Dates wrong when importing from IPhone to LR Classic

[EliseL]

Every few months I use a USB cable and the LR import dialogue to import photos from my IPhone into LR Classic. Recently, the thumbnails in the Import dialogue are not sorted by capture time, even though Capture Time is checked. In addition, it shows all photos though I have checked New Photos at the top. Since I import every few months, I need them in order so I can go back to the last import date and only import from there forward.

It seems like the phone is randomly redating the photos. They used to be somewhat out of order, but not this bad.

1. Any ideas what's going on or how to fix this?

2. What's another way to easily and safely transfer photos from my phone to LR CLassic?

Thanks!

[Todd Shaner · Accepted solution]

You may be experiencing the below problem reported in the Photoshop Family forum. The solution is to use a card reader, which you can do if the pictures are on an SD card in the phone.

https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/lightroom-classic/lightroom-import-wrong-folder-names-o...

[EliseL]

Hi Todd,

Thanks for this, but it is not the problem. My problem is before the photos are imported. When I open the Import dialogue and look at the thumbnails to select which I want to import, the thumbnails are not in the order in which they were taken. There could be a thumbnail of a photo taken last spring right next to one taken yesterday. It's complicated by the fact that according to the date shown when I hover over the photos, they are in order. But I recognise the photos and know that they aren't in order. For example, the photo from last spring shows flowers and we have snow outside right now.

Thanks for your help!

Elise

[Todd Shaner · Accepted solution]

Try the solution suggested by Adobe staff at the below link.

https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/lightroom-classic/lightroom-import-wrong-folder-names-o...

benjamin_warde

Employee

The bug occurs only when importing directly from a connected camera. If you use a card reader, the bug will not occur. If you don't have a card reader, you can connect your camera or phone directly, and first copy the photos from the camera to your hard drive in the OS, then import into Lightroom from the hard drive.

[grandada]

I thought the original question posted by EliseL said iPhone. IPhones have never had an SD card slot in my living memory. Also the above from Adobe is a (clumsy) workaround - so while the answers may be helpful to some, neither is a solution that I can see. The acknowledged bug is the problem and needs to be fixed.

[johnrellis]

@grandada, please add your constructive opinion to the bug report:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-import-seems-to-misinterpret-exif-date-time/...

and be sure to click the Upvote button at the top-right and Follow at the bottom of the first post. That will make it a little more likely Adobe will prioritize the fix, and you'll be notified when the bug's status changes.

But if the past is any indicator, Adobe and Apple are very slow to fix bugs with importing via USB cable -- at least one bug has gone unfixed for at least a decade.  So you might consider the alternative methods:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/dates-wrong-when-importing-from-iphone-...

Syncing via the Lightroom Cloud takes no effort, once it's set up.

[kennethr5919067]

Essentially they suggest using Image Capture to download to hard drive then dragging them to Lightroom. Clumsy is a nice way to put it....they need to fix the problem

[johnrellis]

The other workaround is to enable automatic sync between the phone, LR Cloud, and LR Classic.  

[TheGremlin]

This is only a workaround if you're willing to pay extra for Adobe Cloud to have the space for this to work seamlessly otherwise you are in a constant practice of managing the space available. As there are many other cloud storage services which may or may not be in use, this is not something that everyone will choose to pay even more for. We already pay a completely reasonable amount for the software and to expect to use it on completely local systems for such purposes is not an unreasonable expectation. 

Interestingly enough as I have said before, in my case I import the images with a specifier that changes the file name to include date information, and even though it will place the images in the images in the wrong folder it will give them the correct date, so at some level it knows the correct place to put the images, even though it does not do it. This means the bug is actually fixable.

[johnrellis]

"This is only a workaround if you're willing to pay extra for Adobe Cloud to have the space for this to work seamlessly otherwise you are in a constant practice of managing the space available."

It's pretty easy -- just periodically remove the photos from the special collection All Synced Photographs, which will remove them from the cloud but leave them in the catalog.

The bug should definitely be fixed, though I'm skeptical that Adobe will do it.

[grandada]

This thread is a waste of time if not downright misleading for a bug that Adobe seems incapable of responding to or moderating in the forum. Who marked this the correct answer? Anyway I have reported this to the moderator who must be asleep at the wheel. I worked out that iPhone Photos to Mac transfers using airdrop goes to the downloads folder and then I import to Lightroom. Still clumsy but works best for me.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Note: This thread was migrated from a now-deprecated forum. The original posts and the posted solutions were based upon both multiple OS/Platform/Device environments. The correct answer was correct for some combination of those. It was not originally posted or qualified as a bug but rather as a discussion.

I recommend you post to Lightroom Classic Discussions in a new thread outlining your current issue. Please include complete details about your Desktop computer, Versions of Lightroom, your mobile devices, and, this is the important part, detailed steps for reproduction of the failure. 

If we can replicate this we will promote this new post to a Bug for proper disposition. 

Repeated comments on this thread will not be productive so this thread will be closed.

[ninskij15348687]

I am having the same problem. Adobe customer service and Apple seem at a loss to figure this out. Everything worked fine until last summer. Now files dates, dated folders, and the order of things is a total confusing mess.

[Katrinochka]

Who marked this as "correct answer"?!!? The solution is to use card reader? with iPHone?@? iPhones don't have cards!! never had since original iPhone.

[joeg88617122]

It's not corrected. It's a joke. I have to use a work around when importing iPhone photos. There is. No plug and play option. Very frustrating.  It must be something super complicated or at least not enough people are using the software for iPhone imports for them to care. If it bothers you look elsewhere because they are not providing a software fix. 

[johnrellis]

This bug will probably never get fixed, since it likely involves problems with libraries provide by Apple and Microsoft.  Two workarounds:

1. Use Image Capture to copy the photos to the local disk first.

2. Enable LR Cloud sync between the LR mobile camera app and LR Classic.  You can delete the contents of All Synced Photographs periodically to avoid overflowing the maximum space in your LR Cloud account.

[johnrellis]

"My problem is before the photos are imported. When I open the Import dialogue and look at the thumbnails to select which I want to import, the thumbnails are not in the order in which they were taken. There could be a thumbnail of a photo taken last spring right next to one taken yesterday. It's complicated by the fact that according to the date shown when I hover over the photos, they are in order. But I recognise the photos and know that they aren't in order. For example, the photo from last spring shows flowers and we have snow outside right now."

LR does not always get correct capture dates for photos when importing via a USB cable. This can affect the order in which thumbnails are displayed in the Import window and the folder names created; it does not affect the capture dates stored in photos and displayed in the LR Metadata panel after importing. 

This bug has been present in some form for a decade, and I think it is highly unlikely it will ever get fixed. I believe it is related to the industry-standard PICT protocol (and its successors) for downloading photos over USB, and it may be caused by design flaws in the protocol or bugs in the iPhone implementation or the Windows libraries, outside of LR's direct control to fix.  It's been pretty clear that Apple has treated USB connections to iPhones as "legacy" and has been gradually deprecating them over the years in favor of "seamless" wireless services such as iCloud.

Two workarounds that have often worked for others:

1. In the Import window, select the photos from under the Files section in the left column, rather than the Devices section.

2. Use Windows File Explorer to copy the photos to disk and then import them into LR from there.

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[EliseL]

Thanks Todd and John for the help.

As yo uboth suggested, if I import into my hard drive using Windows Explorer I am able to work around this issue.

It's kind of a hassle so I think I will try using LR mobile to see if it's an easier way to get the photos into LR on my PC.

Many thanks, Elise

[johnrellis]

Did you try importing from the Files section rather than the Devices section in the Import window?

I use the Dropbox app to sync photos from my phone to my desktop. LR cloudy is too flaky and doesn't do video to my desktop, and I'm using Dropbox for other reasons with my photos unrelated to LR.

[EliseL]

The photos on the phone don't show up in the Files section. The only way they show up is in the Devices section.

After I import them into the hard drive I can import them thorugh the Files section.

[johnrellis]

"The photos on the phone don't show up in the Files section. The only way they show up is in the Devices section."

I guess Apple removed that functionality from the iPhone USB-cable connection at some point in the last few years (part of their reducing support for USB cables).

[Use the blue reply button under the first post to ensure replies sort properly.]

[TheGremlin]

So I've been having this problem forever, I'm really not sure why Adobe can't fix it. On import I rename the file into a format which contains the root, the camera name (type) and then the capture date, and on import all of my iPhone images have that data correct including capture date, but then I also have import set to put the images into folders by capture date ({year}/{month}/image{camera}{capturedate} and they all get imported intot he current folder (say 2021/December) even though the file names have the capture date on them.

You can't use a card reader with an iOS device  since there's no cards, but what I have done is used software like WiFi Transfer to copy the images off my iPhone to a local drive on my hard disk, then import from that folder into Lightroom. I expected this to fix the problem per the above but it certainly does not, and I'm left having to continously move my images after imports to the correct place. 

This issue has existed for several years, reported quite frequently, I really don't know how it can't be fixed, the data is there and obviously correct otherwise the names would be wrong.

[joeg88617122]

I am having this issue but I am using an iMac. Is there a workaround for importing from an iphone onto a mac? I am having photos appear in the incrorrct dated folders on the dialogue for import. When the photo is opened it has the correct metadata and date on it. It is just imported into the wrong folder on the mac hard drive when imported through LR classic. This is rendering Lightroom useless for importing my iphone photos as I never know where a photo from a particular date may be residing on the drive. An SD card import workoaround is not an option since I am using an iphone 8. Any suggestinons woudl be greatly appreciated before I switch back to PHOTOS.

[johnrellis]

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@joeg88617122, the Mac-specific issue seems to have been introduced with Mac OS 13:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-import-seems-to-misinterpret-exif-date-time/... 

Two workarounds I know of:

- Use the Mac Image Capture utility to transfer the photos from the phone to a temporary folder on your computer. Then import into LR from the temporary folder.

- Install the LR Mobile app on your phone, in the app's Settings > Import > Auto Add From Camera Roll, set the options Photos and Videos.  In LR Classic's Settings > Lightroom Sync, set these options:

Then turn on Cloud Sync (the cloud icon in the upper-right corner).

[joeg88617122]

Thank you for this insight. I may end up being forced into the image capture workflow. I am not interetsed in using the cloud for transfer so the LR solution will not work. The Image Capture is an option but it does not appear to see the live photos on imoport so I will have to sacrafice those files.  Any idea why LR does not seem to be in a hurry to fix this? LR was the perfect solution for importing iphone photos without the cloud previous to this bug.