P: Inconsistent dates for files missing date/time metadata

By "date-modified" and "date-created", I'm referring to the Windows file date-modified and date-created fields. LR's inconsistent use of Windows date-modified and date-created affects people using LR with scanned images (scanners don't typically add date metadata) and with camera video (LR doesn't read the video metadata and uses the Windows file dates).

To reproduce LR's inconsistent use of Windows date-modified and date-created:

1. Download test1.jpg and test2.jpg:





Test1.jpg has EXIF:DateTimeOriginal set to 1/1/2010, and Test2.jpg has no metadata at all.

2.Using the free utility BulkFileChanger (from Download.com), open test2.jpg and change its Date Modified to 1/1/2009 and its Date Created to 1/1/2011. (The date-modified and date-created fields won't be set properly when you first download the file.) These file dates could happen if a file was originally created by a scanner or camera video on 1/1/2009, but then the user copied the files on 1/1/2011 (Windows copy by default preserves Date Modified but sets Date Created to now).

3. Import both files into a fresh LR catalog.

4. Verify in Metadata > EXIF that test1.jpg has Date Time Original is 1/1/2010 and test2.jpg has no Date Time Original:





5. In Library mode, select All Photographs, sort by ascending Capture Time, and open the Date Column in the Library Filter. Here's a screen shot:



6. Observe in the grid view that test2.jpg has the date 1/1/2011 displayed under it, the Windows date-created.

7. Observe in the Library Filter Date column that the dates 2009-01-01 and 2010-01-01 are shown. LR is using the Windows date-modified for test2.jpg here.

8. Observe in the grid view that test2.jpg comes before test1.jpg, even though sort-by-capture-time-ascending is selected and the date shown under the thumbnail for test2.jpg (1/1/2011) comes after the date shown under the thumbnail for test1.jpg (1/1/2010). LR is displaying the Windows date-created under the thumbnail but using Windows date-modified for the actual sorting.

9. Select test2.jpg and do Metadata > Edit Capture Time. Observe that the Corrected Time is prepopulated with the Windows date-modified, 1/1/2009:

Hi John,

I've been investigating issues similar to this. Can you post a file that illustrates the problem? There are a whole lot of different possible date/time fields within a file's metadata so generic descriptors like "date/time" or "date-modified" unfortunately aren't very helpful.

Thanks,
Ben