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janygb143

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Lightroom version: CC 2015.10.1 [ 1117303 ]
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Hi! I was confirming my iPhone 5s photos on my backup drive when I realized that Lightroom has been changing the metadata on files. It appears to change files that have been edited by Lightroom. The metadata is correct in the Lightroom window, but when I view the file in Finder both, the "Date Created" and "Date Modified" are changed to the date of edit (please see attached photos). Is that normal? What would cause this? I turned off "Automatically write changes into XMP" and it seems to have stopped the issue, but what do I do about the 1000+ photos that have already been affected? I have most of the originals, but I think it would be time-consuming to reimport them all by hand, move them into the collections where the incorrectly-dated files have been stored, and sync the Develop edits. Would it be worth the time to do this, or is it futile/would not be significantly important? Thank you so much for any insight you might have!
 

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In the Windows File Manager it's possible to call up another field - "Date Taken" - whose contents LR doesn't alter in its editing processes.
Perhaps you can set "Finder" so it shows that?
Peter
 
Those two dates are the filesystem dates and will change every time Lightroom updates the XMP. The image capture date is a separate field and is stored in one of the image metadata components. As far as I know Mac OS Finder does not give you access to any of the image metadata. Lightroom on the other hand can show you both the image dates and the filesystem dates.

-louie
 
Date Created and Date Modified are the only two date options that Finder allows me to select. So you mean that Image Capture Date is different from Date Created? I just guessed they would be the same thing. Would you just leave the files as they are, then, without trying to re-import all the original files? It doesn't seem to do this with my RAW files! Oh, maybe it's because they have separate XMP files while the JPEGs don't?
 
Date Created and Date Modified are the only two date options that Finder allows me to select. So you mean that Image Capture Date is different from Date Created?
There are about 6 "dates" stored in the header of a digital image file. Date Created and Date Modified are system dates common to all files. "Date Time Original" and "Date Time Digitized" are two more timestamps found in the EXIF Section of the Header. You can find there if you open the image with the Previews app and select the "Inspector" Tool from the menu. Date Time Original is the image capture date and does not get modified by LR or the filesystem. "Date Time Original" and "Date Time Digitized" are the same value for images acquired by a digital camera.
 
Oh wow, okay! I wish Finder were more clear about that Date Time Original timestamp - it would have easily cleared things up! I wondered why the metadata in LR seemed to be OK. Thanks so much for all the information, everyone! I'll just leave the files as they are. Should I switch back to "Automatically write changes into XMP"? I don't work with my photos in anything other than Lightroom and Photoshop.
 
Should I switch back to "Automatically write changes into XMP"? I don't work with my photos in anything other than Lightroom and Photoshop.
There is no need to have LR update the XMP section of the original JPG or DNG or as a separate file if the original is a proprietary RAW format. All of you work in LR will or can get exported to the derivative JPEG/TIFF which id where you want it to be seen. You should never need to access the original source image file outside of LR/PS and as long as LR is your image management software, I recommend that your originals images file NOT be accessed with anything but LR.
 
Thanks so much! I'll leave that turned off and definitely won't let anything but LR touch my image files. I ran into issues years ago when I tried to have Picasa do facial recognition on the same files that were housed in LR!
 
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