P: Importing Files into a folder with the file system date rather than metadata date?

[papereir]

I had an issue with lots of repeated files and in order to fix it I wrote my own script to calculate a hash on all files and then check which are the same. This worked very well and with it I found that I have the same exact file imported into different folders...

In my setup all the files enter those folders through an import on Lightroom.

When I digged further I found out that:

1) the files have the same MD5 hash
2) they are exactly the same
3) they have the same EXIF data and it matches reality (CREATED DATE)
4) They have a different date on the filesystem
5) The file was imported to the date the file has on the filesystem

I am very surprised with this. When we move files around the file date changes but it seems that Lightroom is importing based on that and not on the METADATA inside the file.

This is happening for .JPG 

Is this normal behaviour?

I have the latest release of LR Classic 9.2

[brianp49895668]

If you have multiple physical copies of files in different folders on your computer and add the to lightroom, then lightroom will import all of them - they are different files, even though they have the same hash and metadata - this is normal and to be expected. 

[papereir]

That's not the case. I "move" files into this directory structure by importing them. They land in the wrong folder date... It's not normal and not to be expected. What's the logical behind your comment of it being normal and expected?

[erichschlaikjer]

Are you importing directly from a phone on a USB cable? I find that that often gets dates wrong, at least on Windows. So I copy to a temp folder on the hard drive using the OS, then import from there, which works properly. I do not have this problem when using a card reader.

[Sunil_Bhaskaran]

Thanks for letting us know. We need some of those files to produce the issue.
I have sent you an e-mail off-list.

Thanks,
Sunil

[Just Shoot Me]

If you MOVE them during the import process then they are not from a camera Memory card.
Are you Really Moving them or do you have Copy selected?
Although LR is not supposed to import files that are already in the LR catalog that system can be fooled fairly easily. I think you have hit on one of the reasons LR can get fooled about duplicate files.

[papereir]

Mostly I copy them directly from the SD/CF cards and in that case I haven't seen any issues. Where I do see issues if when I move a bunch of folders with pictures into the same drive and then ask Lightroom to import and MOVE the files into the folder structure I use to keep my master files.

[papereir]

I am running on mac. For the phones I tried to import directly from Lightroom but it never works well, I end up with pictures that weren't imported for unclear reasons and thousands of videos (really just the .MOV From the Live Pictures) that are not imported. I now found the best way is to copy the files from the iPhone to the mac using  "Image Capture" which works well and then import the folder with the option to move into lightroom. Whatever fails (the videos) I will then use a home made script to place them into the right folder using the CreateDate from the EXIF and then sync the folder from Lightroom (guess what? The movies get imported and no issues with the video files anymore!)

[papereir]

Thanks for reaching out. I sent you an example.

[papereir]

By the way, the script I used for this was just a dumb bash shell script:

for f in *.mp4;
do
echo Moving $f
mv $f "/Volumes/2017-2019/Pictures/"`exiftool $f  | grep "^Create Date" | awk -F: '{ print $2"/"$2"-"$3"-"$4 }' | awk -F' '  '{print $1$2}'`;
done

and the same for the .mov

for f in *.mov;
echo Moving $f
mv $f "/Volumes/2017-2019/Pictures/"`exiftool $f  | grep "^Create Date" | awk -F: '{ print $2"/"$2"-"$3"-"$4 }' | awk -F' '  '{print $1$2}'`; 
done

[Just Shoot Me]

If you move files outside of LR and then use LR to import them from the new location you will end up with duplicated files in the LR catalog.

LR is based on having ALL your images imported into the catalog file. Not just Some of them. Then In LR you manage them. Whether that is moving them into different folders or combining one folder full of images into some other folder or even Editing them.

[johnrellis]

LR has always had problems renaming and moving files based on capture date. Some of the known issues:

- The files don't contain a capture date in the industry-standard field EXIF:DateTimeOriginal. 

- The files are imported via a USB cable.

- The files are imported via the Devices panel in the left column of the Import window.

Note that what Exiftool calls EXIF:CreateDate is not the same as the capture date (EXIF:DateTimeOriginal).   EXIF:DateTimeOriginal is when the shutter was pressed (capture date). What Exiftool calls EXIF:CreateDate is what the EXIF standard calls DateTimeDigitized, and it represents when the image was converted to digital form.;

Most (but not all) cameras and software set DateTimeDigitized (CreateDate) to be the same or nearly the same as DateTimeOriginal.  Some scanning software sets DateTimeDigitized to the date the image was scanned, and the user is then responsible for setting DateTimeOriginal to when the shutter was pressed.

When LR can't read EXIF:DateTimeOriginal for some reason (either because it is missing or nonconforming to the standard), then for capture date LR will use EXIF CreateDate, EXIF:DateTime (the last time an imaging app modified the image), or the file system's date modified. But when LR uses one of these other fields, it can behave inconsistently with respect to what it considers the "capture date".  Adobe has never been able to remove all of these bugs.

If you upload one of the images that LR misfiled into a folder, upload the image to Dropbox or similar and post the sharing link here. Then we can put it under the microscope and see what precisely is going wrong and which bug report this belongs with.

[papereir]

Hi John, that's very good information. I have an example I can share but I would rather not share the dropbox link publicly since it happens that the subject of the picture is a minor totally unaware of any of this. If you can send me an email to paulo . jorge . pereira @ gmail.com I will share the dropbox link with you.

I went back to check, the JPG in question have both fields, they match and they are correct and still one of the pictures ended up on a different folder and my guess is that just because the date on the filesystem is different.

The file is actually an export from when I used to run LR on Windows.

[papereir]

I am not worried with the duplicates, I can handle that. I am worried than LR importing them into wrong folders. Right folder being the one with the appropriate date.

[papereir]

I just did a check and I have 7886 files where the folder they were placed doesn't match the metadata of the file. It happens for JPG and HEIC files but never for CR2 files...

[Just Shoot Me]

And all of these files are from your iPhone? If that is true then it is a problem with the phone placing the wrong date, or the right date, in the wrong place.

[johnrellis]

Paulo sent me some example files, one of which got imported into the wrong dated folder. As he had already determined, the EXIF metadata of the two files was identical, both with the same EXIF:DateTimeOriginal field, and both imported the correct dated folder in my LR 9.2.

You've said you now use Mac Image Capture to import from the iPhone to your disk and then from the disk into LR. Is it possible that these affected photos were imported via USB cable?  If not, then your symptoms don't seem to match previously reported bugs.

[lauras45224916]

I am also having a problem with Lightroom Classic creating dated folders with the wrong date.  I found that LR is using the IPTC metadata date instead of the EXIF Date Time Original. 

When I view a jpg image's 'Creation Date' through Finder/Preview/Tools/Inspector it show the (incorrect/modified) IPTC metadata also.  But when I look at the EXIF data displayed with the image in Lightroom Classic it displays the proper EXIF Date Time Original -- Lightroom's Import process is just not using it. 

In the second example, when I look at the dng version of the image in preview, the creation date is correct but Lightroom Classic is still using the incorrect IPTC Metadata Date.  VERY FRUSTRATING!  (I have also posted this on forum.  Not clear where else to report what appears to be a widespread problem.)

Example One- JPG:


Example two- DNG:

[lauras45224916]

Sorry I did not describe what I was doing when incorrect date folder problem happens.  I am importing and moving images in a 2020/2020-08-09 format from one folder on my external hard drive to another folder on that same external hard drive (with do not import suspected duplicates checked) in order to reorganize my images by date and to screen for duplicates. 

I follow these steps:

1.  Select all images in original folder in Lightroom Catalog and save metadata to file.
2.  Remove folder from catalog.
3.  Import and move same images to new folder on same external hard drive by YEAR/YEAR-MONTH-DATE  with 'do not import suspected duplicates' checked.

Thank you so much!
Laura

[johnrellis]

Laura, do any of the imported photos get placed in the correct dated folder?  Or are they all getting misplaced?  Regardless, can you post a screenshot of the entire right column of the Import window when this  misbehavior occurs?

(There are numerous outstanding issues with LR's date handling, and it's proved difficult to get reproducible cases to wrap up with a bow to hand to development.) 

[lauras45224916]

I tried another batch- using the same steps as above:
1.  Select all images in original folder in Lightroom Catalog and save metadata to file.
2.  Remove folder from catalog.
3.  Import and move same images to new folder on same external hard drive by YEAR/YEAR-MONTH-DATE  with 'do not import suspected duplicates' checked.

There were 5065 images in the original folder.  4427 were properly imported by date.  638 were imported to the 'Metadata Date' which was the date on which I saved the metadata (for all 5065 images) to file.  (Ctrl + S).  Those 638 images no longer have original date time created or date time digitized in the metadata information.   Many of those 638 images were also images that had been taken with an iphone or shared with me via text or google photos from someone else's phone.  There are so many variables I can't even begin to guess what went wrong!  I think apple photos to lightroom mobile to lightroom cc is part of the mess.  I need to break out imports by original source and maybe I can relate when exactly this is happening.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I have just encountered the same issue.  For years photos have imported by capture date.  I recently created a new catalogue of 2019 photos and they have sorted themselves pretty much at random: a "capture date" of 2019-10-10, say, will have 10 or more capture dates spanning dates both before and after the real date.  I reimported to a new catalogue and drive with the same result -- just different wrong capture dates.   

I have used Lightroom since the original beta and never had this issue.

Barrie

[Rick Spaulding -]

Greetings,

Updates for the Adobe Photography Products were released on 10.20.2020 that include fixes for these issues. Please install the most recent update and confirm that your issue is now fixed. Please let us know if you encounter any issues.

Thank you for your patience.