P: iPhone video Capture Time is shifted upon Import

Hi Smit, the set I had been using was about 50GB. Perhaps we could arrange a screen share session at I can show you what is happening? Otherwise I will try do repeated imports and see if there are any files that consistently have issues.

And yes, all from the iPhone.

Thanks,
Mark.

Hi Mark,

I am trying to reproduce this on our end.

Just to confirm, you were facing the issue with videos from iOS Camera app or did you use other apps for capturing the video?

Also,  could share the set of the videos on which you are facing this continuously with some of the random files with me?

Thanks,
Smit Keniya

Hi Smit, thanks for your reply - the problem is that this is random, so sending you an example single file is not going to be too helpful. Every time I import the exact same set of files, a random different set of files are affected.  How else would you like to drill down into this?
Thanks,
Mark.

Hi Mark,

Could you share a sample video where you are seeing the problem consistently to keniya@adobe.com? This will help us investigate more.

Thanks,
Smit Keniya
Adobe Lightroom Team

When .MOV files are imported into LR 6.10.1 from my iPhone 7 Plus, LR randomly applies the UTC timezone fix described in the release notes for 2015.10/6.10.  Some of the videos show the correct time rather than UTC, while others still show in UTC time.  There does not appear to be any obvious pattern, since each time the same set of videos are imported, the fix is randomly applied to some files but not others.  This is most perplexing.  At least before the "fix" was introduced, I could bulk shift the datetime to fix the defect, but now that isn't even an option, so now the situation is much worse than before.  As least before it was predictable behaviour. 

I have figured out another workaround, which work perfectly so far after repeatedly importing.  It is however, slightly “destructive” which is unfortunate, and I am working on some alternatives.


The workaround fix is to simply run the following ExifTool command on all .MOV files that came out of myiPhone, before importing into LR:


exiftool -overwrite_original "-quicktime:createdate<quicktime:creationdate" "-quicktime:modifydate<quicktime:creationdate” FILE/DIR


I really don’t know what on earth is going on in the LR code, but if I could fix the issue so quickly and simply, it’s quite beyond me why this is so hard for LR to resolve.  Just use the quicktime:creationdate tag in .MOV files from iPhones.  Maybe there is more to it, but the randomness of the defect is very worrying, and this works perfectly so far.


I notice that I am not the only one experiencing this defect - here is another:
https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/iphone_video_capture_time_is_shifted_upon_imp...


I am using LR 6.10.1 on Mac Sierra 10.12.5 and my iPhone is running 10.3.2.

Okay so I've tested this out repeatedly now, and I don't think there is anything special about my iPhone (7 Plus), so can't see why this is so difficult to do.  All LR needs to do is to use the "QuickTime:CreationDate" tag in .MOV files from an iPhone.  It took me all of 5 minutes to write an ExifTool command that copies this value to the QuickTime:CreateDate and QuickTime:ModifyDate tags before I import into LR, and this works 100% perfectly so far, every time I have run an import - no more random LR ridiculousness.  The command I ran is: 

exiftool -overwrite_original "-quicktime:createdate<quicktime:creationdate" "-quicktime:modifydate<quicktime:creationdate” FILE/DIR

I really like LR and I really want to continue using it, but seriously some attention needs to be paid to the video handling.  How can Premiere handle video so effortlessly and yet LR be so horrible at it.  Do these teams hate each other and refuse to share or something?

I have been trying and while this defect has clearly not been fixed, it does not occur with the same set of files on each import.  That *is* the defect.  LR randomly imports some correctly, and some incorrectly.  I am not the only one having this issue, so it can't be just my environment.  This is really such a basic function that I shouldn't even have to think about it.  I can reliably and repeatedly extract the correct datetimestamp from all of the MOV files on my iPhone with a simple ExifTool command.  How is LR struggling so badly with this?  So basically I have zero trust in LR metadata for videos from an iPhone, and have to manage it all manually.  Also, LR fails pretty miserably on importing GPS data from iPhone MOV files, although this is reproducible and I will raise a separate defect and attach example files - again this data is easily and reliably extracted with a simple ExifTool command for me.  And finally, many LivePhotos (but not all) imported from iPhone show up as green blobs in LR.  Also reproducible and will raise another defect on this.  This all seems pretty crazy for what is supposed to be top-notch software.  Seems like one of the most used video cameras on the planet is really not tested very much.

John - Will try find some examples where I see this happening repeatedly.

"*some* of the iPhone videos have imported with the correct time, while others have not."

If you upload a problem video to Dropbox or similar and post the sharing link here, we might be able to track down the problem. Without a reproducible test case, Adobe is very unlikely to address the issue.

I am having the same issues as Rick Baumhauer - *some* of the iPhone videos have imported with the correct time, while others have not.  We are now in a way worse situation than before, when the functionality was broken, but at least I could fix it with a batch change.  Now, I have to go through each of hundred of videos and run ExifTool to check whether LR messed it up or not.  Good grief - please can we get a proper fix for this ASAP.  This is costing me huge amounts of time, and just adds volumes to the distrust of the metadata in LR.