Skip to main content
L
LRuserXY
Known Participant
July 22, 2011

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

  • July 22, 2011
  • 78 replies
  • 2457 views

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

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    78 replies

    Show previous replies
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMember
    Inspiring
    January 3, 2017


    Adobe Lightroom CC 2015.1.1
    Canon 6D, Windows 7

    I use the following name convention for my files (partialy shown):
    _YYMMDD_HHMMSS_
    When I import videos in Lightroom, directly from the camera, the hour is behind 5h.
    My local time is MST (-7).

    For example:
    time of file in camera : 9:54:57
    file name after import: 16:55:08

    The minutes and seconds difference, besides the 5h, is due to the fact that LR uses the time when the file was written, not the time when the recording started. So this particular file was a 11 seconds long video.

    Would very much like to get the right hour and the time the recording was started not the time it ended.

    Thanks !

    If I may, there's a problem with the tags, if I edit the post, the tag box has all the tags concatenated with no commas in between, so I have to add the commas back between the words every time I edit this post.
    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Legend
    July 12, 2016
    Here's what's likely happening with your MP4s: The QuickTime spec (which is also for MP4s) says that capture times should be recorded as UTC (similar to GMT).  If you're in the PDT time zone, then a pic taken at 7/8/16 5:19p PDT would be recorded in the MP4 as 7/9/16 0:19a UTC.  The spec provides no mechanism for recording time zones, so LR reads that date and time as "local" time.

    Apple, and the industry at large, has made a mess of date/times in QuickTime video. There's no perfect solution for what LR should do in the face of this mess, but I made a proposal for how LR might better (but still imperfectly) handle the situation.  See here: https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/iphone_video_capture_time_is_shifted_upon_imp...
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMember
    Inspiring
    July 9, 2016
    I have experienced this problem when importing from a card reader, not from the camera.  The problem only seems to affect .MP4 files, not .CR2 or .JPG files.  Importing from a card reader results in 20160708-IMG_9555.CR2 and 20160709-MVI_9556.MP4, followed by 20160708-IMG-9557.CR2.  A .MP4 shot at 2:13pm imported into the correct (7/8/16) folder.  A .MP4 shot at 5:19pm imported into the incorrect (7/9/16) folder.
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMember
    Inspiring
    February 17, 2016
    What is the workaround if you are importing from an iphone?
    I bought a new iphone and didn't notice for two months that the photo restore did not work properly. I was missing 5 months of photos. No problem I thought, I will manually copy them back from Lightroom.
    After that when I import the photos are imported into a folder with the manual create date and not the metafile capture date. I therefore now have duplicates. The original photos that are in the metafile capture date folder and the newly imported photos that are in the manual load create date folder. On these photos the metafile capture date is correct.

    Work around someone???
    L
    LRuserXYAuthor
    Known Participant
    May 21, 2015
    > "Just copy and paste the code to do the time zone adjustment from the file importing code to the USB importing code."

    The "funny" thing is: The date in the filenames is already correct (see my original problem report), so it would be much simpler: Just use the existing code for the date in the filenames! 😉
    michaela47900781
    michaela47900781
    Participating Frequently
    May 21, 2015
    Heck open the code and we'll do it for ya!
    ;)
    J
    jkf385
    Participating Frequently
    May 21, 2015
    Compact Flash cards are very rugged compared to SD cards and have a more reliable way of connecting to the card reader. SD cards however are the future so more and more issues will come up from using the card reader solution.
    You won't see the problems reported in this forum. The photographer will be complaining in the camera forums about the fact that he can't seem to write images to his SD cards any more.

    What's particularly bad about this bug is that it affects so many people and it is so trivial to fix. Clearly Adobe knows how to deal with time zones. It does the right thing with the direct file import. There's no reason it can't correctly deal with time zones when reading the files via a USB cable. Just copy and paste the code to do the time zone adjustment from the file importing code to the USB importing code.

    The time need to fix this would be less than a hour. We've spent more time talking about it than it would take to fix it.
    michaela47900781
    michaela47900781
    Participating Frequently
    May 20, 2015
    Oh and...saying its "on the list"...for 4 years come on... Like John below Ive worked in software engineering..and what he (Benjamin) describes is not anything to do with software engineering. Im unsubscribing from this list now, thanks for the work flow intrusions. Ill keep trying from time to time to see if it gets resolved.
    michaela47900781
    michaela47900781
    Participating Frequently
    May 20, 2015
    thanks John. Perhaps I should say ineffectual. I have used many different importing/file storage solutions over the years and none have had this flaw reading from a camera.
    Reading other forums it seems this module is quite "unstable" and I would expect a company of Adobe's reputation to have dealt with it in the time frame of this thread!
    I guess firstly I was quite happy to see it wasn't something I had inadvertently missed in camera setup and that this was a common problem expressed in this thread..however when I then read the date of the posting... and scrolled

    Ill do one of the work rounds (like everybody else) but it really ought to be resolved
    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Legend
    May 20, 2015
    "and all the while Adobe are silent..." Actually, search the entire thread in your browser for comments from Benjamin Warde (employee). He's provided updates to this thread for the past several years, he's explained why Adobe hasn't prioritized a fix, and he's provided workarounds. (You need to expand some of the comments to see all of his replies.) You may obviously disagree with him, but it's unfair to say that Adobe has been silent.
    Show more replies
    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices