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Maintain time and date info when exporting a photo

When I export a photo from my Macbook using file>export>export unmodified original photo it does not keep the original time and date information that I see in the photos app. It seems to assign a date that is maybe from the last time I exported but I have not modified it.


Should I be checking any of the boxes like Export IPTC as XMP? I have no idea what that even means!


Also I apparently have choices with "file naming". There are two drop down boxes with choices. Again I don't know what those choices mean and what they will do.

Under "file naming" I can choose use title, use file name, or sequential. I don't know what each of those do.

Under "subfolder format" I can choose none or moment name. Again I don't know how those affect my choice.


I just want the same information that I see in photos to be there after I export it. Any help in doing this will be appreciated.



Thank you


MacBook (2017)

Posted on Aug 31, 2023 11:35 AM

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Posted on Aug 31, 2023 11:57 AM

With macOS built-in apps you can check the image's internal metadata date with Preview.app > Tools > Show Inspector [cmd-I] > Exif: Date Time Original.


File dates (file creation and file modification dates) are fragile and show other dates ... and cause much confusion.


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5 replies

Aug 31, 2023 9:42 PM in response to SimplyLola

Another option to check image's internal metadata date is in Finder > View > Show Preview (but notice that if there is no real internal date metadata, then that field shows only the file create date):



But none of those methods work for movies. One option is to check the internal metadata date is QuickTime Player > Window > Show Movie Inspector:



There are 3rd party utilities that can more readily show those dates and more.

Aug 31, 2023 10:23 PM in response to SimplyLola

> I just want the same information that I see in photos to be there after I export it


If you have done metadata edits (date, title, description, keyword, location) to the images and movies in Photos, you must either export them as:


a) Re-encoded files which is slightly lossy.


b) As originals (lossless) with .xmp sidecars (that carry the edited metadata) that you can then join to the originals with 3rd party utilities.

Maintain time and date info when exporting a photo

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