First Exif Command not working. Can't figure it out

[buffdownunder]

Hi everyone,

My issue is that I create videos from Insta360 files using the Insta360 studio on my Mac.
The Mac then uses the creation time instead of the shooting time so I want to make sure that all time formats reflect the shooting time.

The command

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exiftool -s /Volumes/SanDisk\ 1/Insta360/Export/VID_20220913_155519_00_462.mp4
returns the relevant results

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ExifToolVersion                 : 12.44
FileName                        : VID_20220913_155519_00_462.mp4
Directory                       : /Volumes/SanDisk 1/Insta360/Export
FileSize                        : 13 MB
FileModifyDate                  : 2022:09:15 19:52:00+02:00
FileAccessDate                  : 2022:09:15 20:56:01+02:00
FileInodeChangeDate             : 2022:09:15 19:52:00+02:00
CreateDate                      : 2022:09:13 15:55:09
ModifyDate                      : 2022:09:13 15:55:09
TrackCreateDate                 : 2022:09:13 15:55:09
TrackModifyDate                 : 2022:09:13 15:55:09
MediaCreateDate                 : 2022:09:13 15:55:09
MediaModifyDate                 : 2022:09:13 15:55:09

So using this thread https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=3848.0

I designed the command

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exiftool -overwrite_original "-FileModifyDate<CreateDate" /Volumes/SanDisk\ 1/Insta360/Export/VID_20220913_155519_00_462.mp4 to start with.

It does nothing. Now I am scratching my head and have no clue how to troubleshoot this.

I installed the current MacOs package from the homepage and I am running MacOs Monterery 12.5.1. Could it be an issue with the installation or is it the command or is it the file location on an external SSD.

Any hint on how to go from here would be very welcomed.

Regards,

Edward

[wywh]

What format is the external disk? File dates are fragile and I'd adjust them on APFS or Mac OS Extended volumes because non-Mac formats like FAT might not work.

I usually set file creation & modification dates to match the more important metadata dates like 'ExifIFD:DateTimeOriginal'. In macOS the command asks for Xcode Command Line Tools install which can be ignored but then the FileCreateDate moves only backwards in time (the install is quite small and fast, not the huge Xcode install).

Show also MacOS FileCreateDate (I use this for images and movies):

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exiftool -a -G1 -s -api QuickTimeUTC=1 -time:all -api RequestAll=2 movie.mov
p.s. I always use single quotes in exiftool commands because "On Mac/Linux, use single quotes (') instead of double quotes (") around arguments containing a dollar sign ($)".

- Matti

[buffdownunder]

Thanks for the answer, Matti.

The format is APFS and it's a SanDisk 1 TB External SSD.

So I have to install the Xcode Command Line Tools too. I'll do that one straight away.

May I ask what the code does that you posted? It looks interesting.

Regards,

Edward

[StarGeek]

May I ask what the code does that you posted? It looks interesting.

The command would be to list all date/time type tags in the file.  That is the -Time:All part.

In a video, certain tags are supposed to be set to UTC, though not all cameras do this properly.  The -api_QuickTimeUTC_option will adjust those to your local time zone.  For example, with that option, a video with a time stamp of "2022:09:18 14:00:00" will end up listed as 2022:09:18 07:00:00-07:00" on my computer.

On a Mac, some(most? all?) of the MacOS file system tags, MDItem* and XAtt*, will not be extracted by default for better performance.  The -API RequestAll option will force the listing of those tags.