How to update the date associated with photo's original EXIF camera capture date?

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Level 1

12 points

How to update the date associated with photo's original EXIF camera capture date?

Ideally, when a photo is imported into a Photo Library, the Photos application assigns to the photo the date found in the "Date Time Original / "Date Time Digitized" fields of the photo's EXIF data. However, it's been established that there are some import scenarios in which the Photos application will ignore the date-oriented EXIF information and will instead associate the photos with the date and time of the import process itself. Unfortunately, this has happened to me on a number of occasions, and I now have a relatively large number of photos in my library with the incorrect date. In all of these cases, the correct EXIF data is still located within the photo located in my library. I know this because if I export one of these original photos from my library and examine it, the original EXIF fields are intact including the original "Date Time Original / "Date Time Digitized" fields.

So, my question: Is there any process I can run (including perhaps a third-party application designed to work directly with an Apple Photo Library) that will scan my Photo Library in a batch mode and update each photo's date with the correct EXIF date when available?

I realize that I could export all of my photos and re-import them, but that would destroy all of my album organization. I could also re-import them with the idea of using Photo's new built-in duplicate detection feature (which I like), except for the fact that when merging two photos, one with the older, correct date derived from EXIF data and another with a more recent, incorrect date take from the time of import, the feature seems to prefer and choose the more recent, incorrect date during the duplicate merge process!

So any suggestions about about to automatically or programatically reset my photo dates to match their embedded EXIF data within the Photo Library?

Thank you!

MacBook Air

Posted on Dec 14, 2022 03:14 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

199,927 points

Dec 15, 2022 08:30 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

I am using HoudahGeo to add locations and dates to scanned photos, before <I import the scanned photos to Photos. And archive the adjusted originals on an external drive, before importing them to Photos. Photos can simply no longer be trusted to store our original image files unmodified, at least not, if we are using iCloud Shared Photos Library.

When I look at the "originals" folder inside the package of my iCloud Photos Library, all four dates of the original image files shown in the Finder Preview of the image have been changed to December 1, 2022, including the "Content Created", which used to show the capture date of the photo in the Finder in Column View. The new date December 1, 2022 is the date I moved the photos from my personal Photos Library to the Shared iCloud Photos Library. Preview is still finding the capture date somewhere in the Originals, but the Finder can no longer show it.

For example, the Info in Photos for a photo, showing the capture date, plus the originals folder in the library package, showing the four file dates "Created", "Modified", "last opened", "Content created".

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Answer 2

Dec 15, 2022 03:23 AM in response to Slamdancin

> I realize that I could export all of my photos and re-import them, but that would destroy all of my album organization

I prefer to edit and correct metadata outside Photos.app so this does not answer your question. But anyway for your information these were my recent headaches with Photos and how I fixed them:

A few days ago I fixed all images my son had taken in the army and edited with Windows gear.

macOS 12-13 Monterey-Ventura Photos.app displays 'IFD0:ImageDescription' instead IPTC/XMP so my later additions done with GraphicConverter.app to the Captions were not read by Photos.app and it insisted reading the old IFD0 descriptions even when some of them were empty (I later learned that GraphicConverter has an option to update also 'IFD0:ImageDescription' when updating IPTC/XMP).

Previously I had fixed images where the Photos.app image time was "0.00" even though it was correctly in 'ExifIFD:DateTimeOriginal' which I regard as the golden standard for images. Root of the problem was that 'IPTC:DateCreated' was missing its 'IPTC:TimeCreated' counterpart or missing time in 'XMP-photoshop:DateCreated' if "IPTCDigest is not current".

I also spotted some .jpg and .png images that missed 'ExifIFD:DateTimeOriginal' but with my workflow Photos.app correctly grabbed it either from 'MacOS:FileCreateDate' or 'IFD0:ModifyDate' which was present in those Nexus 4 .jpg panorama images.

I first filtered those images to see how widespread the problem was and then fixed those with exiftool:

exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original_in_place -if '$IFD0:ImageDescription' -IFD0:ImageDescription= .

exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original_in_place -if '$IPTC:DateCreated and not $IPTC:TimeCreated' -IPTC:DateCreated= -IPTC:TimeCreated= .

exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original_in_place -if '$Photoshop:IPTCDigest' -Photoshop:IPTCDigest= .

exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original_in_place -if 'not $XMP-photoshop:DateCreated=~/ \d\d:\d\d:\d\d/' -XMP-photoshop:DateCreated= .

exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original_in_place -ext jpg -ext png -ext tif -if 'not $ExifIFD:DateTimeOriginal' '-AllDates<FileName' .

Movie dates, locations, captions and keywords is another matter.

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Answer 3

Dec 15, 2022 07:54 AM in response to Slamdancin

Slamdancin wrote:

So, my question: Is there any process I can run (including perhaps a third-party application designed to work directly with an Apple Photo Library) that will scan my Photo Library in a batch mode and update each photo's date with the correct EXIF date when available?

I'm pretty sure the answer is, "No." There may be scripts that will make the change one picture at a time.

I've been working with scanned slides and photos that that don't have a meaningful date at all and, like Matti Haveri I use GraphicConverter to do batch changes. With GraphicConverter you can add titles, modify filenames, and even copy into (or out of) Mac comment fields. But it all must be done outside of Photos.

You can export an album to a sub-folder, one album at a time, to preserve the structure. But you have to decide how you want to deal with images that you changed.

I have mostly given up on the dates (they don't have meaning for scans) and I just include the date in the title and sort by title.

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Answer 4

Slamdancin Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 15, 2022 12:52 PM in response to Matti Haveri

Thank you! I also prefer to edit and correct metadata outside out the Photos.app, but I've unfortunately found myself in a situation in which that doesn't apply. But the information you provided is very useful in general for correcting photos before adding them to Photo Library.

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Answer 5

Slamdancin Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 15, 2022 01:03 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thanks very much for the reply, and "No" may well end up being the best answer. That's a good thought about exporting the photos an album at a time to preserve structure. It would be tedious, but perhaps worth it. Unfortunately, though, if you export an album (FIle -> Export -> Export Unmodified Originals for Album) and select to preserve structure through the "Subfolder Format" selection, the only option available is "Moment Name," which saves the photos in a folder named after Photo.app's own "moment" name instead of the actual album name. But it's something to work with. Thanks again.

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Answer 6

Slamdancin Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 15, 2022 01:35 PM in response to léonie

Photos can simply no longer be trusted to store our original image filesunmodified, at least not, if we are using iCloud Shared Photos Library.

Hi, léonie. Thanks very much for the reply. In my experience, if you use tools like md5, exiftool, etc., you'll find that the original files themselves (their content and calculated checksums) are exactly the same as when you imported them. That's different than other operating system- and filesystem-related metadata that may indicate when a specific copy of an original file was saved or updated to disk. I think that's what you're actually seeing in the Finder preview.

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Answer 7

léonie

Level 10

199,927 points

Dec 15, 2022 08:33 AM in response to Matti Haveri

Matti, this is very helpful. Could you please add it to the user tip section, so we can find it again more easily?

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How to update the date associated with photo's original EXIF camera capture date?

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