Retain original time stamp when converting/editing images

[aherrig]

Having been pointed to Aves by a brother, I must say I really like this gallery app and its look and feel!

But noticed a shortcoming, which drives me away from it again: Converting pictures to smaller size by reducing jpeg quality and/or resolution, the timestamp of the original is not preserved. Instead, current time is set - such that the images appear as newer and further up in the gallery... This hampers storing only the reduced size versions with consistent sorting on phone and computer, while getting rid of the large originals.

It might be an easy and fast fix, to not change image time upon simple operations like converting, rotating or clipping. Or to offer the option of selecting how to handle time stamps - retain original time or use the current.

I would be really grateful if possible to change this behaviour, such that I don't have to look for an alternative gallery app.

Thanks, Andreas

[lordofscripts]

Actually, I find that unsettling as well. I noticed that adding tags, location, etc. changes the timestamp, as a result the gallery view gets cluttered with all these OLDER images as if they were new photos.

[deckerst]

When converting a media item, you can enable "write metadata" which includes the metadata date of the original item. If this is disable, the converted item is just a new file without metadata, so the date is the new file date.

Do you try to convert media items that already have a metadata date, or not? You can check this in the item Info page and check the exif/xmp sections.

to not change image time upon simple operations

The image time can refer to so many dates. If you refer to a file date, it's out of scope for Aves, because Aves is not a file manager, it's a gallery app. If you refer to a metadata date, it's already handled with the "write metadata" option above.

[deckerst]

I noticed that adding tags, location, etc. changes the timestamp

@lordofscripts as I explained above, the file date is not handled by Aves.

As for the metadata date:

• when moving/renaming an item that doesn't already have a metadata date, Aves will show a dialog suggesting to preserve the date. Maybe you rejected that suggestion and checked "do not ask again"? You can verify this via Settings > Navigation > Confirmation dialogs > Ask before moving undated items.
• when editing tags, location, etc. and the item does not have a metadata date already, it will write the current file date as a metadata date. With this, the date (as used in Aves) shouldn't change.

[lordofscripts]

I noticed that adding tags, location, etc. changes the timestamp

@lordofscripts as I explained above, the file date is not handled by Aves.

As for the metadata date:

• when moving/renaming an item that doesn't already have a metadata date, Aves will show a dialog suggesting to preserve the date. Maybe you rejected that suggestion and checked "do not ask again"? You can verify this via Settings > Navigation > Confirmation dialogs > Ask before moving undated items.

All of them are enabled.