How to get the original date created from a photo?

[con]

Hi. How do I get the original date created from a photo instead of the date saved. For eg., I was sent a photo (original date taken 2018) through a chat messenger and then I saved it to the iPhone gallery (November 2022), and then copied it to the computer (February 2023). So when I checked the properties in exiftool, I am getting the following:
Date created: November 2022
Date modified: February 2023

However, I need to get the original date the photo was taken (that is, 2018) but it is not available in the exif tool. How to get that date and which software will get it for me? Thanks.

[Joanna Carter]

Code Select Expand

exiftool -datetimeoriginal Filename.ext

[con]

Thanks Joanna but I did not get anything. Am I doing something wrong?

[StarGeek]

I was sent a photo (original date taken 2018) through a chat messenger and then I saved it to the iPhone gallery (November 2022)

This action most likely stripped away all metadata, as that's pretty standard with messenger apps.  Similar situation with social media sites like Facebook/Instagram.

Run this command on the file to see all the date/time data that is left in the file.  The first three will be part of the [System] group and start with File.  These are the file system timestamps and will probably be set to the time you downloaded the file.
exiftool -time:all -G1 -a -s file.jpg

If exiftool doesn't list anything with that command, then the data has been irrevocably lost.

[con]

Thanks StarGeek. I ran the command but got the following apart from the system timestamps:
[ICC-header]    ProfileDateTime                 : 0000:00:00 00:00:00
So I am guessing that the original created date is gone. Thanks for all the support people.