Photo dates

WaxerUK wrote:

When I take photos on my iPhone and look at them in the photos app on my mac, everything is intact exactly as it should be. If I drag a selection of photos out of the photos app and into a folder, then sort that folder in order of date created, it does not sort by the date the actual photo was taken, it looks at the date the photos were dragged into that folder.

There are two types of metadata for an image file: the EXIF metadata and the file metadata. Each contains a date created field. The EXIF created date is when the image was created by the camera. The file created date is when the file was create and that can change when files are copied out of the library or to other drives or down from the web.

So I you want to sort the files by the EXIF capture date you'll need to rename the files with one of these AppleScripts and then exporting the files out of the library using the Title as the new file name. Then when you sort by name they will be in the order you want.

Batch Change Title to Capture Date-Description-Padded Sequential Numbers

Script: Batch Changing the Title to the Capture Date

Batch Change Title to Capture Date-Location-Description-Padded Sequential Number

Batch Change Title to Text w/Padded Sequential Numbers (requires manual adding capture date to text)

The scripts compiled as an applications can be downloaded from this tutorial site:  P01 - Applescripts from Photos’ User Tips Compiled as Applications.  To launch it the first time Control (right) - click on it and select Open from the contextual menu. 

Hi - When you look in photos, photos is showing you the capture date stored in the metadata, not the file date.

When you export, you are creating a new file, so the file gets a new date. The original capture date is still retained in the metadata, but finder doesn't use that for sorting, becuse it is a file management app, not a photo management app.

What you can do when you export under filename is use album name with number. The sequential number added to the album name should be in the same order as the sorting within the album.

Alterntatively you can use a third party app that adds the capture date to the filename, or re-writes the file date with the capture date.

Your problem is the drag/drop. This only copies the preview file not the original file. So it gives it a new file creation date.

Instead, select the images you want, and from the file menu file>export unmodified original (Note - you won't retain any edits this way)

Select the folder to export them to, and in that folder you will get an exact copy of the photo as it was imported to photos, including (theoretically*) the file creation date.

*theortically, because some older versions of MacOS did not do that.

Or you can use the content created date in the metadata as suggested by OT.