Corrupt photo dates

[barneagle]

Some photos have acquired incorrect Photo Dates. Those that I have noticed all have recent dates although all were taken last month. The dates now shown may be when I last added keywords. In at least one case it seems to be the date (and time) when I forced metadata to be rewritten using Ctrl-S.

Is it possible that I have inadvertently hit a key combination or something else that might have caused this?

[jstartin]

Many dates are recorded in metadata. PSu has a set of rules to determine which is the "photo date", as summarised in http://forum.idimager.com/viewtopic.php ... te#p103498.

If XMP and Exif dates are not available the file modification date will be used and this will change if you use CTRL+S.

It may be that the reading of metadata from the file into the catalog database has failed for some reason. This can happen if some other application has written faulty XMP into the file before PSu imports it.

Try the context menu item to "Convert metadata to XMP".

[barneagle]

Thanks for your thoughts.

I'm pretty sure that the anomalous files I have noticed had relevant date fields ("Date/time Original" and/or "Create Date" and possibly others) correctly set to the date the photo was taken, and that the date was correctly imported, because the files were shown under the correct date and time when I was adding keywords a few days ago. So it seems that I have done something (or perhaps there has been a program glitch in PSU) to corrupt the date info.

The one file that I have applied Ctrl-S to had lost its "Date/time original" and/or "Create Date" data so I understand why, as you mentioned, the file modification date is now used by PSU as the Photo Date. Thanks for the link.

If the anomalies occurred because of some glitch while I was working with PSU, and if the glitch caused the original date to be lost and replaced by the file modification date (or some other filed set to the current date/time at the time of modification), then it should be easy for me to spot the anomalies by looking at the few photos with recent dates. I shall have to hope that this is what happened, because otherwise I'm not sure how I'll ever be able to find all the errors other than by chance!

[fbungarz]

Among thousands of files I occasionally also experienced this, but I am not sure PSu is to blame. I would be worried if it happened regularly.
Did you try the "context menu item to "Convert metadata to XMP" to see if the data can be recovered? It may well be that the correct date is still present in the Exif and can be migrated back to XMP...

[barneagle]

I did use ExifTool to look inside one of the files and there was no sign of the original date. However, for that photo and others that I have recognised as having lost their dates I have been able to look up the original dates in backup files and have applied them in PSU.

As I say, let's hope it's a rare occurrence.

At the top of this thread I asked whether there is a keyboard shortcut (or some other action) to overwrite the Photo Date with the current date/time. Am I correct in thinking that there isn't?

[jstartin]

At the top of this thread I asked whether there is a keyboard shortcut (or some other action) to overwrite the Photo Date with the current date/time. Am I correct in thinking that there isn't?

There are ways of doing this, but there is no direct shortcut and it is hard to imagine either sequence being followed by accident.

In the details panel there are several date fields. Each has a three-bar menu icon adjacent. Clicking this gives some optional actions, one of which is to set to "Now".

There is also a redate function callable by Shift+Ctrl+D, and there is a sequence of mouse clicks that will enter "Now".

[jstartin]

I did use ExifTool to look inside one of the files and there was no sign of the original date. However, for that photo and others that I have recognised as having lost their dates I have been able to look up the original dates in backup files and have applied them in PSU.

What was in the various date fields, in the Exif and in the XMP sections?

[barneagle]

I'm afraid I didn't keep a copy. If it happens again I'll report back, but let's hope it doesn't.

[barneagle]

It has happened again, and the corruption is far more dramatic than just the loss of photo date.

I have a copy of the file as it was before import into PSU. The various date fields in the metadata read as follows:

Code: Select all

---- System ----
FileModifyDate                  : 2016:11:06 20:15:26+00:00
FileAccessDate                  : 2016:12:03 11:21:59+00:00
FileCreateDate                  : 2016:12:03 11:21:59+00:00
---- ExifIFD ----
DateTimeOriginal                : 2016:10:30 11:12:26
CreateDate                      : 2016:10:30 11:12:26
---- XMP-xmp ----
CreateDate                      : 2016:10:30 11:12:26
---- Composite ----
SubSecCreateDate                : 2016:10:30 11:12:26.00
SubSecDateTimeOriginal          : 2016:10:30 11:12:26.00
SubSecModifyDate                : 2016:10:30 12:12:26.15

After adding keywords and resizing in PSU the entire metadata (per ExifTool) reads as follows:

Code: Select all

---- ExifTool ----
ExifToolVersion                 : 10.10
---- System ----
FileName                        : IMG_5542 from PSU.JPG
Directory                       : C:/ExifTool
FileSize                        : 940 kB
FileModifyDate                  : 2016:11:27 21:03:06+00:00
FileAccessDate                  : 2016:12:03 11:18:43+00:00
FileCreateDate                  : 2016:12:03 11:18:43+00:00
FilePermissions                 : rw-rw-rw-
---- File ----
FileType                        : JPEG
FileTypeExtension               : jpg
MIMEType                        : image/jpeg
ImageWidth                      : 1920
ImageHeight                     : 1280
EncodingProcess                 : Baseline DCT, Huffman coding
BitsPerSample                   : 8
ColorComponents                 : 3
YCbCrSubSampling                : YCbCr4:2:0 (2 2)
---- JFIF ----
JFIFVersion                     : 1.01
ResolutionUnit                  : None
XResolution                     : 1
YResolution                     : 1
---- Composite ----
ImageSize                       : 1920x1280
Megapixels                      : 2.5

The metadata is truncated there so all other information has been lost from the file! The photo is not shown by PSU as "out of sync" but the keyword information is held in PSU's database.

[fbungarz]

I would contact Hert directly, perhaps send him both files - before and after.
If this is caused by PSu it would be a very serious bug.

[barneagle]

OK. I have sent a message to the forum "administrator".

[Hert]

If there would be something wrong with psu's dates then the entire community would be staggering.

I'm more curious what you mean with "after sizing". Can you share the exact steps that you do to lead to this?

[jstartin]

It has happened again, and the corruption is far more dramatic than just the loss of photo date.
After adding keywords and resizing in PSU the entire metadata (per ExifTool) reads as follows............
The metadata is truncated there so all other information has been lost from the file! The photo is not shown by PSU as "out of sync" but the keyword information is held in PSU's database.

Perhaps the following questions will resolve this quickly.
Did you use PSU's share facility to produce this resized image?
If so, did you examine the metadata options in the sharing profile first? There is a box that must be ticked to keep metadata in the file; it is unticked by default.

[barneagle]

To resize photos I select them in the thumbnail window then use Ctrl-B to bring up the Batch dialog then run a Stored Batch containing just the Resize option. The only options for Resize that I see are "Resize method" (I have "longest side" selected), "Longest side" (1920 pixels), "Calculation method" (Fastest Resize) and "Enlarge images that are smaller" which is unticked.

I have used this to resize several thousand photos, and I believe that the metadata is intact in all but a few of them.

[barneagle]

Hert, you asked above what steps I had followed to resize photos. Is there anything wrong with the procedure I have described?