File Browser, Metadata, File Properties, Date Create and Modified are wrong

Aug 20, 2004

Brett,

I confirm your experience. My dates are all over the map and span decades. Results are not attributable to the camera’s date/time setting. I’ve filed the problem under "To be resolved" meaning I’m not actively seeking to fix it, so glad you asked.

George

John_Joslin

Aug 20, 2004

I confirm your experience

Ditto.

Please, can we call this a bug?

JJ

Ian_Lyons

Aug 20, 2004

This appears to be a problem on both platforms but so far as I know Photoshop is not the cause.

If you recheck your Modification and Creation dates via Properties you can often find that the modification occurred before the creation. Sometimes the creation date doesn’t exist at all.

With File Browser on the Mac the creation date is missing and on the PC it’s anyones guess between missing, 1900 and ?

If you check the the creation and modification dates of the files BEFORE you copy them from the CompactFlash card you should get a more accurate indication of what is and isn’t being recored. The modification date/time that Brett sees is very probably the date/time that ZoomBrowser did its thing.

With my 10D, IDMkII and PowerShot Pro1 files there is no creation date when viewed via file properties. When I copy the files from the CompactFlash card to the computer hard drive all bets are off in determining which dates show or not. I gave up even trying to figure the actual source of the problem and now use a shareware app on the Mac to extract the correct creation date/time from the EXIF data. On the PC you can do the same thing with BreezeBrowser or similar apps.

can we call this a bug?

Yes, but not in Photoshop (that is unless they’ve been telling me Pork Pies and I don’t think they are)

Brett_Binns

Aug 21, 2004

I don’t think my dates vary show exactly the same symptoms as Ian but I do see some of what he sees. I’ll show some results below. I don’t know if it explains it but we must remember that some dates are recorded by the camera and it’s clock (Create) and others may come from the computer and it’s clock (modify).

For one of my Raw files:

Explorer Created: Wednesday, August 11, 2004, 18:33:52

Explorer Modified: Wednesday, August 11, 2004, 18:22:18

Metadata File Properties Date Created: 1941-10-24 08:31:48 AM

Metadata File Properties Date Modified 1941-10-24 08:31:48 AM

Metadata Camera Data Date Time Original: 2004-08-07T17:32:18Z

It still looks to me like the "Camera Data Date Time Original" looks good. The Explorer date represents the download date (I use the date for the directory name and confirmed it) although the times are curious.

Clearly, the Metadata File Properties Dates are bizarre as everyone agrees but otherwise I don’t see any missing dates or other wild inconsistencies. Furthermore ZoomBrowser EX shows the Camera Data Date Time Original.

Although I can find the Camera Data Dates in the thm file I don’t find the 1941 (I used vi, a unix derived editor that can cope with binary files – I can see the ASCII strings with it).

I’m not at all convinced that this problem isn’t with Photoshop CS. In fact it was not a problem in PS 7 and the same Canon software.

Hope this helps…
Brett

Brett_Binns

Aug 25, 2004

I need a work around for this! Here is my problem. I am using Photoshop to create a Web Gallery. But the gallery is organized by the File Browser sort which is wrong presumably because of the problem discussed in this thread. I have a few hundred files (306) to organize so manually dragging them around and getting the order correct is difficult.

Is there a way to sort on different EXIF fields? Maybe a totally different approach? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Brett

Ian_Lyons

Aug 25, 2004

Brett,

As I wrote above – you need to find an application that extracts the time at which the image was captured (EXIF tag Date Time Original). This is the ONLY date that doesn’t change – it’s locked. Once you have that you can easily and accurately sort by creation date in File Browser.

The following application is by the same developer as the application I use on the Mac. Unfortunately the Windows version doesn’t yet seem able to extract the EXIF date. It’s only recently that the developer released it on the Mac so maybe he’s working on the Windows version (you can hope).

< http://www.publicspace.net/windows/BetterFileAttributes/inde x.html>

Brett_Binns

Aug 26, 2004

Thanks Ian. I am still confused though. As I stated above, Explorer’s times are fine. I may very well be confused, but from what I see on this web site this tools modified the Explorer file system date/times. If it doesn’t modify the Photoshop CS File Browser metadata date/times, I don’t see how it helps me. It is the specific Photoshop CS File Browser metadata fields indicated above that seem to be confusing the sort.

As you may well have an idea here that I am not grasping, maybe you could expand on it. I do appreciate the time you have taken.

I am thinking of write a little app to modify the file names so that the "CRW_" raw file prefix is changed to "IMG_" like just like the JPEGS. I certainly have to leave the extensions alone. I would then be able to use a file name sort relying on the index numbers to correctly organize the files.

Does anyone else, have an idea.

Thanks again,
Brett

Ian_Lyons

Aug 26, 2004

Brett,

I am thinking of write a little app to modify the file names so that the "CRW_" raw file prefix is changed to "IMG_" like just like the JPEGS.

Unless I’m reading the wrong page then you can simply Batch Rename in File Browser. See the Automate menu. I use this feature to do near enough what you describe e.g. Unique Shoot Reference_4 digit serial number.CRW

Ian_Lyons

Aug 26, 2004

Brett,

As you may well have an idea here that I am not grasping, maybe you could expand on it. I do appreciate the time you have taken.

I’ve told you that what your seeing is an inconsistency not of Photoshops making and that short of extracting the EXIF creation date from the file you’re stuffed.

For what it’s worth I’m told that the problem originates in the Card Readers, but one set of my files was imported directly from the camera via ZoomBrowser and it shows everything right, but no other applications seem to agree with it. Again, the ONLY guaranteed workaround that I know of is extracting the Camera Data EXIF "Date Time Original". I suggested an application called BreezeBrowser in my original post – did you try it?

<http://www.breezsys.com>

I just checked and it does extract the EXIF creation date and applies it to the OS level creation date. Simply select all of your files and then choose TimeStamp form the Tools menu

Ian

Brett_Binns

Aug 26, 2004

The Breezsys link is bad and the app recommended earlier was "BetterFileAttributes" (see post) which, as I said earlier, only works on the file system attributes. Google still shows the Breezsys link so it is recently gone.

I will have to re-review Batch Rename – that could save me some coding, but my files are of the form "IMG_1234.JPG" and "CRW_1235.CRW". I don’t think batch rename will separate the "IMG" and "CRW" from the "_1234" and "_1235" but I will have to look again closer.

I am heartened by Ian’s suggestion that by downloading from the camera directly, instead of from a card read, I may get accurate data. I did use a card reader on every download I’ve done since purchasing PS CS. I will certainly have to try that with my next "roll".

Thanks again,
Brett

Ian_Lyons

Aug 26, 2004

Brett,

I gave up even trying to figure the actual source of the problem and now use a shareware app on the Mac to extract the correct creation date/time from the EXIF data. On the PC you can do the same thing with BreezeBrowser or similar apps.

The above is from post 3 of this thread. Since by post 7 it appeared that you were stilling asking the same question I wrongly assumed that you’d tried BreezeBowser, hence the alternative.

I am heartened by Ian’s suggestion that by downloading from the camera directly, instead of from a card read, I may get accurate data.

Absolutely no way did I make that suggestion – it’s the worst possible means of getting data from camera to hard drive. I pointed out that I had one set of images that appeared to be correct in ZoomBroswer but wrong everywhere else. Again the ONLY sure way of getting the right date is to extract the EXIF data!

The BreezeBrowser link should have been:

<http://www.breezesys.com>

BTW: Batch Rename will do exactly what you require.

Ian

Alex_F

Aug 27, 2004

Brett, I have had the same problem. It is only in photoshop as well and Windows explorer shows the correct dates. (Like in post #4)

Also, another file browser issue… when you change the metadata does it trash the original file and save a new one? My trash can has been filled with images that i know I didnt delete, I just gave them keywords!

All I want to do is add some silly keywords to help searching my 10,100 images… is there any better way to do it?

thanks!

Michael_D_Sullivan

Aug 29, 2004

I have also had the file date read incorrectly within the Photoshop CS browser using WinXP — some files in a given directory will have the wrong year, while others are correct; in Windows Explorer, all are correct (i.e., the date downloaded from the camera or card, or modified in PSCS), even though all the photos in the directory were shot on the same date and downloaded in a single batch. Only the year seems to be affected, which leads me to suspect a bug in the subroutine PSCS uses to get the date. Does PS get this date from the OS each time a photo is accessed, or is it in the cache? If the latter, maybe a cache problem is the cause.

Alex_F

Sep 1, 2004

I am glad I am not the only one!!! Now if there was just a way to fix it!!! Any ideas? It seems like a really good feature, if It actually worked properly!

Ideas? Solutions?

Sorry, I am a little clueless!

File Browser, Metadata, File Properties, Date Create and Modified are wrong

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