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?

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

I've not found any other reports of this and cannot duplicate your results

Updates to Lightroom Classic and the Lightroom Ecosystem products for Desktop, Mobile and Web were released today. After installing the updates (x.4) please confirm if you still see this issue after updating.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

@Rikk Thanks for the follow up. I have updated to Lightroom Classic 10.4 and can confirm the issue persists on the M1 Mac.

So once again, I removed the latest imported videos, switched over to my Intel MacBook (which is also updated to LRC 10.4) and re-imported. The metadata is again correct.

One detail I omitted from my original report is that the M1 Mac Mini is running Big Sur 11.4, while the Intel MacBook is still on Catalina 10.15.7.

Let me know if there are any additional details I can provide to help your team resolve this.

[default95mb5lft9joc]

I am trying to import videos directly from my iphone 12 Pro Max into Lightroom classic onto my M1 Macbook Pro but the dates default to the import date. The date the video was taken is obviously in the metadata but it is not present after the import. The photos are imported correctly.

Please could someone tell me what i am doing wrong.

[chris286]

I imported several video files from my GoPro today on my brand new Apple MacBook Pro (with the M1 Pro chip) using Lightroom Classic (v11.0). All of the file creation dates/times were assigned the import date/time. I contacted support, and we determined that I could edit the capture time under the Metadata menu and change to the file's creation date to fix the problem, but that seems like an unnecessary step.

[GoldingD]

File creation and Capture time are different bits of metadata.

And this is typically a MACOS issue way more than a Windows issue, an oddity that makes its appearance occasonaly in Finder.

Is this an issue when using Finder,  or in LrC?

[francescor34253227]

Hello, for several months the videos in lightroom classic have not had the right orientation. Those made with Iphone 11 pro max are all upside down.

Please help me.

I have a Mac Mini 2020

Chip Apple M1

Last version of lightroom classic.

[Jao vdL]

Hmm, just tried it (iphone 12 mini). Shot a video using the camera app on my phone. Imported into Lightroom app on the phone (looks normal there), and it synced to Lightroom Classic just fine and has the correct orientation. 

[francescor34253227]

I'm glad it works well for you. Unfortunately to me Lightoom does not recognize the correct orientation of the videos. On quick time I see them shot correctly.

[michaelfergusonofficial]

Hi--

I have video shot on my iPhone, exported to the Finder from iCloud via Apple's Photos app.

Photos shows correct capture time, I export video using "Export Unmodified Original" to the Finder.

Lightroom imports video and assigns the date/time of the import (today/now) as the capture date/time.

I tried using A Better Finder Attributes 7 to extract the capture date from the EXIF data and write that to the Finder's "Date Created" field, in hopes that would be where LR would look. Nope. Same behavior (assigns the date/time of the import (today/now) as the capture date/time.)

Using ExifTool 12.34 I can see the correct Create Date remains.

Is there some point in this process I can write that correct date to a place where LR will use it as Capture Date/Time?

Using MacOS Monterrey 12.0.1 Lightroom Classic 11.0

[John R Ellis]

Usually LR gets the capture date for Iphone videos correct (but often it doesn't for videos from other cameras).  Upload a problem video to Google Drive, Dropbox, or similar and paste the sharing link here. We can take a look at what might be going wrong and perhaps suggest a workaround.

[John R Ellis]

Upload a sample video to Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar and post the sharing link here.  We'll take a look at it and perhaps be able to suggest a workaround.

[michaelfergusonofficial]

Thanks John,

This is from my local hard drive, exported from iCloud via Photos.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dJ4sqNtf4BIaWo0bOTjONuVHVn06JqIc/view?usp=sharing

[michaelfergusonofficial]

Also, I've noticed in my workflow that when LR's assigned the incorrect Capture Date/Time, I've done this in hope of "starting fresh" (and noticed an interesting iCloud-related event):

* In LR deleted the imported video from disc (the copies LR has brought into its catalog)

* Then in the Finder deleted the original local disc videos the Photos app exported from iCloud

* Then in the Photos app re-exported the videos from iCloud (interestingly, even though the previous iCloud-exported videos were put in the Finder Trash and the Trash emptied, the "new" Photos export instantly announces that the export of 140 videos is complete, and they are again all available locally. Perhaps Photos has some locally cached version of the videos that allows it to write that quickly vs. several minutes of download time.)

[John R Ellis]

Hmm, with that sample video, my LR 11 gets the correct capture date from the video's metadata. Exiftool shows these video capture dates:

$ exiftool -G -QuickTime:CreateDate -QuickTime:CreationDate IMG_0193.MOV 
[QuickTime]     Create Date                     : 2021:09:03 07:57:54
[QuickTime]     Creation Date                   : 2021:09:03 10:57:54+03:00

For most Quicktime/MP4s, LR uses the industry-standard QuickTime:CreateDate,  but for iOS videos, LR uses the Apple proprietary field QuickTime:CreationDate, which includes a time zone.  And that's what I observe in my LR 11.0:

When you import that video into your LR, what does the Metadata panel show for Capture Date/Time?

[michaelfergusonofficial]

LR writes it to a 9/17/2121 folder and shows capture date as today.

[michaelfergusonofficial]

It seems to read no EXIF data at all.

[michaelfergusonofficial]

Ooops, I meant "9/17/2021 folder". That's the Finder's Date Created and Date Modified dates.

[John R Ellis]

Hmm, very curious.  Are you screenshots showing the same exact .MOV file that you uploaded to Google Drive? 

I'm running on Mac OS 11.6, you're on 12.0.1, but I can't see that would make any difference. (I don't think LR uses Mac or Windows libraries to read video metadata.)

[michaelfergusonofficial]

Yes, the same .MOV file. 

Just noticed another odd behavior in LR. Yesterday (Nov 2 where I am), I was trying various imports, and saw the same issue (videos being assigned the "now" Capture Date/Time, photos assigned the correct EXIF Create Date.)

Today (Nov 3) I exported a new video from Photos to the folder I was using yesterday to import into LR from, and on import, LR assigned the "now" Capture Date/Time *and* re-wrote the other videos in the folder with the same "now" Capture Date/Time. So the 3 videos which had been (incorrectly) assigned Nov 2 yesterday, now share the exact "now" Capture Date/Time as the newest video.

[francescor34253227]

The video of the bug...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/feegqvix1s90d1p/Registrazione%20schermo%202021-11-03%20alle%2013.46.12.mov...

[Todd Shaner]

We need you to also upload the actual video file shot with the the iPhone. Please shoot a short video that exhibits the issue and upload the iPhone video file to Dropbox. Thank you.

[Jao vdL]

Looks like a bug indeed. For now you can hit the rotate buttons twice to get them right but it does look like Classic is either not applying rotation flags in the video or applying them when it shouldn't. I haven't been able to reproduce but it might depend on how you hold the phone when shooting (which buttons are facing down)

[John R Ellis]

"So the 3 videos which had been (incorrectly) assigned Nov 2 yesterday, now share the exact "now" Capture Date/Time as the newest video."

That sounds like another symptom of the same underlying problem. When a photo or video is missing a capture date (or LR doesn't read it), LR will use the file's Date Modified as the capture date.  This isn't unreasonable, since files will come out of the camera with a Date Modified very close to when the shutter was pressed.

But if the file's Date Modified changes after it was imported to LR, LR will then automatically update its capture date to the current file Date Modified! So in Finder, check the Date Modified of those three videos -- has it changed to today?

This is obviously a bad design, but Adobe has never really cared about handling files missing metadata capture dates and LR has many bugs with it, and it's implementation of video has always been buggy and incomplete.

[michaelfergusonofficial]

Finder did not modify the Date Modified. This screenshot is from Nov 4, so the newest Nov 3 export is "Yesterday."

Included is the ExifTool output showing correct Create Dates for each file. Fun stuff! 🙂

[francescor34253227]

This is one of the video. All the video with wrong orientation are made with the iphone 11 pro max with the volume keys at the top. Those with the volume keys at the bottom are turned correctly. Seems LR Classic to have a problem understanding the orientation of the phone.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u9aa19rahjshe66/202110041825-ip11-214.MOV?dl=0