You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Updating Dates On Multiple Photos Doesn't Work If Dates Vary

I'm finding that updating dates on multiple photos in the Photos app on MacOS doesn't work unless the photos selected for the change all share the same date. If I select one or more photos with a date that varies from the others the changes are not implemented when you use the Image -> Adjust Date and Time... option.


Please help!:)

Windows, Windows 10

Posted on May 17, 2023 10:53 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 17, 2023 11:16 AM

That option isn't designed to change all of the files to the same date, but change all of the selected photos by the same amount of time that is selected:



If you want to hang all selected photos to the same date use this AppleScript: Script: Batch Change the Date and Time to a Fixed Date



Similar questions

5 replies

May 17, 2023 12:23 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks for the quick reply Old Toad!


I get why someone may want to shift the time like this but they could have easily made this feature work for a broader set of use cases with less code. I'm really surprised they only satisfy an edge-like case with a first class Ux experience and then the most in demand case with a script most people won't be able to figure out how to run.

May 17, 2023 9:57 PM in response to ChrisHallum

ChrisHallum wrote:

Thanks for the quick reply Old Toad!

I get why someone may want to shift the time like this but they could have easily made this feature work for a broader set of use cases with less code. I'm really surprised they only satisfy an edge-like case with a first class Ux experience and then the most in demand case with a script most people won't be able to figure out how to run.

We simply need two different commands for batch changing the date and and time of several selected photos, like we had in iPhoto:

  1. One command to shift the date and time, if the date of the camera has been set incorrectly, or if we imported the photos in a different time zone and Photos applied the wrong time zone on import
  2. and one command for scanned photos or saved photos that have no capture time and we need to set the capture time to the same dates with small increments.

I wrote myself an Apple script to batch change the dates of scanned photos, when Photos first came out:

The photos will have to be selected tin All Photos or a top level album.


May 17, 2023 7:43 PM in response to ChrisHallum

Having a camera set to the wrong date/time for a period of time (but by a constant offset) is not at all an edge case. It is not uncommon to forget to shift your camera for daylight saving time changes, or miss a change of time zone, or just flat set the cameras to the wrong date. (I think I've done all three at one time or another over the years.)


May I ask what demand you see for changing multiple photos to the same date and time? (I grant that it would have been simpler to code.) If there is enough demand for it, maybe you can convince Apple to add an option to work that way, either for one date/time change or for one user.

May 18, 2023 11:06 AM in response to markwmsn

Hi Mark, I have to admit I was a little hasty and exaggerating on my edge case comment.:)


One thing I wasn’t clear on, was my goal is to simply change the dates and leave the times as is. I’d love for Apple to make that easy in the Photos app as most other apps I’ve used in the  past offer it.


Sadly the reason I need this is all of the dates in my Photos are all over the place due to migrations from Windows, OneDrive, Windows Photo app, to MacOS and Photos app.


I don’t know where the date mangling occurred but thank God I meticulously organized events, trips, etc in folders that were preserved during the migration. If I hadn’t done that it would have been like running random date gen function on 20K photos in a single folder. Can you imagine the horror of that!?:)        

Updating Dates On Multiple Photos Doesn't Work If Dates Vary

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.