P: Metadata issues with video files on M1 Macs

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Today I noticed Lightroom Classic was displaying incorrect metadata for recent imported videos (taken with iPhone X). My older videos have correct metadata, so what changed? Appears to be an issue specific to M1 Macs.

Here is what I found...

On M1 Mac Mini:

1. Get info in Finder for MOV files shows the expected metadata. Created date/time is correct, and other details such as latitude longitude are displayed.

2. When I import these files into Lightroom, the metadata for capture date/time is incorrect. Lightroom displays the date/time the video was imported into Lightroom for capture date/time, which is clearly not when the video was captured. The GPS box is blank and no camera info is displayed.

On Intel Mac:

My Lightroom catalog and masters are on an external drive, so I connected to an Intel MacBook. I imported the exact same MOV file. This time, Lightroom displays the correct capture date/time (matches the created date/time as seen in Finder). The GPS box pulls in correct location coordinates and camera model displays iPhone X.

Adobe, can you please address this in your next Lightroom Classic release?

[francescor34253227]

Videos with the volume keys at the top are in the wrong orientation. Those with the volume keys at the bottom have the right orientation.

[Todd Shaner]

The video is playing on my Windows 10 system with the correct orientation using LrC 11. Try resetting LrC Preferences file as outlined at the below link. Place a copy of the current Preferences file on the desktop so you can easily restore it if of no help.

[francescor34253227]

I don't find your link...

[johnrellis]

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-reset-lightrooms-preferences/

[Todd Shaner]

Senior moment–Thanks John!

[johnrellis]

The sample video displays correctly in my LR 11.0 / Mac OS 11.6 (Intel Mac).  It has a QuickTime rotation tag of 180:

$ exiftool -a -G -rotation 202110041825-ip11-214.MOV 
[Composite]     Rotation                        : 180

Please triple-verify your LR version by doing the menu command Help > System Info -- what does the first line say?

[francescor34253227]

Versione di Lightroom Classic: 11.0 [ 202110120910-0bccc70d ]

[johnrellis]

LR 7 had a bug affecting many with incorrectly rotating videos. But that was fixed way back in 7.4.

I wonder if your bug is specific to Apple Silicon Macs...

[francescor34253227]

I reset the preferences following your suggestions. But still lightroom does not recognize the correct orientation of the videos. :o(

[chris286]

The date/times are only incorrect in LrC. I may have used the wrong terms. It's the capture time I'm concerned with. Creation time is ok. And in the Metadata menu, I'm able to "Edit Capture Time ..." and select the "Change to file's creation date" option to fix it.

[johnrellis]

"I reset the preferences following your suggestions. But still lightroom does not recognize the correct orientation of the videos. :o("

Did you try reimporting one of the problem videos? I don't think resetting preferences would affect videos already imported.

[johnrellis]

Your symptoms are a variant I haven't seen posted here before. But it's in the same general category of LR's flaky handling of video metadata and capture dates in particular.

[johnrellis]

Also, do you have an Apple Silicon (M1) computer?

[johnrellis]

"All of the [capture date/times] were assigned the import date/time. "

Someone else recently reported similar symptoms that I wasn't able to reproduce with his sample video. Could you please upload a problem video to Google Drive, Dropbox, or similar and post the sharing link here?

[pgmanuel]

I am able to reproduce this issue.

I Air Dropped a video taken with an iPhone 11 Pro Max on 28 October to my (Intel) iMac Pro running macOS Monterey.

Finder shows correct EXIF capture date and time.

I imported the video into Lightroom 11. 

Lightroom is showing the date and time of import instead of the capture date and time in the EXIF data.

[michaelfergusonofficial]

I do. MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020).

[johnrellis]

It doesn't seem to be Apple Silicon (M1) related -- two with this problem have M1s, one has Intel.

It doesn't seem to be related to Mac OS 12 -- I just installed a virgin Mac OS 12 and LR 11 in a virtual machine, and the problem doesn't occur.

Unfortunately, Adobe is very unlikely to even look at this unless there is a way to reliably reproduce the problem across installations.

[michaelfergusonofficial]

Makes sense, thanks for your help. I'll just forgo LR in my video workflow for now.

[francescor34253227]

Yes, I try to reimporting the video, but I have always the same problem... :o(

[johnrellis]

"I'll just forgo LR in my video workflow for now"

A reasonable decision. Video is LR's stepchild -- there has been a steady stream of problems with it since it was introduced in LR 3 and Adobe usually doesn't address them. I use my Any File plugin to catalog  my (relatively small  number of) videos along with my photos -- it handles capture date and other metadata more reliably than LR. But it's not as convenient to use as having the features built-in and working reliably.

[Jao vdL]

This video comes imports in the correct orientation in my Lightroom Classic install. LRC 11.0 on Mac OS X Monterey 12.0.1 on a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018),  2.9 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i9, 32 GB memory. No M1 to test on if this is specific to the M1 version of Classic.

[chris286]

Thanks John, I uploaded the GoPro video and a little explanatory video as well. Here is the link. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8gui5y7wjfv7n11/AABy3FrNEs8WZ7SH-kmZSMila?dl=0

[johnrellis]

[This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]

Hmm, I get an error when I click that Dropbox link:

[francescor34253227]

I tried too. Latest  same version of Lightroom Classic, same catalog, same files, on another mac without M1 (with the same last versione of OS), no problem. Correctly oriented videos. Is it a problem with M1? :o(((

[chris286]

I got a notification last night from Dropbox that my link had generated too much traffic and my public links were suspended. I just checked and it appears they are working again. Please let me know if you still have the issue.

Thanks,
Chris