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f_a_b_s
Participating Frequently
March 15, 2017
Answered

exif data missing but sorting still works

  • March 15, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 3503 views

Hi, I have a really weird issue, I have about 28K photos in a lightroom library, all different camera sources, now when I backed them up to a NAS I realised that the NAS wasn't sorting them in the right order, or at least not about 2000 of them, they all had the creation time of today (file creation). When I went back to LR I saw that those files didn't have

I have a really weird issue, I have about 28K photos in a lightroom library, all different camera sources, now when I backed them up to a NAS I realised that the NAS wasn't sorting them in the right order, or at least not about 2000 of them, they all had the creation time of today (file creation). When I went back to LR I saw that those files didn't have exif data. Now there are two slightly weird things with that, 1. at least some of them must have had exif data at some point because I renamed them using date and time and the filenames are correct.

The really odd thing is though that although there is absolutely no data other than the file creation date (today), lightroom still perfectly sorts those images when I organise the library by capture time. I haven't refreshed (changed and changed back) the sorting as I'm afraid that then I may loose my sorting. Can anyone help with that? So I guess the capture date must still exist somewhere in LR and I'd like to re-write it to the file.

cheers

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer johnrellis

    I do have backups of the pictures on my NAS with the correct file creation date, but as soon as I download them or copy them over to my source folder, the creation date gets changed to the current date and time.

    If you're on Windows, the file creation date usually gets set to "now" whenever the file is copied or rewritten.  Only a few backup utilities try to maintain file creation date.

    If you're on Mac, in the past Mac programs maintained file creation date when a file is copied or rewritten. However, these days many programs on Mac (including LR and Apple iPhoto) don't follow that convention and behave like Windows programs, setting file creation date to "now" whenever a file is copied or rewritten.  Most of the command-line utilities such as "cp" used to copy files also set file creation date to "now".

    Regardless of whether you're on Mac or Windows, LR will usually set file creation date of JPEGs and XMP sidecars to "now" when you do Metadata > Save Metadata To File (or when LR does it automatically, if you have that option set).  Some people have asked that LR set file creation date to the EXIF capture date, or to maintain the previous file creation date: Lightroom: Changes creation date of image files | Photoshop Family Customer Community . But I'm skeptical Adobe will ever make that change.

    Any ideas on how to restore my exif capture date to the actual file creation date

    You could find a utility that copies your backup photos to your hard drive while maintaining the file creation date, and then use LR's Metadata > Edit Capture Time with the option Change To File's Creation Date.  On Mac, use the Finder to copy the files -- it will maintain file creation date.  On Windows, you could use the Robocopy command-line program, and there are likely many utilities with friendlier user interfaces that also do it.

    Any ideas on how to restore ... the date that is stored somewhere in LR as in the grid view the pics are still sorted correctly, are appreciated.

    As described above, Metadata > Edit Capture Time / Change All (without actually adjusting the time in the dialog) will set the EXIF capture time of all the selected photos to have the capture time displayed under the thumbnail in grid view.  (If you're not seeing that capture time under the thumbnail, do View > View Options.)  Any internal inconsistencies in the dates recorded in the catalog will be resolved at that point.

    2 replies

    M
    mozlien11385263
    Participant
    November 21, 2018

    Hi f.a.b.s, did you ever figure out the problem? I have the exact same problem as you! The problem occurs for photos without "Date Created" (e.g. screenshots from my iPhone, but haven't figured out the exact pattern). With IMG_2222.jpg in the attached screen captures as example: The capture date is set to the last time I edited the photo (by e.g. changing the rating), in this case 15.11.2018. I cannot find any information on the original timestamp neither in LR, Finder, Preview or exiftool, however; the LR metadata filter perfectly filters and shows the photo in between the other photos (with proper exif data) taken that day (07.11.2018). Just cannot figure out where LR finds this information! Maybe you can help out with that johnrellis​? Your excellent plugin Any filter categorizes the photo on the correct day, 2018-05-07, when I use Plugin Extras -> Any Filter -> By Date.

    Thanks,

    Morten L. Lien.

    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Legend
    November 22, 2018

    First, when examining metadata with ExifTool, always give the -a -G command line options, e.g.

    exiftool -a -G -time:all file

    This will show all the metadata fields from the EXIF, XMP, and IPTC metadata sections in the file. Due to the complexities of these overlapping standards, by default ExifTool won't show all of them unless you provide -a -G.

    Second, this screenshot shows the core problem:

    You've selected 2018-05-07 in the Metadata browser, but the capture date shown above the thumbnail is 2018-11-15. This is symptomatic of the long-standing bugs in the way LR handles photos that are missing capture dates stored in their metadata: Lightroom: Still inconsistent capture date/time for photos and videos | Photoshop Family Customer Community .  Adobe has tried a few times to fix these bugs, but it's beyond the skills of the engineers they've assigned to it.

    The easiest way to work around the inconsistencies is to select all the photos, do Metadata > Edit Capture Time, and click Change All.  (Be sure to have a working backup of your catalog and photos before trying this, since you can't Undo changes made by Edit Capture Time.)

    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Legend
    March 16, 2017

    First, note the differences between the file creation and modify dates and the dates recorded in photo metadata: Date Time Digitized and Date Time differ from Date Modified and Date Created | Photoshop Family Customer Community

    When you import a photo into LR, and the photo is missing the EXIF capture date (EXIF:DateTimeOriginal), LR will usually use the file creation date (the date that the operating system created the file) as the catalog capture date for sorting and display under the thumbnail, though it won't show that date in the Metadata panel.   This would explain what you're observing.

    If you want to get those capture dates saved back to the files' EXIF metadata, you can select the photos, do Metadata > Edit Capture Time, click Adjust, and then do Metadata > Save Metadata To File.  But try on a couple of photos first, and make sure you've made backups of your catalog first!

    f_a_b_s
    f_a_b_sAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    March 16, 2017

    thanks for your answer!

    I have had a look and somehow lightroom (the only way I am accessing the original photos) has also changed the creation date of the files to a date a few days ago. So when I update metadata, the exif creation date gets set to that too.

    I do have backups of the pictures on my NAS with the correct file creation date, but as soon as I download them or copy them over to my source folder, the creation date gets changed to the current date and time.

    Any ideas on how to restore my exif capture date to the actual file creation date, or the date that is stored somewhere in LR as in the grid view the pics are still sorted correctly, are appreciated.

    johnrellis
    johnrellisCorrect answer
    Legend
    March 16, 2017

    I do have backups of the pictures on my NAS with the correct file creation date, but as soon as I download them or copy them over to my source folder, the creation date gets changed to the current date and time.

    If you're on Windows, the file creation date usually gets set to "now" whenever the file is copied or rewritten.  Only a few backup utilities try to maintain file creation date.

    If you're on Mac, in the past Mac programs maintained file creation date when a file is copied or rewritten. However, these days many programs on Mac (including LR and Apple iPhoto) don't follow that convention and behave like Windows programs, setting file creation date to "now" whenever a file is copied or rewritten.  Most of the command-line utilities such as "cp" used to copy files also set file creation date to "now".

    Regardless of whether you're on Mac or Windows, LR will usually set file creation date of JPEGs and XMP sidecars to "now" when you do Metadata > Save Metadata To File (or when LR does it automatically, if you have that option set).  Some people have asked that LR set file creation date to the EXIF capture date, or to maintain the previous file creation date: Lightroom: Changes creation date of image files | Photoshop Family Customer Community . But I'm skeptical Adobe will ever make that change.

    Any ideas on how to restore my exif capture date to the actual file creation date

    You could find a utility that copies your backup photos to your hard drive while maintaining the file creation date, and then use LR's Metadata > Edit Capture Time with the option Change To File's Creation Date.  On Mac, use the Finder to copy the files -- it will maintain file creation date.  On Windows, you could use the Robocopy command-line program, and there are likely many utilities with friendlier user interfaces that also do it.

    Any ideas on how to restore ... the date that is stored somewhere in LR as in the grid view the pics are still sorted correctly, are appreciated.

    As described above, Metadata > Edit Capture Time / Change All (without actually adjusting the time in the dialog) will set the EXIF capture time of all the selected photos to have the capture time displayed under the thumbnail in grid view.  (If you're not seeing that capture time under the thumbnail, do View > View Options.)  Any internal inconsistencies in the dates recorded in the catalog will be resolved at that point.

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