You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

User profile for user: David Das
David Das Author
User level: Level 1
84 points

Adjust Date & Time: buggy? It's not consistently sticking

I regularly import photos into my iCloud account from a third-party app (I'm scanning some legacy family photos). Once they get into my iCloud account, they always inherit today's date, which makes sense.


I then go into macOS's Photos app, select them all, and use Image > Adjust Date and Time to batch-change their dates to the approximately correct date that the photos are from. This is so that my master Photos library can be in sequential date order.


What I'm finding is that, as soon as I use Adjust Date and Time, the selected photos do indeed pop back into the past. But, an hour or two later, sometimes they reappear at the bottom, with today's date. And no matter how many times I use Adjust Date and Time, sometimes it "sticks" and frequently it doesn't. The interval varies -- it can be an hour, it can be several hours, it can be next day, but sometimes photos jump BACK from the past to the present.


Has anyone else seen this bug? Or have any advice on fixing it once and for all? Ultimately, what I want to do is to be able to select photos, adjust their date to a date in the past, click OK, and have it work and stick forever.


I am running Sequoia 15.1.1 (the latest).

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 15.1

Posted on Nov 20, 2024 10:53 PM

Reply
7 replies
User profile for user: Richard.Taylor
Richard.Taylor
User level: Level 6
10,482 points

Nov 21, 2024 9:02 AM in response to David Das

David Das wrote: … as soon as I use Adjust Date and Time, the selected photos do indeed pop back into the past. But, an hour or two later, sometimes they reappear at the bottom, with today's date.

I recently did date adjustments with some old scanned pictures, and I didn't have this problem. The problem could be local. Have you re-booted?


Here are some other things to try:

  • Re-start in Safe Mode. This bypasses certain potentially disruptive processes. Safe Mode is different for different computers, so see this: 

           Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support 

  • Use another library if you have one, or make a small test Library with a few pictures in it and see if the same thing happens. You can create a new Library by closing Photos and then option-clicking on the Photos icon.
  • Make a new user and see if the same problem recurs with it
  • Rebuild your Photos Library--close Photos and re-launch by option-command-clicking the app icon.


The idea is to find out if the problem is with the Library, with your account, or with caches and login items, and stuff like that. One of these steps may fix the problem, but their failure to work also helps figure out what's happening.


Let us know what happens…

Reply
User profile for user: David Das
David Das Author
User level: Level 1
84 points

Nov 21, 2024 7:36 AM in response to léonie

It shouldn't matter, but it is called Unfade Pro. It's a "scanner" for old photos. So using Unfade Pro, I snap photos of all the photos. Then, Unfade Pro has a command where I can export them all to the Photos library. When I do this, all the newly scanned photos are correctly added to the Photos library with today's date.


All that part is expected. It's the next step -- when I use Apple Photos to Adjust Date and Time -- that things are not consistent.

Reply
User profile for user: Matti Haveri
Matti Haveri
User level: Level 6
16,703 points

Nov 21, 2024 9:34 AM in response to David Das

I could not reproduce that at least with a small test library and about 10 minutes wait.


But FWIW I noticed that Photos has the same Sequioa time issue as GraphicConverter when adjusting times older than 2001:


+1 seconds is added to the typed time. But that is substracted from the time that is actually written. GC author said it looks like a bug in the macOS Sequoia date picker.

Reply

Adjust Date & Time: buggy? It's not consistently sticking

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.
Learn more Sign up