Lately, I’ve been importing 20 years of photos into iCloud, both as 3-2-1 backup, and to be able to access old photos on my phone from wherever I am.
There were no problems with most photos and videos, but with some videos from 1 type of phone (HTC One X), the EXIF data was wrong by 66 years into the past. A video taken in 2012, had the year set to 1946. Due to the chronographic nature of iOS/MacOS Photos, they popped into the front before everything else.
Screenshots showing the wrong year.
And a screenshot of the file modification timestamp.
Only a difference of 66 years…
Fortunately there is a tool called exiftool. It can show all timestamps embedded into the video itself, and the file timestamps. With a normal invocation, it will show the “correct” timestamp, because it knows some cameras and phones did not adhere to the QuickTime EXIF specification.
> exiftool -time:all -a -G0:1 VIDEO0001.mp4
[File:System] File Modification Date/Time : 2012:05:10 18:35:28+02:00
[File:System] File Access Date/Time : 2023:07:26 20:16:17+02:00
[File:System] File Inode Change Date/Time : 2012:05:10 18:35:28+02:00
[QuickTime] Create Date : 2012:05:10 16:35:28
[QuickTime] Modify Date : 2012:05:10 16:35:28
[QuickTime:Track1] Track Create Date : 2012:05:10 16:35:28
[QuickTime:Track1] Track Modify Date : 2012:05:10 16:35:28
[QuickTime:Track1] Media Create Date : 2012:05:10 16:35:28
[QuickTime:Track1] Media Modify Date : 2012:05:10 16:35:28
[QuickTime:Track2] Track Create Date : 2012:05:10 16:35:28
[QuickTime:Track2] Track Modify Date : 2012:05:10 16:35:28
[QuickTime:Track2] Media Create Date : 2012:05:10 16:35:28
[QuickTime:Track2] Media Modify Date : 2012:05:10 16:35:28
When we force QuickTimeUTC=1 witht -api QuickTimeUTC=1, it will show the same information as the Photos app and the file properties.
> exiftool -time:all -a -G0:1 -api QuickTimeUTC=1 VIDEO0001.mp4
[File:System] File Modification Date/Time : 2012:05:10 18:35:28+02:00
[File:System] File Access Date/Time : 2023:07:26 20:16:17+02:00
[File:System] File Inode Change Date/Time : 2012:05:10 18:35:28+02:00
[QuickTime] Create Date : 1946:05:10 17:35:28+01:00
[QuickTime] Modify Date : 1946:05:10 17:35:28+01:00
[QuickTime:Track1] Track Create Date : 1946:05:10 17:35:28+01:00
[QuickTime:Track1] Track Modify Date : 1946:05:10 17:35:28+01:00
[QuickTime:Track1] Media Create Date : 1946:05:10 17:35:28+01:00
[QuickTime:Track1] Media Modify Date : 1946:05:10 17:35:28+01:00
[QuickTime:Track2] Track Create Date : 1946:05:10 17:35:28+01:00
[QuickTime:Track2] Track Modify Date : 1946:05:10 17:35:28+01:00
[QuickTime:Track2] Media Create Date : 1946:05:10 17:35:28+01:00
[QuickTime:Track2] Media Modify Date : 1946:05:10 17:35:28+01:00
How to fix EXIF-data with exiftool.
exiftool can also fix (edit) EXIF-data. There are many commands and switches available, but here is the command that worked for me. All files had the original file modification date, so I could just reuse that.
The command I used was this;
exiftool -overwrite_original \
-api QuickTimeUTC=1 \
"-AllDates<FileModifyDate" \
-P \
VIDEO0*
After deleting and re-importing the files into iCloud, they are more current than 1946.
66 years in the past.
The QuickTime date/time-specification use 1904 as year 0, while brain-dead software use 1970 as year 0.
See Also
- - Why do programmers need private offices with doors?
- - F22a Raptor Part Names
- - Languishing
- - Malapropism
- - ELI5 Physicists Say That Information Is Never Lost but How the Heck Is It Stored Then and What Theoretical Possibility Could Recover It