The photo app on all my devices do not work with EXIF of photos

Question

Level 1

4 points

The photo app on all my devices do not work with EXIF of photos

Issue Summary:

On iPadOS 18.5, the Photos app inconsistently determines the photo date for images received via AirDrop. Although the JPEG file contains a valid `DateTimeOriginal` tag in its EXIF metadata, the app chooses to display the image based on its filesystem modification date (`FileModifyDate`), leading to incorrect chronological placement in the camera roll.

Details:

• File type: JPEG exported from Lightroom Classic on macOS

• Verified: `DateTimeOriginal` = March 5, 2024; `FileModifyDate` = May 6, 2024

• Transfer method: AirDrop from macOS to iPad

• Expected behavior: Photos app should prioritize the `DateTimeOriginal` as the image’s date

• Actual behavior: Photos app displays the photo as taken on May 6 (modification date), despite valid EXIF data

Additional Information:

• Two iPad Pro 4th Generation devices, both running iPadOS 18.5, were tested:• Device A: Displays the correct EXIF capture date (March 5)

• Device B: Displays the incorrect modification date (May 6)

• Both devices were tested using identical image files and AirDrop workflows

• EXIF verified using `exiftool`; no corruption or inconsistencies detected

• ZIP-transfer method and importing via the Files app were also tested and failed to resolve the issue

• iCloud Photos behavior did not appear to affect the result

iPad Pro, iPadOS 18

Posted on Jul 1, 2025 1:37 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 8, 2025 1:52 AM in response to Louis_0_0

Louis_0_0 wrote:

Well, as long as it’s the default setting for the region, the displayed time format (whether 12-hour or 24-hour) will not be affected.

Confirmed and feedback to Apple sent. If I AirDrop from Sequoia 15.5 the following image to iPadOS 18.5 with its Region default 24-Hour Time switched OFF in Date & Time:

Then iPad Photos erroneously picks the AirDropped image's date from FileModifyDate instead DateTimeOriginal.

exiftool -a -G1 -s -FileCreateDate -Time:All 2025-0707-0707-07.jpg
[MacOS]         FileCreateDate                  : 2025:07:05 05:05:05+03:00
[System]        FileModifyDate                  : 2025:07:06 06:06:06+03:00
[IFD0]          ModifyDate                      : 2025:07:07 07:07:07
[ExifIFD]       DateTimeOriginal                : 2025:07:07 07:07:07
[ExifIFD]       CreateDate                      : 2025:07:07 07:07:07

Switching iPad date back to the Region default 24-Hour Time fixes this for the next AirDrop.

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Answer 2

Louis_0_0 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 1, 2025 6:19 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Suspected Cause:

If the regional setting defaults to the 24-hour time format and you manually change it to the 12-hour format, the issue mentioned above may occur.

Solution:

Reverting the time format back to the default (24-hour) should resolve the problem.

(I’ve found that this appears to be a bug in iOS/iPadOS 17/18 and macOS 13/14 as well.)

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Answer 3

Jul 1, 2025 10:55 PM in response to Louis_0_0

Louis_0_0 wrote:

Suspected Cause:

If the regional setting defaults to the 24-hour time format and you manually change it to the 12-hour format, the issue mentioned above may occur.

Solution:

Reverting the time format back to the default (24-hour) should resolve the problem.

(I’ve found that this appears to be a bug in iOS/iPadOS 17/18 and macOS 13/14 as well.)

Interesting. Thanks for the detailed report. Can you repeat that bug after changing the Time format setting to non-24-hour? I always use 24-hour setup so I have never stumbled on this issue.

p.s. by default exiftool does not report FileCreationDate so I guess Photos uses it in your case. You can check it from images and movies via:

exiftool -a -G1 -s -api QuickTimeUTC=1 -api RequestTags=FileCreateDate -Time:All image.jpg

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Answer 4

Louis_0_0 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 2, 2025 1:55 AM in response to Matti Haveri

Well, as long as it’s the default setting for the region, the displayed time format (whether 12-hour or 24-hour) will not be affected. I had to switch regions earlier for certain reasons, and that’s when I discovered this bug. After resetting it to the default region, the issue was resolved.

If the default time format is changed, the issue still occurs.

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Answer 5

Louis_0_0 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 1, 2025 8:46 AM in response to Louis_0_0

Issue resolved

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Answer 6

Jul 1, 2025 9:56 AM in response to Louis_0_0

Issue resolved

Can you tell us how?

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The photo app on all my devices do not work with EXIF ​​of photos

The photo app on all my devices do not work with EXIF of photos