ExifTool Forum

ExifTool => Newbies => Topic started by: pauschpage on July 09, 2017, 01:55:45 PM

Title: Exiftool on a Mac sets Time Modify Date wrong
Post by: pauschpage on July 09, 2017, 01:55:45 PM
Hi there!

I'm new to Exiftool.
I shot a bunch of photographs with a wrong camera time.
I need to shift all of my pictures with +9 hours.

I was trying this line
exiftool -AllDates+=9

Exiftool then successfully changed the date,
but on the mac - the modification date is exactly always the date when i did the command in exiftool (today).

Could somebody help me doing it right?


Thank you a lot,
Christian
Title: Re: Exiftool on a Mac sets Time Modify Date wrong
Post by: StarGeek on July 09, 2017, 04:47:51 PM
I would suggest making sure that the tags in -alldates are correct after running your first command, then you could run
exiftool '-FileModifyDate<DateTimeOriginal' FileOrDir

I don't use a mac but I'm guessing that the modification timestamp you're looking at is a file system timestamp. AllDates is a shortcut for the three most commonly used EXIF timestamps and doesn't include a lot of other possible timestamps.  Another thing to watch for might be a variance due to the time zone.  At least on Windows, if you set the FileModifyDate, it will be adjusted by the computer time zone.  I don't know if that happens on a Mac.

Also, watch out for is the fact that the FileModifyDate is not the most reliable property of a file.  Any time the file is changed, this value will be updated, though some programs will let you override this behavior.  See the -P option to do this with exiftool.
Title: Re: Exiftool on a Mac sets Time Modify Date wrong
Post by: Hayo Baan on July 09, 2017, 05:00:00 PM
Quote from: StarGeek on July 09, 2017, 04:47:51 PM
I would suggest making sure that the tags in -alldates are correct after running your first command, then you could run
exiftool '-FileModifyDate<DateTimeOriginal' FileOrDir

I don't use a mac but I'm guessing that the modification timestamp you're looking at is a file system timestamp. AllDates is a shortcut for the three most commonly used EXIF timestamps and doesn't include a lot of other possible timestamps.  Another thing to watch for might be a variance due to the time zone.  At least on Windows, if you set the FileModifyDate, it will be adjusted by the computer time zone.  I don't know if that happens on a Mac.

Also, watch out for is the fact that the FileModifyDate is not the most reliable property of a file.  Any time the file is changed, this value will be updated, though some programs will let you override this behavior.  See the -P option to do this with exiftool.

FileModifyDate, just as on Windows, is indeed a file system tag. But, unlike Windows, it is recorded properly so doesn't change when you move to a different timezone and/or different daylight savings setting. (This has always strict me as extremely odd: when dst changes, all your file dates change :o That is plainly ridiculous)