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Lynelle5F9F
Participant
December 22, 2022
Answered

Smart collection capture date not pulling images

  • December 22, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 492 views
The Smart Collection Capture Date feature isn't working for me in today. As you can see in image 1, I want a smart collection named Selects that has all of the photos that I've flagged that were also taken on December 12, 2022. Image 2 shows the library filter by date of 12/12/22, and the image filter at the bottom right shows it's limited to those photos that are flagged. Looks like there should be 44 in my smart collection. But as you can see in the video, if I enter the capture date to create a smart collection, it ends up creating a collection, but with 0 images in it.
 
I've tried deleting the smart collection and remaking it, restarting LR classic and reinstalling, and updating, but nothing is working. It does this on every new smart collection with a capture date rule, it doesn't matter which date. If I delete the capture date field, the smart collections populate.
 
My LR Classic is up to date (LR Classic version 12.1), running on Windows 10 (Edition Windows 10 Pro
Version 22H2
Installed on ‎11/‎8/‎2020
OS build 19045.2364
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4190.0)
This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer johnrellis

I was able to reproduce the problem too, but after poking at this for 15 minutes, I realized the issue is human "error".  The smart-collection criterion is:

 

When you select Capture Date as the criterion, LR automatically populates the date with today's date, which is currently 2022-12-22.  

 

But you're trying to match photos with a capture date of December 12, 2022, which you write in a smart collection as "2022-12-12".   So this criterion works as you'd like:

 

Capture Date is 2022-12-12

 

I think all our eyes got fooled by those sequences of 1s and 2s and the date format of YYYY-MM-DD, which is unusual in the US (outside of computer contexts).

2 replies

johnrellis
johnrellisCorrect answer
Legend
December 23, 2022

I was able to reproduce the problem too, but after poking at this for 15 minutes, I realized the issue is human "error".  The smart-collection criterion is:

 

When you select Capture Date as the criterion, LR automatically populates the date with today's date, which is currently 2022-12-22.  

 

But you're trying to match photos with a capture date of December 12, 2022, which you write in a smart collection as "2022-12-12".   So this criterion works as you'd like:

 

Capture Date is 2022-12-12

 

I think all our eyes got fooled by those sequences of 1s and 2s and the date format of YYYY-MM-DD, which is unusual in the US (outside of computer contexts).

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Lynelle5F9FAuthor
Participant
December 23, 2022

Sure, that makes sense for the actual video I took to show how to duplicate the problem, and it's a funny quirk of the dates 🙂 However, it doesn't explain why it didn't work when I tried using different dates that I knew I had photos, ie 2022-12-13, 2022-12-10 and 2022-12-11. I tried it with some older collections too, and it didn't matter when the photos were taken, a new smart collection wouldn't populate with any capture date I entered. I work with some Brits and am usually pretty good about checking the date format in everything, but maybe I mistyped all of them? I'd be surprised, but if that's the simplest solution...occams razor and all that haha

Thanks for your help!

GoldingD
GoldingD
Legend
December 23, 2022

I was thinking that LrC might be picky about the date syntax, but upon testing, I found out, that nope, LrC did work if I used different Say for example MM/DD/YYYY syntax.

 

I also noticed, that when I do, LrC would change what I placed, into the YYYY-MM-DD syntax.

 

So one thing to try, intentional use a MM/DD/YYYY syntax, and see if LrC then corrects/changes that to YYYY-MM-DD.

 

If it does, nothing learned, if it does not, maybe a clue.

 

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Rob_CullenCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 23, 2022

I experience the same.

Have you tried exiting out of the Search Filter (click on top bar [None] ) and select "All Photographs" in the Catalog panel.  Does the Smart Collection work then?

 

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
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Lynelle5F9FAuthor
Participant
December 23, 2022

Thanks Rob! That solution didn't work for me, but I was able to make a duplicate collection of an old smart collection, and change the date to the one I was trying for, and it worked. Then I restarted LR and I was able to make them again from the New Collection menu like normal.

 

 

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