Fill EXIF date stamps from MS Photo Date Acquired?

[quartz]

In one of my catalogs I have approximately 900 images with wrong EXIF date stamps.
They are all set to 2003:01:01 00:00:00
This occurred most likely because the owner of the camera forgot to set the correct date and time after changing the batteries.

These images all appear as expected in January 2003 in the timeline .

The only different date I can find in the metadata is the date the images were imported from the SD card to the PC by Microsoft Photos.

Screenshot 2023-10-11 at 12.44.47.png (190.95 KiB) Viewed 10921 times

As this is the only somewhat sensible date information available in the files I wonder if this can be copied to the other date fields so that the files show up in a more sensible place in the timeline?

I suspect this requires some scripting but my scripting abilities are almost non-existent……

FWIW I attach a full EXIF dump of one of the files.

Any help will be highly appreciated!

[Hert]

Try this script...I haven't tried it as I don't have photos with that date filled. Run it on one or two copied photos first to test it.

Use with caution as this will change the rmetadata for your files.

Code: Select all

  function HandleImageItem(AImageItem: TImageItem): Boolean;
  var
    AVal: Variant;
    AXmp: TXMP;
  begin
    result := False;
    AXMp := TXMP.Create(nil)
    try
      if PublicCatalog.LoadXMPForImage(AImageItem, AXmp, PublicOptions.CachedXMP) then
      begin
        AVal := AXmp.QuickGetProperty('http://ns.microsoft.com/photo/1.0/', 'MicrosoftPhoto:DateAcquired');
        if not VarIsNull(AVal) then
        begin
          AXmp.QuickSetProperty('http://ns.adobe.com/exif/1.0/', 'exif:DateTimeOriginal', AVal);
          AXmp.QuickSetProperty('http://ns.adobe.com/exif/1.0/', 'exif:DateTimeDigitized', AVal);

          PublicCatalog.SaveXMPForImage(AImageItem, AXmp, PublicOptions.CachedXMP);
          result := True;
        end;
      end;
    finally
      AXmp.Free;
    end;
  end;

var
  i: Integer;
  AProgress: TxomProgress;
begin
  if Selected.Count = 0 then
  begin
    Say ('No images selected');
    exit;
  end;

  if not Ask ('This script will write the Microsoft Acquired date as Exif dates for the ' + IntToStr(Selected.Count) + ' selected thumbnails.' + CrLf2 + 'Are you sure you want to continue?') then
    exit;

  AProgress := TxomProgress.Create(nil);
  try
    AProgress.Caption := 'Update Exif dates';
    AProgress.Cancel := False;
    AProgress.ProgressBar := True;
    AProgress.Max := Selected.Count;
    AProgress.Show;

    for i := 0 to Selected.Count - 1 do
    begin
      AProgress.ProgressText := Selected.Items[i].FileName;
      AProgress.Pos := i + 1;
      if AProgress.Cancel then
        break;

      HandleImageItem(Selected.Items[i]);
    end;

    AProgress.Hide;
    if AProgress.Cancel then
      Say('Cancelled')
    else
      Say('Done');
  finally
    AProgress.Free;
  end;
end;

[quartz]

Thank you Hert for helping me.

Unfortunately the script did not change the Exif dates.

Would it help if I send you an example file with the MS date filled?

[quartz]

Sorry, my bad!

I had the write-back options set to keep everything local to the database.

The script works as intended, thank you!

(Reminder to self: check settings before jumping to conclusions....)

Thank you again!