Changing EXIF Date Time of MOV Video file formats

[FGaertner]

Hello Phil,
my canon Powershot G12 writes exifinformation into the video file. Unfortunality my daughter changed the camera date and time and alle videos do have now a wrong date and time. Is there a way of supporting the writing ability of CANON MOV exifinformation. I have also sent you an sample MOV file via mail.

regards
Frank

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Frank,

The current version of ExifTool will write most of the date/time tags in your video:

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> exiftool -ver
9.46

> exiftool ~/Desktop/1548.MOV -time:all -G1 -a
[System]        File Modification Date/Time     : 2014:01:14 07:12:19-05:00
[System]        File Access Date/Time           : 2014:01:14 07:15:55-05:00
[System]        File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2014:01:14 07:12:20-05:00
[IFD0]          Modify Date                     : 2013:10:26 12:15:56
[ExifIFD]       Date/Time Original              : 2013:10:26 12:15:56
[ExifIFD]       Create Date                     : 2013:10:26 12:15:56
[XMP-xmp]       Metadata Date                   : 2014:01:05 14:53:02+01:00
[XMP-xmp]       Modify Date                     : 2014:01:05 14:53:02+01:00
[Microsoft]     Encoding Time                   : 2014:01:05 14:08:44Z
[QuickTime]     Create Date                     : 2013:10:26 11:15:56
[QuickTime]     Modify Date                     : 2013:10:26 11:15:56
[Track1]        Track Create Date               : 2013:10:26 11:15:56
[Track1]        Track Modify Date               : 2013:10:26 11:15:56
[Track1]        Media Create Date               : 2013:10:26 11:15:56
[Track1]        Media Modify Date               : 2013:10:26 11:15:56
[Track2]        Track Create Date               : 2013:10:26 11:15:56
[Track2]        Track Modify Date               : 2013:10:26 11:15:56
[Track2]        Media Create Date               : 2013:10:26 11:15:56
[Track2]        Media Modify Date               : 2013:10:26 11:15:56

> exiftool ~/Desktop/1548.MOV -time:all=now -wm w
    1 image files updated

> exiftool ~/Desktop/1548.MOV -time:all -G1 -a
[System]        File Modification Date/Time     : 2014:01:14 07:16:14-05:00
[System]        File Access Date/Time           : 2014:01:14 07:16:16-05:00
[System]        File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2014:01:14 07:16:14-05:00
[IFD0]          Modify Date                     : 2013:10:26 12:15:56
[ExifIFD]       Date/Time Original              : 2013:10:26 12:15:56
[ExifIFD]       Create Date                     : 2013:10:26 12:15:56
[XMP-xmp]       Metadata Date                   : 2014:01:14 07:16:14-05:00
[XMP-xmp]       Modify Date                     : 2014:01:14 07:16:14-05:00
[Microsoft]     Encoding Time                   : 2014:01:05 14:08:44Z
[QuickTime]     Create Date                     : 2014:01:14 07:16:14
[QuickTime]     Modify Date                     : 2014:01:14 07:16:14
[Track1]        Track Create Date               : 2014:01:14 07:16:14
[Track1]        Track Modify Date               : 2014:01:14 07:16:14
[Track1]        Media Create Date               : 2014:01:14 07:16:14
[Track1]        Media Modify Date               : 2014:01:14 07:16:14
[Track2]        Track Create Date               : 2014:01:14 07:16:14
[Track2]        Track Modify Date               : 2014:01:14 07:16:14
[Track2]        Media Create Date               : 2014:01:14 07:16:14
[Track2]        Media Modify Date               : 2014:01:14 07:16:14

- Phil

[FGaertner]

Thanks Phil,
I,ll do some mor testing.

regards
Frank

[FGaertner]

Hi Phil,
because I am working with Imatch from photools.com. The date and the time is taken from the exif if it exists. So the problem is there.

These two dates are not updated:

[ExifIFD]       Date/Time Original              : 2013:10:26 12:15:56
[ExifIFD]       Create Date                     : 2013:10:26 12:15:56

Is there any way you can do the changing of that?
regards
Frank

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Frank,

I am surprised.  I wasn't aware of anything else that would read this EXIF from a MOV file (except Exiv2, but they copied ExifTool on this).  EXIF in QuickTime is very non-standard, even more so than the maker notes in a JPG image.  Imatch really shouldn't be prioritizing this information.  In MOV files, XMP should take priority, and ExifTool can write this.  Adding write support for EXIF in MOV would be difficult, and would only work for files written by the camera models which store this information.  On the other hand, XMP may be stored in any MOV file.

Oh, wait.  I just remembered that Imatch may use ExifTool.  If this is true, then just writing XMP:DateTimeOriginal may work, depending on how Imatch uses ExifTool to extract the information.

- Phil

[FGaertner]

Thanks Phil, I will check that.

regards
Frank

[skaiwoka]

Hello Phil!

May you help me please with QuickTime: Creation Date tag of MOV video format?

ExifTool: 10.40
macOS Sierra 10.12.2

It seems ExifTool cannot write this tag:

Code Select Expand


>exiftool -ver
10.40

>exiftool IMG_0091.MOV -time:all -G1 -a
[System]        File Modification Date/Time     : 2017:01:15 01:51:38+01:00
[System]        File Access Date/Time           : 2017:01:22 05:40:19+01:00
[System]        File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2017:01:22 05:40:12+01:00
[QuickTime]     Create Date                     : 2017:01:15 00:46:44
[QuickTime]     Modify Date                     : 2017:01:15 00:46:48
[Track1]        Track Create Date               : 2017:01:15 00:46:44
[Track1]        Track Modify Date               : 2017:01:15 00:46:48
[Track1]        Media Create Date               : 2017:01:15 00:46:44
[Track1]        Media Modify Date               : 2017:01:15 00:46:48
[Track2]        Track Create Date               : 2017:01:15 00:46:44
[Track2]        Track Modify Date               : 2017:01:15 00:46:48
[Track2]        Media Create Date               : 2017:01:15 00:46:44
[Track2]        Media Modify Date               : 2017:01:15 00:46:48
[Track3]        Track Create Date               : 2017:01:15 00:46:44
[Track3]        Track Modify Date               : 2017:01:15 00:46:48
[Track3]        Media Create Date               : 2017:01:15 00:46:44
[Track3]        Media Modify Date               : 2017:01:15 00:46:48
[Track4]        Track Create Date               : 2017:01:15 00:46:44
[Track4]        Track Modify Date               : 2017:01:15 00:46:48
[Track4]        Media Create Date               : 2017:01:15 00:46:44
[Track4]        Media Modify Date               : 2017:01:15 00:46:48
[QuickTime]     Creation Date                   : 2017:01:15 01:46:44+01:00


I would like to change QuickTime: Creation Date tag so Apple Photo (macOS 10.12) can order MOV videos by shooting date.
I use -wm w so Exiftool doesn't create new tags

Code Select Expand


>exiftool IMG_0091.MOV -time:all="2016-05-05 12:12:12" -wm w
[System]        File Modification Date/Time     : 2017:01:22 05:45:12+01:00
[System]        File Access Date/Time           : 2017:01:22 05:45:13+01:00
[System]        File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2017:01:22 05:45:12+01:00
[QuickTime]     Create Date                     : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[QuickTime]     Modify Date                     : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[Track1]        Track Create Date               : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[Track1]        Track Modify Date               : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[Track1]        Media Create Date               : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[Track1]        Media Modify Date               : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[Track2]        Track Create Date               : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[Track2]        Track Modify Date               : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[Track2]        Media Create Date               : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[Track2]        Media Modify Date               : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[Track3]        Track Create Date               : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[Track3]        Track Modify Date               : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[Track3]        Media Create Date               : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[Track3]        Media Modify Date               : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[Track4]        Track Create Date               : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[Track4]        Track Modify Date               : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[Track4]        Media Create Date               : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[Track4]        Media Modify Date               : 2016:05:05 12:12:12
[QuickTime]     Creation Date                   : 2017:01:15 01:46:44+01:00


Quicktime:Creation Date has got the old date without changing

If I try:

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>exiftool IMG_0091.MOV -Quicktime:CreationDate="2016-05-05 12:12:12"
Warning: Tag 'QuickTime:CreationDate' is not defined
Nothing to do.


Thank you!

[StarGeek]

May you help me please with QuickTime: Creation Date tag of MOV video format?
...
It seems ExifTool cannot write this tag:

That is correct.  Exiftool cannot write most Quicktime tags.  Exiftool has limited support for most video tags except for xmp.

You might try FFMpeg.  This command changed all the times in my test mp4.
ffmpeg -i Infile.mp4 -metadata creation_time="2013-05-02 22:01:04-04" -codec copy Outfile.mp4

The time is set to UTC, which is what is correct according to the Quicktime link above.  If you don't include the timezone then it uses the local timezone on your computer.

[skaiwoka]

Thank you! I'll try ffmpeg.

Last year I had used ffmpeg to change creation time with a direct stream copy from a MOV to a new MOV as you suggested, but I had noticed that Apple Photo and Google Photos handled the UTC time differently.

I'll give it another chance

[camner]

If I try:

Code Select Expand


>exiftool IMG_0091.MOV -Quicktime:CreationDate="2016-05-05 12:12:12"
Warning: Tag 'QuickTime:CreationDate' is not defined
Nothing to do.


Thank you!

I have been able to do this in OS X by using single, rather than double quotes on the Terminal command line.  I have been able to modify the -QuickTime:CreateDate tag without a problem. (Note that the tag name is CreateDate, not CreationDate)

The syntax I used (I just tested it and verified that the tag changed value:
exiftool '-QuickTime:CreateDate=2016:05:05 12:12:12' FILENAME

[StarGeek]

If you scroll down a bit on his output listings, you'll see that in the second listing, at the very end is the Quicktime:CreationDate tag which still has the 2017 date in it. 

[camner]

If you scroll down a bit on his output listings, you'll see that in the second listing, at the very end is the Quicktime:CreationDate tag which still has the 2017 date in it.

Right you are.  I missed that one at the bottom.  My apologies.