Photini should update the "Date Taken" field

[LordCatzorz]

When setting a date taken using the Technical metadata tab, I expected it to have an effect on the "Date Taken" field when I right-click->properties->Details the image.

This is the field that Google Photo uses to order the images.

Could you consider changing this field when setting the "Taken" field? For the precision, you can always revert to XXXX-01-01 00:00:00.

Using Photini for Windows version 2020.4.0 build 1484 (5c0423b)

[jim-easterbrook]

The tag reference documentation shows which metadata fields are set by each Photini item. I'm using the most widely used fields and following guidance from the "Metadata Working Group", a former industry group with representatives from all the major camera & software companies. https://photini.readthedocs.io/en/latest/manual/tags.html

I don't know where your Windows example is getting the "date taken" field from. If you run an MSYS2 command window you might be able to run exiv2 -pa IMG_20201017_0001.jpg to see all the metadata values in the file.

[LordCatzorz]

I went into my Linux machine and here's the result of exiv2 -pa IMG_20201017_0001.jpg

Exif.Image.ProcessingSoftware                Ascii      25  Photini editor v2020.4.0
Exif.Image.Make                              Ascii       6  Canon
Exif.Image.Model                             Ascii      20  Canon MB5000 series
Exif.Image.Orientation                       Short       1  right, top
Exif.Image.XResolution                       Rational    1  600
Exif.Image.YResolution                       Rational    1  600
Exif.Image.ResolutionUnit                    Short       1  inch
Exif.Image.Software                          Ascii      16  IJ Scan Utility
Exif.Image.DateTime                          Ascii      20  2020:10:17 12:03:49
Exif.Image.YCbCrPositioning                  Short       1  Centered
Exif.Image.ExifTag                           Long        1  250
Exif.Photo.ExifVersion                       Undefined   4  2.21
Exif.Photo.DateTimeDigitized                 Ascii      20  2020:10:17 12:03:49
Exif.Photo.ComponentsConfiguration           Undefined   4  YCbCr
Exif.Photo.FlashpixVersion                   Undefined   4  1.00
Exif.Photo.ColorSpace                        Short       1  sRGB
Exif.Photo.PixelXDimension                   Short       1  2032
Exif.Photo.PixelYDimension                   Short       1  2624
Exif.Thumbnail.Compression                   Short       1  JPEG (old-style)
Exif.Thumbnail.Orientation                   Short       1  top, left
Exif.Thumbnail.XResolution                   Rational    1  600
Exif.Thumbnail.YResolution                   Rational    1  600
Exif.Thumbnail.ResolutionUnit                Short       1  inch
Exif.Thumbnail.JPEGInterchangeFormat         Long        1  466
Exif.Thumbnail.JPEGInterchangeFormatLength   Long        1  3066
Iptc.Envelope.CharacterSet                   String      3  
Iptc.Application2.DigitizationDate           Date        8  2020-10-17
Iptc.Application2.DigitizationTime           Time       11  12:03:49+00:00
Iptc.Application2.Program                    String     14  Photini editor
Iptc.Application2.ProgramVersion             String      8  2020.4.0
Iptc.Application2.DateCreated                Date        8  1980-00-00
Xmp.xmp.CreateDate                           XmpText    19  2020-10-17T12:03:49
Xmp.xmp.ModifyDate                           XmpText    19  2020-10-17T12:03:49
Xmp.photoshop.DateCreated                    XmpText     4  1980

My guess would be Exif.Image.Datetime.

If you prefer not to modify Photini for this purpose, I might be able to script my need. I'll just need a bit of research to find the command I need.

[jim-easterbrook]

That's very strange - Photini should have saved 1980 in Exif.Photo.DateTimeOriginal, but it hasn't. The Iptc and Xmp data has it though. Have you installed on Windows with the latest installer? If so, I should be able to test this with the same MSYS2 version of libgphoto2. I won't have time to look into it until Monday though.

[LordCatzorz]

I have uninstalled my version of Photini and resinstall it using the photini-win64-2020.10.0.exe in https://github.com/jim-easterbrook/Photini/releases/tag/2020.4.0-win

Same problem.

I've also changed the date for 2010-01-01, to be sure it was not a problem with the date being to far in the past. Still didn't work.

By sliding the precision to the max and linking everything together, Exif.Photo.SubSecTimeOriginal did appear, but strangely not the corresponding Exif.Photo.DateTimeOriginal

[jim-easterbrook]

Definitely a bug somewhere. Leave it with me and I'll try to find out what's going on. (I've never seen this problem on Linux, but I'll check it as well anyway.)

[jim-easterbrook]

I've managed to reproduce the problem, on Linux as well as Windows, and have found the cause. I can't believe I didn't find the problem before. Commit f1ac8c4 fixes it, but I've found a bug in the display of reduced precision dates I need to fix before doing a new release.

[jim-easterbrook]

Another reason I didn't spot the problem (for over a year!) is that I don't usually change the take taken field. I haven't scanned any of my old slides recently. New release 2020.11.0 should fix the problem.

[LordCatzorz]

Alright! Awesome findings!

Thanks for creating and maintaining this project. I'll pause my scanning's effort for the moment. There is no level on urgency for my project :)

[jim-easterbrook]

I feel embarrassed to have made (and not corrected) such a fundamental error. Thanks for drawing it to my attention. No need to pause, the new release is available now. https://photini.readthedocs.io/en/latest/other/installation.html#upgrading-all-in-one-installation

[jim-easterbrook]

The problem is actually worse than I thought. It affects all files saved by Photini versions 2019.10.0 to 2020.10.1. Here is a simple script to correct picture files. Save it as fix_exif_datetime.py (or similar) and run it from a MinGW command shell with python3 fix_exif_datetime.py directory where directory is a directory with picture files in it, for example python3 fix_exif_datetime.py /c/Users/Jim/Pictures/2020. The script walks through all subdirectories, so you could do all your pictures in one go. There is also a -d option to show which files would be changed but not make any changes.

import mimetypes
from optparse import OptionParser
import os
import sys
import time

from photini.metadata import Metadata

def process_file(path, options):
    mime_type = mimetypes.guess_type(path)[0]
    if mime_type and not mime_type.startswith('image'):
        return
    md = Metadata(path)
    if not md._if:
        return
    exif_tags = md._if.get_exif_tags()
    if md._sc:
        exif_tags += md._sc.get_exif_tags()
    if 'Exif.Photo.DateTimeOriginal' in exif_tags:
        return
    if 'Exif.Image.DateTimeOriginal' in exif_tags:
        return
    xmp_tags = md._if.get_xmp_tags()
    if md._sc:
        xmp_tags += md._sc.get_xmp_tags()
    if 'Xmp.photoshop.DateCreated' not in xmp_tags:
        return
    print(path)
    time.sleep(1)
    if options.dry_run:
        return
    file_times = os.path.getatime(path), os.path.getmtime(path)
    md.dirty = True
    md.save(file_times=file_times)

def main(argv=None):
    if argv:
        sys.argv = argv
    parser = OptionParser(
        usage='Usage: %prog [options] [file_name, ...]',
        description='Photini Exif datetime corrector')
    parser.add_option(
        '-d', '--dry-run', action='store_true',
        help="don't modify files")
    options, args = parser.parse_args()
    for arg in args:
        if os.path.isdir(arg):
            for root, dirs, files in os.walk(arg):
                dirs.sort()
                for name in sorted(files):
                    process_file(os.path.join(root, name), options)
        elif os.path.isfile(arg):
            process_file(arg, options)
    return 0

if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(main())

[LordCatzorz]

Don't blame yourself for such error.

As you said, it was not a use case you've used your software for.

I, too, only saw this problem once I wanted to push my scans to Google Photo and was disappointed to see them all at the top.

There may be a time where this software will gain lots of traction and it's user base grows. Then, some problems may be found sooner by the mass of users and all their specific use case.

I'll checkout your script once I'm home. I appreciate a lot your devotion to help me out on this issue.

[LordCatzorz]

Thanks, it works and Google Photos takes the new dates correctly (at least, for some photos I tested).

I had a single image on 200 that had an error in the conversion. I had a date of 1981-04 and this error appeared IMG_20201017_0004.jpg(date_modified): ignored Xmp.xmp.ModifyDate "2020-10-17T12:03:52"

Google Photo did not take the image either, but I think Microsoft Windows Photo Viewer messed up with it a bit, so I don't think it's your software's fault.

Anyway, I'll go ahead and close this issue.

Thanks for everything.

[jim-easterbrook]

The "ignored Xmp.xmp.ModifyDate" warning is probably irrelevant. Photini compares the information in Exif, Xmp and Iptc and resolves conflicts as best as it can. (For text stuff you may have seen // used as a separator between parts that have been merged from different fields.) In the case of conflicting dates it means one of them has to be ignored, hence the warning. Windows Photo Viewer probably changed Exif but not Xmp.