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P: Wrong folder names organizing by date when using camera USB

Forum|Forum|14 years ago
July 22, 2011
78 replies
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When importing from a camera connected to USB (at least for a Canon EOS 40D Firmware 1.1.1 in my case), lightroom generates wrong folder names when organizing folders by date, at least for the "2011/2011-07-22" format (I guess it's the same for the other formats).

I use Lightroom 3.4.1 on Windows XP 32 Bit SP 3 and my time zone is CET+DST (Paris, Berlin). I shot six photos an hour apart around midnight CET+DST from 21:30 on Thursday to 02:30 on friday (I changed the camera's time for that) and got the following folder/file structure using a USB connection to the camera:

2011\2011-07-21\20110721-213022-IMG_0314.CR2
2011\2011-07-22\20110721-223033-IMG_0315.CR2 <<< wrong folder
2011\2011-07-22\20110721-233041-IMG_0316.CR2 <<< wrong folder
2011\2011-07-22\20110722-003049-IMG_0317.CR2
2011\2011-07-22\20110722-013055-IMG_0318.CR2
2011\2011-07-22\20110722-023102-IMG_0319.CR2

Clearly, the two marked files are in the wrong folder. Note that the file naming itself (date and time) is absolutely correct!

When I import the same six photos using a card reader from the CF card, I get the correct structure:

2011\2011-07-21\20110721-213022-IMG_0314.CR2
2011\2011-07-21\20110721-223033-IMG_0315.CR2 <<< now correct folder
2011\2011-07-21\20110721-233041-IMG_0316.CR2 <<< now correct folder
2011\2011-07-22\20110722-003049-IMG_0317.CR2
2011\2011-07-22\20110722-013055-IMG_0318.CR2
2011\2011-07-22\20110722-023102-IMG_0319.CR2

This seems to be some "time zone / daylight savings time bug" affecting all photos made from two hours before midnight until just before midnight (my local time is UTC plus two hours) - but why only for camera USB and not for card reader? I didn't test it for a date that has no DST, but I would bet that it would affect photos from *one* hour before midnight, then.

P.S. The wrong folder structure also already shows in the folder preview in the import dialog. Here is the wrong structure using USB to camera:

Image is not available

...and the correct one using a card reader:

Image is not available

Windows

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F

FeedbackCommunityMember

Inspiring

The capture time in Lightroom is off by 8 hours. But all the settings on the camera are for the correct time zone, and correct time. And this happens not just on one camera, but for all files that I import into lightroom, from all sources, whether its direct from a camera, or direct from the SD card. I have 4 different video cameras that I use, GoPro, Sony, Canon, and iPhone, and they all have this issue. I'm in Pacific Time zone, so it's appearing that Lightroom is using GMT for determining what folder to use (ignoring time zones completely) but using the correct times for everything else.

johnrellis

Legend

...and if the capture time in Metadata is off, that means the clock (or time zone setting) in the camera is off by 8 hours.

johnrellis

Legend

"No matter what, Lightroom uses a date that's 8 hours ahead of me to identify the folder to put the file in, even though the modified date of the file is correct."

These symptoms suggest that the capture time recorded in the photo is off by 8 hours. To verify this, select one of the photos and look at the Capture Time field in the Metadata Panel of Library mode.

F

FeedbackCommunityMember

Inspiring

This is still happening for me, regardless of how I import. If I import from a card reader, from the camera, or if I copy it to my harddrive first and then import it from there. No matter what, Lightroom uses a date that's 8 hours ahead of me to identify the folder to put the file in, even though the modified date of the file is correct.

johnrellis

Legend

Some others have reported time-zone errors in the filenames, e.g. https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lightroom_import_wrong_folder_names_organizin...

Here's my hypothesis of the bug: When LR reads directly from a card, it is going through the FAT filesystem and getting the capture date from photo's metadata. When it reads via a USB cable, I think it is using the Picture Transport Protocol (or an extension of that). In the protocol, the capture date is transmitted separately from the photo. Somewhere in that code path, either in LR or the OS libraries, lies confusion about time zones.

Jim Wilde

Community Expert

John, I don't see this as being related to the initial problem. There are a couple of significant differences:

1. Bob is seeing actual file-names with the wrong date/time, not the folder names which is what this thread was about.
2. If I'm reading Bob's post correctly, it's not a simple "USB cable" problem....there are apparently no problems when tethering with his 5D2, only with his cameras which have a time-zone setting.

Personally, I think this should stand as a separate bug report for now, and not be simply bundled into this "wrong folder names when importing from a direct camera attachment" thread.

F

FeedbackCommunityMember

Inspiring

The only hope to getting Adobe to fix this is to get your friends to come here and complain about it. "The squeaky wheel gets the grease."

F

FeedbackCommunityMember

Inspiring

Thanks... certainly seems related. The age of this thread does not inspire confidence that I'll see a solution soon (ever?). That's a shame. Adding EOS Utility to the workflow works just fine but in high pressure time sensitive situations you really don't want one more app in the workflow. It's just one more possibility for something to go wrong... and it slows down by a second or two the time it takes for an image to appear on screen. I've had very good luck with Lightroom direct tethering except for this annoyance.

johnrellis

Legend

As you can see in the rest of this topic, importing via a USB cable causes file renaming to use the wrong time. It's most likely that tethering suffers from the same underlying bug. Given this bug has been around at least 5 years, in my opinion it's unlikely Adobe will ever fix it.

For those not tethering, the workaround is straightforward, if mildly inconvenient for some: Import directly from the card. Of course, that's not an option when tethering.

F

FeedbackCommunityMember

Inspiring

I shoot tethered quite a bit with a variety of Canon cameras. I prefer to have Lightroom rename my files on import based on date/time. The time in the file name is always off while the time in the metadata is correct. This seems to be happening because Lightroom file naming function is incorrectly using the Time Zone setting on the camera during tethered capture. The amount of error exactly matches the time zone correction. My 6D and 5DS-r both show this problem and both cameras have a time zone setting. My 5DmkII does not have the time zone setting and does not show the problem.

This problem with time base renaming ONLY happens during direct Lightroom tethered shooting. Renaming files when importing images from a camera card always works as expected. Using a workflow where EOS Utility tethers the camera and dumps images into a watched folder... then Lightroom takes over to import (including rename)... works as expected.

Mac OS 10.12.2 Lightroom 2015.8 but this problem has persisted for quite a while. At least two years? My 6D is at least that old. That's where I first discovered this issue but I rarely use that camera tethered. My relatively new 5Ds bodies will spend most of their life tethered so I'm taking the time now to track down the source of the problem.

Thanks

Bob Smith

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