Lightroom is importing images into folders by modified date instead of capture date.

Hi John,

I have defintiely tried to create a new catalog and reimport the files to try to clean up this mess.  In fact I have tried it eleven times and each time it makes a bigger mess of my database as things are copied or moved.  It always puts these files back in the wrong place, despite the fact that the correct info seems to be in the file regarding creation date.  I have not used the Exif tool, but it clearly shows the correct dates in the OS finder as you can see on the screen cap.  It does the same thing whether I move the file to a new catalog and location, or copy it.  I have copied to other drives and the same drive.  Please see attached screen shots.

Hmm, I'm not seeing the issue with my LR 8.4.1 / Mac OS 10.14.6.

ExifTool shows that three of the photos have capture dates (EXIF:DateTimeOriginal) stored in their metadata, which LR reads correctly as the capture date:

======== 20131125-20131125-Nov 25 2013 070-2.dng
[EXIF]          Date/Time Original              : 2013:11:25 14:34:07
======== 20131125-20131125-Nov 25 2013 070-2.tif
[EXIF]          Date/Time Original              : 2013:11:25 14:34:07
======== 20131125-20131125-Nov 25 2013 070-3-2.jpg
[EXIF]          Date/Time Original              : 2013:11:25 14:34:07
======== 20140716-BWCA 10.13 3-3.tif

The last photo doesn't have EXIF:DateTimeOriginal, so LR uses as capture date the date the photo was scanned (EXIF:CreateDate, which the EXIF standard calls DateTimeDigitized):

======== 20140716-BWCA 10.13 3-3.tif
[EXIF]          Create Date                     : 2014:07:16 17:07:41

When I import those four photos with the Import options Move and Destination > Organize: By Date, LR correctly moves them to the properly dated folders. For example:

As a troubleshooting step, try creating a new catalog and import those photos into it.  Does they get moved to the right folders?

If the problem still occurs, please post a screenshot of the Import options in the left column of the Import window, e.g.

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Hi John,

You have the issue exactly right.  Thank you.  The only thing I would add is that this originally came up not when I was recreating the database, but when I was simply syncronizing the main folder.  It moved the files originally at that time and subsequent attempts to reimport them to the correct place have been unsuccessful.  I have also used my laptop and had identical results, so its not isolated to one machine.  Here is a link to a folder in dropbox that contains four files.  Three are the same image, but are an DNG, a Tiff and a Jpeg that all showed up in the folder together.  All have identical creation dates in 2013 and metadata(presumably) modified during an auto sync of lightroom.  I actually haven't made any modifications to these files myself.  There is also a fourth file in there that is a scan from a piece of film I shot around the same time in 2013.  It is a Tiff and I have not touched it in years.  I'm not sure why it was considered modified and I don't know why it is not in a folder acording to its creation date.  Here is that link https://www.dropbox.com/sh/j860fufky5rou9h/AAD3tXoSt-qBWcdRrIo5xk-0a?dl=0

Your thoughts are appreciated,

Cameron

To test my understanding: You imported a Canon raw into LR many years ago, converting it from raw to DNG format at that time. Now you are reimporting that DNG, which resides on a local disk, into a new LR catalog, and LR is putting the DNG into a folder dated with the DNG's modification date rather than the date when the original was taken?

If that's correct, upload one of those sample DNGs to Dropbox or similar and post the sharing link here.  Perhaps LR hasn't overwritten the original capture date and/or we'll learn something else from its metadata.

Hi John,

Here are a couple of screen caps.  Upon further inspection it seems that this is mainly happening to DNG files.  Please take a look at the info on the screen grab.  These were taken several years ago with a Canon pro camera.  The raw was converted to DNG in lightroom some time ago.  I have been using these files without trouble since I took them in 2013.  The content creation date is being ignored and the modified date used instead.  you can see from the scren cap that it stuck this file in October 11, 2019 rather than the day in 2013.  I dont have another copy of the file I can upload, unfortunately.

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There are a number of conditions where LR fails to use the correct capture date for folder names.  To troubleshoot this, first, please post the first ten lines from Help > System Info so we know the exact configuration you're running. (LR often fools people into thinking they're on "the latest".)

Possibilities:

1. These most recent photos don't have embedded capture dates that are readable by LR. Upload one of the problem photos (not yet imported into LR, which will overwrite the metadata automatically) to Dropbox or similar and post the sharing link here, and we can verify its metadata. Even if the capture date shows up in the Metadata panel correctly, it may be partially incompatible with the Import process.

2. You're importing via a USB cable connected to the camera. LR has never gotten this right.

3. You're importing from the Devices section in the Import window's Source panel rather than from the File's section:

There have been reports that this sometimes results in incorrect dates in folder names. A while ago, Adobe changed the default behavior for memory cards to select the Files section rather than the Devices section, because they were unable to resolve performance and other issues.