Date Created changed when I drag and drop from Photos

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Level 1

13 points

Date Created changed when I drag and drop from Photos

The date created should represent the date a movie or photo was created in the camera, not the date it was dragged from photos to a flash drive or hdd. When I drag a copy to another medium the date created becomes the date the file was copied, not the original date.

Is there any method of retaining the original creation date?

I am syncing my iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air with my iCloud account to store the photos. They are downloaded from the cloud when I copy them to my hdd or flash card. These copies have the created date changed.

iPhone XS Max, iOS 14

Posted on Feb 24, 2021 1:29 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Matti Haveri

Level 6

16,679 points

Feb 24, 2021 10:58 PM in response to Jack Rodgers

Sadly movie metadata dates are not yet properly standardized (title, caption, author, keywords are even worse, ask details).

But it is possible to set movie metadata dates quite reliably down to year 1970 (works well), 1904 (works well in Photos), 1677 (needs special metadata tag currently used also in iOS devices) or even down to 1 in Photos with GraphicConverter or exiftool (Google Photos has its own oddities).

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250002750

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Answer 2

Feb 24, 2021 1:52 PM in response to Jack Rodgers

Hi

You need to distinguish between the file metatdata (information about the file) and the image metadata (information about the image in the file)

If you copy a file the copies creation date will normally be set to the date the file was copied. The image metadata inside the file (which you can view in preview with the inspector window, iptc tab) will show the image capture date.

Summary:

The File metadata is kept in the file system, and represents when that copy of the file is created or modified

The image metadata is kept inside the file, as exif and IPTC data. This won't change when you copy / move the file.

You can also see the two different dates in finder, as shown in the screenshot. This is from an image I exported from photos in july 2019 - so the file has been created and last modified then, but the content creation date is still showing 2011...

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Answer 3

Jack Rodgers Author

Level 1

13 points

Feb 24, 2021 2:02 PM in response to TonyCollinet

Thank you. I am aware that Get info shows the capture date, as you mention, and the copied date, which is what the finder shows as created date. Adding the capture date as a column would be most helpful.

Note that videos only show when the file is written to disk and not captured.

it would please a great many of us if Apple could show the capture date of videos as well as for videos.

it is most important for videos where sequence taken is important.

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Answer 4

Feb 24, 2021 2:33 PM in response to Jack Rodgers

Yes it would. Windows explorer can do it. Disappointing that mac can't.

But we are not apple here, we are users like you - if you want to give feedback to apple, the only channel they might listen to is:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

They are more likely to do something if a lot of people request the same.

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Date Created changed when I drag and drop from Photos

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