What is profile id? Can it be altered?

[gadgetsman]

I am messing with photos taken from different iphones. The profile ID between each iphone seems to remain the same. It seems to act as a unique identifier. Is there a way to alter this ID?


device_attributes
Reflective, Glossy, Positive, Color
rendering_intent
Perceptual
connection_space_illuminant
0.9642 1 0.82491
profile_creator
Apple Computer Inc.
profile_id
ca1a9582257f104d389913d5d1ea
profile_description
Display P3
profile_copyright
Copyright Apple Inc., 2017

[Phil Harvey]

There are 3 different ProfileID tags, so knowing the group would be helpful, but judging from the other tags I'm guessing these are in the ICC_Profile.  This should be an identify only for the ICC color profile used.  ExifTool cannot write individual ICC_Profile tags. 

- Phil

[StarGeek]

Use the command in FAQ #3 to figure out the group it belongs to.

[gadgetsman]

There are 3 different ProfileID tags, so knowing the group would be helpful, but judging from the other tags I'm guessing these are in the ICC_Profile.  This should be an identify only for the ICC color profile used.  ExifTool cannot write individual ICC_Profile tags. 

- Phil

Does this mean the device will have the same color profile every time? In essence you can use this to trace photos back to the same device, correct?

[Hubert]

In essence you can use this to trace photos back to the same device, correct?

No. Any self-respecting image editing application can change an image's ICC profile, and with it the profile id.

Image straight out of iPhone 14:

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exiftool -profileid -iccprofilename /path/to/file.jpg
Profile ID                      : ecfda38e388547c36db4bd4f7ada182f
ICC Profile Name                : Display P3
Result for same image after modifying ICC profile (in Affinity Photo 2) and saving:

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Profile ID                      : ae1ad03165c712238d7c3053734cc495
ICC Profile Name                : LG TV
Same image after modifying ICC profile and saving again:

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Profile ID                      : 0
ICC Profile Name                : Wide Gamut RGB
Apple seem to assign ids to some of their standard ICC profiles, but these may change depending on model and OS. Many ICC profile creators don't assign an id at all (as in the last example).

[Phil Harvey]

The ICC_Profile used won't be device specific.  It will likely be the same across many models by the same manufacturer.

- Phil