Adjust Date and Time on The Organizer Grid to Date Photo Taken?

Report · Jan 07, 2023

I am very new to PE 2022 and have uploaded quited a few images that I had scanned years ago in a previous version of Photoshop (probably at least 10 years ago).

I noticed that on many of the files shown in the Date and Time in the Organizer grid show the Date Taken that I had manually keyed in from the physical photos I had scanned. This is how I would like the Date and Time displayed. However, I noticed that many Date and Times were overriden by the system to the date I uploaded the old photos to PE2022, not the Date Taken.

Is there anyway I can set PE 2022 settings so that the displayed Date and Time used in the Organizer Grid can be set pemanently to Date Taken? It is much easier for me to be able to organize images based on the date they were taken, rather than uploaded. I should also note that the Date Taken is correct in the Metadata. I have included a screenshot of one of the affected photos.

Thanks for your help!

Report · Jan 08, 2023

Hi Sherry. Take a look at this blog post that explains how the Organizer uses the various date fields that are available.

Presumably, when you originally scanned the photos, they were imported into a catalog from an earlier version of Elements. You then keyed in the date in the Organizer to show the actual date the photo was taken which was obtained from the original photo (using a date stamp?). Although the modified date may be found in the Exif data, if you import the file to the Organizer, the grid will still display the Original date which is the date the file was scanned.

Do you still have the original catalog folder that was used when you modified the date of the photos? If yes, you could convert the catalog in Elements 2022 and the modified dates (showing the actual dates the photo was taken) will appear in the converted catalog display. If your answer is no, you will have to adjust the date manually. You should be able to use the EXIF data to assist you with dating the photos. And you can adjust the dates of several photos taken on the same day by selecting them in the grid and using the Adjust Date/Time command.

Report · Jan 08, 2023

Thank you for your reply. I read the blog post, but I'm not sure whether I understand the implications.

You are right. When I initially performed the scan and loaded them into whatever version of PE I was using, I did manually "adjust date and time". The photos were all pre-digital, so there was no information from the camera available.

I recently uploaded these old PE images into PE 2022. They retained the original date/time I had keyed in years ago, but then I began identifying faces and assigning tags to some photos. I also began changing the photo orientation in Editor and saving the changes. I didn't notice that the Date/Time on some photos had changed until yesterday.

I am not clear from your reply (my obtuseness showing) how to permanently keep the date/time as the date that shows in the Organizer grid. Would I have to reassign the date/time manually after each edit or tag addition? I have not found a way to permanently keep the date/time the photo was taken visible on the PE Organizer.

I'm sorry for my confusion. Again, I appreciate your help!

Report · Jan 09, 2023

Sherry, I have been able to reproduce the problem you have described. I am going to do some more experimentation with older versions of Elements to see whether it has always existed. In my tests so far, I added a People tag to a scanned .bmp file for which the date had already been adjusted, saved the metadata to the file and the displayed date reverted to the Creation date which is the date the image was scanned. The same thing happened when I edited and saved the file (overwriting the original). When I opened Elements 2023, the adjusted date for the same photo was still there. But when I opened the file in the Editor and saved it again, the adjusted date reverted to the Creation date.

I'm not sure whether this is a bug or a feature. I'm going to ping @MichelBParis, another Community Expert who may be able to shed some further light on this. But, in the meantime, I'm afraid the only solution seems to be to manually readjust the displayed date.

And no need to apologize for not understanding this. It is the program that is being obtuse when dealing with scanned photo dates. 🙂

Report · Jan 09, 2023

Thank you so much for looking into this! It just didn't make sense to me, but now thanks to your reply I understand the exact issue and have a solution!

Report · Apr 30, 2024

Hi, did you ever find an answer to this problem? I also have this problem when trying to date scanned photos. For awhile when I changed the date in Elements organizer it was changing in file explorer, but now it stopped and I am manually changing them in file explorer. One problem is that you can only date the files back to 1924. Anything older you can't date

thanks

Dawn

Report · Apr 30, 2024

@default5n2g2pgz2qlx I have no further information to provide about how the dates are treated. However, please explain why you can't date the files further back than 1924. You should be able to change the date back to January 1, 1601.

If you try to change the file date to an earlier year, you will get this message: