Sorting by file creation data

LR has very old, longstanding bugs with how it handles photos missing capture dates in their metadata (e.g. scans). Adobe has tried half-heartedly over the years to fix these bugs but failed.

"many many that just seem to have adopted today's date as the capture date - literally today (1-27-21)."

This is the screwy result of one of Adobe's recent attempt to fix the bugs. When a file is missing capture date (and any other dates) in its metadata, LR will display the file's currrent file-modified date (the date the operating system modified the file on behalf of any program or utility). 

So if any program, including LR, modifies such a file, LR will display the new file-modified date as capture date after the next restart of LR (sometimes sooner).  If you do Metadata > Save Metadata To File (or you have set the catalog option Automatically Write Changes), that will change the file-modified date and thus the capture date that LR displays!

Another bug is that LR stores capture date for a photo at least three different fields in the catalog, and different parts of LR use the different differents.  With scans missing capture date, LR has never been able to store the same date in all three places.   

The result is that you'll see discrepancies between the date shown under thumbnails, the date shown in the Metadata > Default panel, the Date column in the Library Filter bar, and the ordering of photos when sorting by capture date.

The workaround for this screwy behavior is simple: Select all the photos missing capture date in their metadata, do Metadata > Save Metadata To File, and do Change All.  Now all the selected photos will a consistent capture date (usually the date shown under their thumbnails in Grid view), and the capture date won't change as the files get modified.  (Note that this procedure does not set all the photos to have the exact same capture date.)

Sometimes, using the Change To File's Creation Date option in Edit Capture Time is more useful than staying with the file's modified date, as you've discovered. But beware that many programs and utilities, including LR itself, don't maintain the file's creation date as the file is modified or copied. This is true on both Windows and Mac (to the chagrin of old-time Mac users).

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There is no way (without using a plugin) to sort by file creation date.

However, to test my understanding: In Library Grid view, you sort the photos by capture date. But when you look at the dates under the thumbnails, they're not all correctly sorted by the date that appears under the thumbnails.

Is my understanding correct?  If so, are these photos scans or do they come from very old digital cameras or older photo apps (e.g. 15 years old)? 

If so, you may have tripped over a longstanding bug that Adobe has never fixed -- LR stores capture dates in multiple places in the catalog, and it doesn't always update them correctly, especially with photos initially missing capture date in their metadata (e.g. scans).

If you confirm my understanding, then I can explain the workaround.

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