# Incorrect Capture Time/Date on Imported Images from Mac Photos App



## Gatorfellow (Mar 3, 2018)

Operating System: High Sierra 10.13.3
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info): LR Classic CC 7.2

I've been moving my Mac Photos app library into Lightroom Classic CC by following the advice in Victoria's The Missing FAQ book in the ebook appendix pp. 1140 and 1141.  After selecting all the images and exporting unmodified original files with XMPs (these were all JPGs as I had moved all the raw files out some time ago), I am noticing that while the image files have been placed into the correct nested dated folder, the files display an incorrect capture time/date.  The incorrect capture time/date reflects the time that the XMP sidecar files were written. How did this happen, and what can I do to correct this?  I am including some example screenshots. This board has been very responsive and helpful. Keep up the great work! Thank you.


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## Paul McFarlane (Mar 3, 2018)

Hi

Reason is it's showing the metadata date (the date you created or updated the JPG I assume) rather than capture date

Change the dropdown in Metadata on the right to EXIF only and you'll see both sets of dates - the capture date and the date this file was updated

Paul


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## Gatorfellow (Mar 3, 2018)

Hi Paul.  The capture time and date reflects the day the xmp's were created on export from the Photos app.  I have tried turning on just the exif date, and I see no change in the information displayed:


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 3, 2018)

It looks from those screenshots that the jpeg has had the EXIF data stripped during the export from Photos or something is going wrong when importing a Jpeg + XMP file (I have a vague feeling that Lightroom ignores sidecar XMP files when associated to Jpegs, but could be wrong about that).
Try importing one of the jpegs after first moving the XMP sidecar out of the folder (or simply rename it), then check the Metadata panel.


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## Gatorfellow (Mar 3, 2018)

Will try it and let you know.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## Gatorfellow (Mar 4, 2018)

So I tried reimporting the file without the extra XMP file, and the capture time/date is now displayed correctly.  Now the question becomes what to do to correct the thousands of images I just imported. I am not sure if I want to or even how to delete them and then reimport them without the xmp file.  When I reimported this latest image, as suggested, my "previous import" folder now only has 1 image in it.  I could reimport the entire exported collection of images without the xmp files, but as I understand it, this would duplicate all of the files because I would have to uncheck the Don't Import Selected Duplicates function.  What do you suggest?


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## Gatorfellow (Mar 6, 2018)

Any other thoughts on how to select and change capture file date or how to reimport the files without duplicating them?  Thanks again.


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 6, 2018)

I'd like to try to figure out what's happened here. Could you upload one of the jpegs together with the XMP sidecar, to somewhere like Dropbox? Then I can do a test import to see if we can offer an easy solution.


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## Gatorfellow (Mar 6, 2018)

Could you send me an email and I'll send you the dropbox link directly?  Thank you.


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## Gatorfellow (Mar 6, 2018)

Or is there a way to send you a direct message here in the forum?  I'm not sure how to do that.


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## Hal P Anderson (Mar 6, 2018)

Go to the Inbox button at the top of the form and click on it:


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## Gatorfellow (Mar 6, 2018)

This is what shows for me:


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## Gatorfellow (Mar 6, 2018)

I looked under profile settings for any settings related to private messaging that might need adjusting to allow for private messaging, but I did not find any.


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## rob211 (Mar 6, 2018)

Do the XMP sidecars have a date you want? If you verify that, I think exiftool can copy in the time stamp: batch copy XMP sidecar data to jpg files


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## Gatorfellow (Mar 7, 2018)

I'm not sure how to verify data in the xmp files. In my original post, I included a screenshot containing the information that I can see in the xmp file using the Mac finder. According to this, the created and modified date was the day that I made the screenshot of the xmp info.  This date corresponds to the incorrect date that LR shows above the xmp screenshot.  I hope that makes sense. Thank you.


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## Gatorfellow (Mar 7, 2018)

Is there an XMP viewer that I can use to verify the data it contains?


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## Hal P Anderson (Mar 7, 2018)

It's just a text file. On Windows, I'd suggest Notepad. There's probably a simple text editor that comes on your Mac. Search for Date. I see CreateDate, ModifyDate, and MetadataDate.


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## rob211 (Mar 7, 2018)

Gatorfellow said:


> Is there an XMP viewer that I can use to verify the data it contains?



On a Mac, use Text Edit to open it.


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## Gatorfellow (Mar 7, 2018)

Here's what I see in Text Edit when I open the xmp file:

<?xpacket begin='' id=''?>
<x:xmpmeta xmlns:x='adobe:ns:meta/' x:xmptk='XMP toolkit 2.9-9, framework 1.6'>
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf='http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#' xmlns:iX='http://ns.adobe.com/iX/1.0/'>
<rdfescription rdf:about='' xmlns:Iptc4xmpCore='IPTC document'>
</rdfescription>
<rdfescription rdf:about='' xmlnshotoshop='http://ns.adobe.com/photoshop/1.0/'>
</rdfescription>
<rdfescription rdf:about='' xmlns:dc='http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/'>
</rdfescription>
<rdfescription rdf:about='' xmlnshotomechanic='http://ns.camerabits.com/photomechanic/1.0/'>
</rdfescription>
</rdf:RDF>
</x:xmpmeta>
<?xpacket end='w'?>


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## Gatorfellow (Mar 7, 2018)

Gatorfellow said:


> Here's what I see in Text Edit when I open the xmp file:
> 
> <?xpacket begin='' id=''?>
> <x:xmpmeta xmlns:x='adobe:ns:meta/' x:xmptk='XMP toolkit 2.9-9, framework 1.6'>
> ...



Sorry about the emoticons.  They appeared after I pasted the contexts of the file.  They replaced : D and : p (without the spaces).


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## Victoria Bampton (Mar 8, 2018)

Gatorfellow said:


> Any other thoughts on how to select and change capture file date or how to reimport the files without duplicating them?  Thanks again.


I can't test this right now, but you could try selecting the photos, go to Metadata menu > Edit Capture Time and set it to "change to file's creation time". Since the Get Info window above appears to show the correct creation time on the JPEG, that may do the trick. If that works, you can select them all in Grid view to update them all at once.


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## rob211 (Mar 8, 2018)

That XMP file has no date time info in it at all.

Indeed, pretty much nothing. So forget using exiftool to copy in a meaningful date or time.

I'd suggest you get this plugin and look at the JPEGs: Jeffrey's "Metadata Viewer" Lightroom Plugin

It might be helpful to see what's in the JPEG; there can be a lot of dates in an image file. I like Victoria's suggestion, but it assumes that the file creation date IS the image creation date, which might or might not be true. The fact is image files can store a LOT of dates, and you wanna make sure you get the correct ones in the right places. Here's an example of a JPEG I have (you get this using the plugin, but it's in color so that you can tell whether it's XMP, exif, IPTC, etc):

Create Date    2016:09:19 14:05:48
Create Date    2016:09:19 14:05:48
Date Created    2016:09:19
Date Created    2016:09:19 14:05:48
Date/Time Created    2016:09:19 14:05:48
Date/Time Original    2016:09:19 14:05:48
Digital Creation Date    2016:09:19
Digital Creation Date/Time    2016:09:19 14:05:48
Metadata Date    2018:02:18 14:43:36-08:00
Modify Date    2018:02:18 14:43:36-08:00
Modify Date    2017:02:17 14:28:32
File Access Date/Time    2018:03:08 07:49:15-08:00
File Inode Change Date/Time    2018:02:18 14:43:36-08:00
File Modification Date/Time    2018:01:28 13:07:47-08:00
MD Item Content Creation Date    2016:09:19 14:05:48-07:00
MD Item Content Creation Date Ranking    2016:09:18 17:00:00-07:00
MD Item Content Modification Date    2016:09:19 14:05:48-07:00
MD Item Date Added    2017:10:10 12:09:06-07:00
MD Item Date Added Ranking    2017:10:09 17:00:00-07:00
MD Item FS Content Change Date    2018:01:28 13:07:47-08:00
MD Item FS Creation Date    2017:10:10 12:09:06-07:00
MD Item Interesting Date Ranking    2016:09:18 17:00:00-07:00
Profile Date Time    1998:02:09 06:49:00
Date Created    2016-09-19T14:05:48
Date Time    2/18/18 2:43:36 PM
Date Time Digitized    9/19/16 2:05:48 PM
Date Time Original    9/19/16 2:05:48 PM
dateTimeDigitizedISO8601    2016-09-19T14:05:48
dateTimeISO8601    2018-02-18T14:43:36-08:00
dateTimeOriginalISO8601    2016-09-19T14:05:48
Metadata Date    2/18/18 2:43:36 PM​Note conflicting "modify dates." One is in XMP in the JPEG, one is in exif. And there are a bunch of file dates. I'd want "Date Time Original" to be accurate with this JPEG, since it's a camera shot. That date might be 1920, however, for a scan of an old photo, and the "Date Digitized" might be yesterday on that same JPEG.

Point being, sort out first if you've got the dates you want, and that you've got them in the right places before you do wholesale changes.


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## Gatorfellow (Mar 19, 2018)

I installed the plugin and ran it on the photo shown in the prior post.  The only reference to the correct date (2005-02-25) was that the file was in the folder 2005-02-25.  Could this folder name be used to generate a creation date for this and other similarly misdated files?


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## rob211 (Mar 19, 2018)

Gatorfellow said:


> I installed the plugin and ran it on the photo shown in the prior post.  The only reference to the correct date (2005-02-25) was that the file was in the folder 2005-02-25.  Could this folder name be used to generate a creation date for this and other similarly misdated files?


I don't know of something that'll do that. But why not just select all in the folder and then use "Metadata>edit capture time..." and then use that date? Then write the metadata to the file and verify it wrote to exif. Try it on a test batch first.

exiftool would be the other way to do it, but not sure it can read an enclosing folder's name as numbers to add in a date stamp.


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## PhilBurton (Mar 20, 2018)

Hal P Anderson said:


> It's just a text file. On Windows, I'd suggest Notepad. There's probably a simple text editor that comes on your Mac. Search for Date. I see CreateDate, ModifyDate, and MetadataDate.


Download XML Notepad 2007 from Official Microsoft Download Center is purpose-built to read XML files, including XMP.

Phil


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## Gatorfellow (Mar 3, 2018)

Operating System: High Sierra 10.13.3
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info): LR Classic CC 7.2

I've been moving my Mac Photos app library into Lightroom Classic CC by following the advice in Victoria's The Missing FAQ book in the ebook appendix pp. 1140 and 1141.  After selecting all the images and exporting unmodified original files with XMPs (these were all JPGs as I had moved all the raw files out some time ago), I am noticing that while the image files have been placed into the correct nested dated folder, the files display an incorrect capture time/date.  The incorrect capture time/date reflects the time that the XMP sidecar files were written. How did this happen, and what can I do to correct this?  I am including some example screenshots. This board has been very responsive and helpful. Keep up the great work! Thank you.


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## Gatorfellow (Mar 21, 2018)

rob211 said:


> I don't know of something that'll do that. But why not just select all in the folder and then use "Metadata>edit capture time..." and then use that date? Then write the metadata to the file and verify it wrote to exif. Try it on a test batch first.
> 
> exiftool would be the other way to do it, but not sure it can read an enclosing folder's name as numbers to add in a date stamp.



I'll give it a shot. Thanks.


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