current system time, unless the photos have been tagged with a GPS time zone tag, that Photos understands. It is less trouble, if you import the photos while you are still in the time zone where you took them, or at least the system time of the Mac is set to the time zone, where you have taken them.

     

    If you shift the timezone in the "Image > Adjust Date and Time" panel (at the bottom o the panel - closest city) as Ryzs recommended, Photos will shift the recorded time by the timezone offset. You will want only to set the timezone, but not adjust the original time. So take a note of the hour before you change the time zone and then immediately change the adjusted hour back to the original hour value.

    Screen Shot 2016-09-09 at 07.02.31GMT.jpg

  • by Harward8,

    Harward8 Harward8 Sep 10, 2016 12:57 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 10, 2016 12:57 PM in response to léonie

    Thanks you.  I know how to adjust the time zones as you advised.  I would just love to not have to do that and import them in the time zone in which they were taken.  I use multiple cameras and took about 4000 pix (although there are over 7000 in my library - go figure.

    My iPhone also reflects the mountain time zone and i know it has a GPS that Apple should recognize!

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Sep 11, 2016 12:24 AM in response to Harward8
    Level 10 (105,806 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 11, 2016 12:24 AM in response to Harward8

    Even with GPS assigned to the iPhone photos it can get really messy, i.e, when you also have My Photo Stream or iCloud Photo Library enabled, the time zone on the iPhone does not necessarily match the time zone of the GPS locations.

    A few years ago I made a trip through Alaska and Canada. we were continually crossing the border between Alaska and Yukon Territory, and thus switching time zones, sometimes several times a day. The iPhone had not always a cellular connection, so it would not switch the time immediately after crossing the border. It was unpredictable, when it would change the time, so I had to disable the automatic time switches and changed the time zone manually. But it was not always possible to tell when we crossed the border between the states and Canada. The GPS is not reliable to infer the time zone from that the iPhone has been set to.

    In the evening in the hotel I had a hard time to separate the photos according to time zones on import.

     

    After a few days of this mess I reverted to my old practice of keeping all cameras, even the iPhone and the iPad  set to UTC at all times. This way I could be sure about the time zones used when taking the photos for all devices. I only changed this after I purchased an Apple Watch, that needs to sync with the iPhone.