Time Zone control in Photos App

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Level 1

58 points

Time Zone control in Photos App

I'm trying to get the times, dates and time zones corrected on certain images in the Photos app. It seems it only allows time and date correction though, not time zone. Does Photos disregard time zone altogether? I just don't want to change the time and date of photos if all I'm doing is changing it to an incorrect time and date because time zone isn't being included.

For example: If the photo is set to to EST and the metastamp says it was taken at 3 pm, but the photo was taken in California, you'd think to change the time to 12 pm. However, if the time zone doesn't change, you are really changing the time to 9 am PST (not 12 pm) because it is still being counted in EST.

Basically, time and date are dependent on the time zone, so does Photos take this into account or can we just change the time and date according to what we think it is for the image independent of time zone?

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017), macOS High Sierra (10.13.3)

Posted on Mar 2, 2018 6:36 AM

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Answer 1

macorin Author

Level 1

58 points

Apr 4, 2018 6:29 AM in response to léonie

Hi léonie,

The one follow up I have to your response is, isn't the closest time zone, the time zone you are currently in, rather than the time zone the photo was taken in? I want to make sure the photo has the correct time for the time zone it was taken in. Therefore, am I supposed to choose the time zone that I'm currently in and then adjust the date and time for what it would be in the time zone the image was taken in, or am I supposed to choose the time zone the image was taken in and then select the date and time for that time zone?

Example: Image was taken in PST at 11 am. I am now in EST, but know the date and time of the image is wrong. Do I choose the city closest to me in EST and then change the time to 2:00 pm (thinking that it will of course mean it was 11 am in PST) or do I choose a different city such as San Francisco and just make the time 11 am?

I'm just not sure how the computer is interpreting and presenting the date and time.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

194,723 points

Apr 4, 2018 7:30 AM in response to macorin

What do you want the time to be, that your you are seeing in the Info panel of Photos?

If your camera has been set to the local time of the location where you have been, and you want to see the local time of the location in the Info panel, you should adjust the time in a way, that the closest city is in the timezone where you took the photo. Photos on the Mac will then sort the photos using that timezone, when it interprets the time stamp of the photo.

An iPhone or iPad will show the time converted to your current system time, however, but Photos on the Mac will use the timezone

I prefer to keep the clock in my cameras set to UTC and never to change it. This way I can always be sure about the current camera setting for the time zone. So I am setting the closest city in Photos to Reijkjavik in Iceland. This timezone is closest to UTC, because it is GMT+00, but no daylight-saving time in summer.

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Answer 3

macorin Author

Level 1

58 points

Mar 2, 2018 6:48 AM in response to macorin

Also, why don't time and date changes made in the Photos app sync to Photos seen in Photos for iOS when synced via iCloud? I use iCloud photos and the time and date changes do not sync, so now I have the same photos in my library, but they are showing as two different times depending on the platform I'm viewing them in.

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Answer 4

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Mar 2, 2018 8:17 AM in response to macorin

The adjust time/dat window includes a location setting for the time zone in the part of the window set a nearby city in the correct time zone to set the time zone - after yu corret the time zone you may also need to correct the time

If you are using iCloud Photo Library (there is no service named iCloud Photos) and if your status is just updated then the date changes should sync

LN

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

194,723 points

Mar 3, 2018 8:14 AM in response to macorin

I’m aware of the solution you are suggesting. However, this doesn’t seem to be clear cut because Photos doesn’t show the time zone associated with a photo’s time and date. Therefore, how are we to know what the time zone is

The associated timezone for a photo is shown at the bottom of the "Adjust Date&Time" panel, in the "Closest City" line.

For example, the panel below is showing a place in Madagascar as the closest city, and Photos will interpret the original date and time relative to the timezone of this place:

So, look for the current "Closest City", before you adjust the time zone of a photo.

Have you seen this user tip? How Photos Handles Time Zones when Importing Photos

When importing from a camera or a camera card, Photos may ignore the time zone setting of the camera. It makes a guess, what the time zone settings of the camera may have been, depending on GPS data added to the photo and your location and the system time of the Mac, when you import photos.

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Answer 6

macorin Author

Level 1

58 points

Mar 3, 2018 7:34 AM in response to LarryHN

Hi Larry,

I’m aware of the solution you are suggesting. However, this doesn’t seem to be clear cut because Photos doesn’t show the time zone associated with a photo’s time and date. Therefore, how are we to know what the time zone is? It seems that selecting a different time zone just alters the time of the photo by the amount expected between time zones, but it doesn’t clearly indicate if the adjusted time is in the new time zone time or the old time zone time.

For example, I live on the east coast. I took photos in California. Now I’m back home and I look at the photos. The time says 10:30 am, but I know the photos were at 7:30 am. What time zone is being used? If I choose Los Angeles, the time gets adjusted to 7:30, but is that EST or PST? If still EST, then the time is actually still incorrect because it would then be 4:30 am PST. This is the case for photos I’ve imported using a different camera.

I’m also seeing photos that I just recently took in California using my iPhone. When I look at the images now, the time is off by 3 hours, so it seems that the phone doesn’t catch and hold time, date and time zone meta data. When I look at those images, the time is correct for the time zone I’m currently in, but that time doesn’t reflect the time they were actually taken in the time zone they were taken in.

It seems a shame you can’t hard set the time zone for the images, so the time remains accurate no matter where you view them. Based on the current system, it seems time and date loses meaning.

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Time Zone control in Photos App

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