Metadata dates change when copying photo files

I just copied the contents of a CF card to my hard drive. The date the picture was taken is there. If you look at the properties of a file, the date created would be the date that the file was saved to the hard drive. Bur if you look at the details window, the date will be the actual date that the picture was taken by the camera. You can sort by the date the picture was actually taken. Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate.

On Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:41:54 -0500, wrote:

This might be a little off-topic, but I don’t know where else to go for help. I have a digital camera and there is a ton of metadata attached to each file. One of these is "Date Created". I assume this is the date the photo was taken. When these files are copied from the SD card to a folder on my hard drive, that date changes from the date the photo was taken to the current date. The "Date Created" on the card remains the same – but once I copy the files to the hard drive, I can no longer sort them by "Date Taken" (because, now, the date is that of the day they were copied over to my hard drive). In other words, the dates are all the same. Is there some way around this phenomenon?

On Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:41:54 -0500, wrote:

This might be a little off-topic, but I don’t know where else to go for help. I have a digital camera and there is a ton of metadata attached to each file. One of these is "Date Created". I assume this is the date the photo was taken. When these files are copied from the SD card to a folder on my hard drive, that date changes from the date the photo was taken to the current date. The "Date Created" on the card remains the same – but once I copy the files to the hard drive, I can no longer sort them by "Date Taken" (because, now, the date is that of the day they were copied over to my hard drive). In other words, the dates are all the same. Is there some way around this phenomenon?

You haven’t mentioned what software is doing the sorting and how your software names the images.

When I upload images from the SD card, my images are named by the software (Adobe Bridge, in my case) as a number representing the date the actual image was taken. ie: 20100707_001. I use FastStone Image View for sorting, and it sorts by file name so my sort is by date taken.

If I later alter a file in Photoshop, the file name remains the same and I still sort by date. If I create two versions from the same image, I name the second version 20100707_001a. I still can sort by date.

If your software names the file the same as the shot date, whatever else you do to the file doesn’t change that.

—
Tony Cooper – Orlando, Florida

found these unused words:

This might be a little off-topic, but I don’t know where else to go for help. I have a digital camera and there is a ton of metadata attached to each file. One of these is "Date Created". I assume this is the date the photo was taken. When these files are copied from the SD card to a folder on my hard drive, that date changes from the date the photo was taken to the current date. The "Date Created" on the card remains the same – but once I copy the files to the hard drive, I can no longer sort them by "Date Taken" (because, now, the date is that of the day they were copied over to my hard drive). In other words, the dates are all the same. Is there some way around this phenomenon?

Try ‘Move" [hold shift key as you drag the selection] as against "Copy".

That is what I am looking at – the Details! Now what? Any other recourse? What could I be doing wrong? Thanks…….

On Sat, 07 Aug 2010 22:05:08 -0400, wrote:

I just copied the contents of a CF card to my hard drive. The date the picture was taken is there. If you look at the properties of a file, the date created would be the date that the file was saved to the hard drive. Bur if you look at the details window, the date will be the actual date that the picture was taken by the camera. You can sort by the date the picture was actually taken. Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate.

On Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:41:54 -0500, wrote:

This might be a little off-topic, but I don’t know where else to go for help. I have a digital camera and there is a ton of metadata attached to each file. One of these is "Date Created". I assume this is the date the photo was taken. When these files are copied from the SD card to a folder on my hard drive, that date changes from the date the photo was taken to the current date. The "Date Created" on the card remains the same – but once I copy the files to the hard drive, I can no longer sort them by "Date Taken" (because, now, the date is that of the day they were copied over to my hard drive). In other words, the dates are all the same. Is there some way around this phenomenon?

I will reply after looking into this a little more. Thanks…..

On Sat, 07 Aug 2010 22:40:43 -0400, tony cooper
wrote:

On Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:41:54 -0500, wrote:

This might be a little off-topic, but I don’t know where else to go for help. I have a digital camera and there is a ton of metadata attached to each file. One of these is "Date Created". I assume this is the date the photo was taken. When these files are copied from the SD card to a folder on my hard drive, that date changes from the date the photo was taken to the current date. The "Date Created" on the card remains the same – but once I copy the files to the hard drive, I can no longer sort them by "Date Taken" (because, now, the date is that of the day they were copied over to my hard drive). In other words, the dates are all the same. Is there some way around this phenomenon?

You haven’t mentioned what software is doing the sorting and how your software names the images.

When I upload images from the SD card, my images are named by the software (Adobe Bridge, in my case) as a number representing the date the actual image was taken. ie: 20100707_001. I use FastStone Image View for sorting, and it sorts by file name so my sort is by date taken.

If I later alter a file in Photoshop, the file name remains the same and I still sort by date. If I create two versions from the same image, I name the second version 20100707_001a. I still can sort by date.

If your software names the file the same as the shot date, whatever else you do to the file doesn’t change that.

On Sun, 08 Aug 2010 07:38:58 -0700, Sir F. A. Rien
wrote:

found these unused words:

This might be a little off-topic, but I don’t know where else to go for help. I have a digital camera and there is a ton of metadata attached to each file. One of these is "Date Created". I assume this is the date the photo was taken. When these files are copied from the SD card to a folder on my hard drive, that date changes from the date the photo was taken to the current date. The "Date Created" on the card remains the same – but once I copy the files to the hard drive, I can no longer sort them by "Date Taken" (because, now, the date is that of the day they were copied over to my hard drive). In other words, the dates are all the same. Is there some way around this phenomenon?

Try ‘Move" [hold shift key as you drag the selection] as against "Copy".

Will try later today. However, I don’t want to remove the files from my card at this time.

On Sun, 08 Aug 2010 10:42:56 -0500, wrote:

I will reply after looking into this a little more. Thanks…..
On Sat, 07 Aug 2010 22:40:43 -0400, tony cooper
wrote:

On Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:41:54 -0500, wrote:

This might be a little off-topic, but I don’t know where else to go for help. I have a digital camera and there is a ton of metadata attached to each file. One of these is "Date Created". I assume this is the date the photo was taken. When these files are copied from the SD card to a folder on my hard drive, that date changes from the date the photo was taken to the current date. The "Date Created" on the card remains the same – but once I copy the files to the hard drive, I can no longer sort them by "Date Taken" (because, now, the date is that of the day they were copied over to my hard drive). In other words, the dates are all the same. Is there some way around this phenomenon?

You haven’t mentioned what software is doing the sorting and how your software names the images.

When I upload images from the SD card, my images are named by the software (Adobe Bridge, in my case) as a number representing the date the actual image was taken. ie: 20100707_001. I use FastStone Image View for sorting, and it sorts by file name so my sort is by date taken.

If I later alter a file in Photoshop, the file name remains the same and I still sort by date. If I create two versions from the same image, I name the second version 20100707_001a. I still can sort by date.

If your software names the file the same as the shot date, whatever else you do to the file doesn’t change that.

Check out the free FastStone Image Viewer http://www.faststone.org/

It’s an excellent viewer, and will sort files by file name, re-name files, move or copy files, etc. Even if you name a file with a name that is not the date, you can view the "date shot" by making the image full screen (double-click on the thumbnail) and then move the cursor to the right side of the screen. Files and Attributes will pop up, and this is a form of the EXIF data and shows the date shot.

Hovering over the thumbnail will show a date, but the date the shot was modified.

—
Tony Cooper – Orlando, Florida

wrote

This might be a little off-topic, but I don’t know where else to go for help. I have a digital camera and there is a ton of metadata attached to each file. One of these is "Date Created". I assume this is the date the photo was taken. When these files are copied from the SD card to a folder on my hard drive, that date changes from the date the photo was taken to the current date. The "Date Created" on the card remains the same – but once I copy the files to the hard drive, I can no longer sort them by "Date Taken" (because, now, the date is that of the day they were copied over to my hard drive). In other words, the dates are all the same. Is there some way around this phenomenon?

There is something funny going on, because while copying a file *should not* change the date in the file datestamp, but perhaps might if using some dodgy camera interface software, the date in the EXIF field should *never* get changed.

How are you copying the files? Are you using Windoze Explorer?

If your camera is a Canon then it may not appear as a standard removable disk, and one needs to use Canon software (or win7) to get the pics transferred.

This kind of problem surfaces elsewhere; for example if I rotate an image (to make it look the right way up, after it was taken with the camera rotated 90 degrees) this changes the file date. This causes any photo viewing software to display pics in the wrong order, because "sorting by date" usually sorts by the file date. So one needs a tool which can fix-up file dates from the EXIF dates. ACDSEE can do that, and no doubt others.

EXIF data should never get changed by any file copy process.

On Sat, 07 Aug 2010 22:40:43 -0400, tony cooper
wrote:

On Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:41:54 -0500, wrote:

This might be a little off-topic, but I don’t know where else to go for help. I have a digital camera and there is a ton of metadata attached to each file. One of these is "Date Created". I assume this is the date the photo was taken. When these files are copied from the SD card to a folder on my hard drive, that date changes from the date the photo was taken to the current date. The "Date Created" on the card remains the same – but once I copy the files to the hard drive, I can no longer sort them by "Date Taken" (because, now, the date is that of the day they were copied over to my hard drive). In other words, the dates are all the same. Is there some way around this phenomenon?

You haven’t mentioned what software is doing the sorting and how your software names the images.

I’m sorting using Windows 7 in a normal window with column headings. Windows does not change the filename as far as I know.

When I upload images from the SD card, my images are named by the software (Adobe Bridge, in my case) as a number representing the date the actual image was taken. ie: 20100707_001. I use FastStone Image View for sorting, and it sorts by file name so my sort is by date taken.

If I later alter a file in Photoshop, the file name remains the same and I still sort by date. If I create two versions from the same image, I name the second version 20100707_001a. I still can sort by date.

If your software names the file the same as the shot date, whatever else you do to the file doesn’t change that.

My camera gives the file a meaningless (to me) filename.

In article ,
wrote:

I’m sorting using Windows 7 in a normal window with column headings. Windows does not change the filename as far as I know.

Windows 7’s directory (window) does not present or even look into the file for the metadata. You must get into the EXIF information.

Your camera probably came with a program that allows you to manage the files. Did you get a CDROM or DVD with it?

My camera gives the file a meaningless (to me) filename.

Could be that you have RAW files.
Can you give us an example of a full file name?

On Mon, 16 Aug 2010 15:30:25 -0500, John Stafford
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

I’m sorting using Windows 7 in a normal window with column headings. Windows does not change the filename as far as I know.

Windows 7’s directory (window) does not present or even look into the file for the metadata. You must get into the EXIF information.
Your camera probably came with a program that allows you to manage the files. Did you get a CDROM or DVD with it?

I don’t remember – but I don’t think so.

My camera gives the file a meaningless (to me) filename.

Could be that you have RAW files.
Can you give us an example of a full file name?

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