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

Lauras posted more detail in the official feedback forum, so best to continue discussion there:

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lightroom-classic-importing-files-into-a-folder-with-the-wrong-date?topic-reply-list[settings][filter_by]=all&topic-reply-list[settings][reply_id]=20602213#reply_20602213

(Having the two forums is confusing. Adobe's guidelines for which forum to use still leave considerable room for confusion:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic/which-forum-should-i-post-to-feedback-vs-forums/td-p/7085309?page=1)

"when I am making changes in photos in Nikon View NX software prior to importing them to Lightroom ..., the modified date of the file changes and these photos are being imported in an incorrect folder, based on modified date, and not the date shot from Metadata. ... So files are named by date shot, and folders are created by date modified field..."

LR does normally use the capture date (EXIF:DateTimeOriginal) when it creates dated folders, though it can use the wrong time zone when you import the photos via a USB cable or the Devices section of the Import window.  But it sounds like you're importing from disk, since you've first modified the photos with View NX.

I suggest you take a sample photo fresh out of the camera and save away a copy of it. Make a modification in View NX, and make a copy of it. Upload the before and after versions to Dropbox or similar, and we troubleshoot what might be going wrong.

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Two of the five sample files you provided are scans missing EXIF:DateTimeOriginal, the metadata field storing the capture date (when the shutter was pressed).  And it is these two files that in my tests were copied to a dated folder that didn't match the capture date shown in the Metadata panel. LR has always had bugs handling such files. This may not explain all the strange behavior you're observing, but it explains some of it.

I've provided more detail in your bug report:

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lightroom-is-incorrectly-importing-dng-files-to-folders-by-modification-date-instead-of-capture-date?topic-reply-list[settings][filter_by]=all&topic-reply-list[settings][reply_id]=20449064#reply_20449064 

We should continue any technical discussion about the buggy behavior there, where it will be seen by Adobe product developers and other customers reporting bugs.

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"the correct creation date on these files is not only in the finder, but it is also displayed in the metadata section of LR."

Photo metadata dates are confusing -- the dates shown by the Metadata panel are in general different than the file Date Created and Date Modified shown in Finder:

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Capture Date: when the shutter was pressed; set by the camera. Usually taken from EXIF DateTimeOriginal, unless that's missing, in which case LR sets it from one of several other fields, using file Date Modified if none of them are present.

Metadata Date: when LR or another photo application last modified the metadata of the file (including Develop settings); from XMP MetadataDate.

Date Time Digitized: when the image was converted to digital form; from EXIF DateTimeDigitized. Digital cameras often set this to the same as Date Time Original (capture date).  Some scanning programs set this to the date the image was scanned, but most don't.

Date Time: when a photo application last modified the photo or metadata; from EXIF DateTime. (LR doesn't set this field, though it should).

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LR doesn't display the file Date Created or Date Modified in the Metadata panel. But often the firmware in the camera sets them to the same date as the capture date (or within a second or two).  This is why you'll often you'll see the value of file Date Created/Modified appear in the Metadata panel in one or more of the date fields in the Metadata panel.

But note that when LR modifies a file (e.g. by writing metadata back to it), the file Date Modified will always change. And sometimes the file Date Created changes, most often with JPEGs, due to the way that LR modifies JPEGs.  Many other apps and utilities also fail to preserve those fields.  For example, when I downloaded your sample files, the Date Modified and Date Created were set by Dropbox to the time of my download -- the original values were lost.

So in general, file Date Created and Modified can often suggest when a photo was taken or an image scanned, but you can't rely on them.

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Cameron wrote, "The original creation dates are still displayed correctly in the finder, they just arent being read and used."

Note that the Date Created shown in Finder (also called "file create date") is not the capture date that the camera records in a photo's metadata.  The file create date is when the operating system in the camera or the Mac operating system created the file on behalf of an application.  Some apps preserve the file create date when they manipulate a file but many don't (including LR). 

The capture date (sometimes called "date taken") is recorded by a camera in a photo's metadata (in the EXIF DateTimeOriginal field).  LR normally uses this capture date for moving into dated folders, file renaming, and displaying in the Metadata panel and under thumbnails in grid view.

When a file contains a valid capture date, LR generally behaves consistently, and I know of no remaining bugs in that case (except when importing files via a USB cable or via the Devices section of the Import window). However, when a file doesn't contain a valid capture date, there are long-time bugs in LR that could trigger wierd behavior, including moving a photo into the wrong dated folder.  Adobe has never been able to fix these bugs, despite a couple of attempts.

Looking at your bug report in the feedback forum, you say that nearly all of the problem files are DNGs, though you found one scan that was problematic.  (Scan's usually don't have capture dates.) I suggest you upload one of the problem DNGs to Dropbox or similar and post the sharing link here. I can verify that it has a valid capture date that's not tripping up LR.

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Alex, make sure you add details of your issue to the bug report filed by Cameron:

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lightroom-is-incorrectly-importing-dng-files-to-folders-by-modification-date-instead-of-capture-date

Be sure to click Me Too and Follow in the upper-right corner. That will make it a little more likely that Adobe will prioritize a fix, and you'll be notified when the bug's status changes.

Adobe product engineers do read everything posted there but rarely participate here, so anything you write in this forum won't have any influence on Adobe. The more people who add details about a problem and click Me Too, the more likely Adobe pays attention and/or someone finds a workaround and shares it.

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I'm out of ideas about troubleshooting this via the forums. I've troubleshot many problems and bugs with capture dates since LR 3, and this is the first instance that we couldn't narrow down or reproduce in another LR configuration. My only remaining suggestion is to post a bug report in the official Adobe feedback forums, where Adobe wants all bugs reported:  

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/categories/photoshop_family_photoshop_lightroom 

Adobe product developers read everything posted there and occasionally engages, while they rarely participate here, which is primarily a user-to-user forum. Be sure to summarize all the details in a fresh write-up, including the first ten lines of Help > System Info, rather than linking back here. Experience has shown they typically don't bother to follow links and read long threads in other forums.

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Is the import option File Renaming > Rename Files checked? If so, can you edit the renaming template and post a screenshot of the template, e.g.

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"it clearly shows the correct dates in the OS finder"

Note that Finder shows you the dates when the file was created and modified by the operating system (Mac OS).  Whereas LR's capture date comes from the metadata stored inside the photo by the camera or scanner.  Often, a camera will set the file's created and modified dates to the same value as the capture date it stores inside the metadata, but the file's created and modified dates can get changed over time by various programs (LR can change both).

If LR isn't able to read a capture date from the metadata, it will use the file's modified date instead, which is what seems to be happening to you. We still haven't figured out why your LR apparently isn't able to read the capture dates from metadata.

You can see the metadata capture date by opening an image in Mac Preview and doing Tools > Show Inspector > Exif. That's usually accurate, though infrequently not.

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Hmm.  You said you had the option Catalog Settings > Metadata > Automatically Write Changes Into XMP.  I'm wondering if somehow bad capture dates got written into most of your photos at some point in the past.

Two more troubleshooting steps:

1. Download and import the four photos you uploaded: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/j860fufky5rou9h/AAD3tXoSt-qBWcdRrIo5xk-0a?dl=0. Do those photos, which we've verified have correct capture dates in their metadata, get moved to the wrong dated folders?

2. Post a screenshot of your Import settings, as described at the end of this post: https://community.adobe.com/t5/Lightroom-Classic/Lightroom-is-importing-images-into-folders-by-modified-date/m-p/10677316#M159889. That might give clues.

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