How do I retain the data that a photograph was taken when I download it from icloud

Egbert1 wrote: …all I want is to press the info and see the original date and time on the downloaded photo -

At iCloud.com, use the More (•••) button, and choose More Download Options. There you can

choose Unmodified Originals. I'm not sure how the court will know for sure, but it seems like you ought to be able to tell them that you're using Unmodified Originals.

Egbert1 wrote: … it still gave me today's date when I opened up the info on the photo - should I be looking somewhere else to see the original data?

Well, drat-- I see that Finder does indeed show the File creation date rather than the Image creation date. I thought they changed that. The date information is stored in the Exif metadata, and here is a picture I took on August 23, and even though Finder shows the file date as today, you can see that the metadata shows the correct Image Creation date.

If you load the picture into Preview or Photos, then those Image tools will show the Image creation date. Here's the same picture in Preview:

Even though Finder shows this:

So, you can be confident that all the metadata is there in pictures when downloaded from iCloud.com

The thing is, if you turn on iCloud in the Mac's Photos, then all the iCloud pictures copy to the Mac, then all the information is there. With Photos you can include it in a print of the picture

Or you can print several pictures with the date and other info on the page.

I printed from Photos using Contact Sheet

Egbert1 wrote:

At the moment, I am trying to download some photos for a court case, so the date is really important.

FWIW it is possible edit the file dates and EXIF dates as desired via the Terminal or with 3rd party tools like GraphicConverter, exiftool etc.

So I fail see how such image metadata date could be valid in a court case when dates are so easy to forge with not much or any forensic traces.

Matti Haveri wrote: …I fail see how such image metadata date could be valid in a court case when dates are so easy to forge with not much or any forensic traces.

Right-- those dates aren't evidence. And even in Photos you can change the dates-- no fancy apps required. It doesn't seem to be more than just your word.

But his other point was

"I want to get all this stuff out of my iCloud as it is taking up too much space, but I don't want to lose the photo data"