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QCassidy352

macrumors G5
Original poster
Mar 20, 2003
12,028
6,036
Bay Area
I'm encountering two problems with iCloud Photo Library, both related to dates / ordering of photos, but they seem to be separate problems.

1) Some photos, when imported, display as being taken at the time and date imported rather than the actual time taken.

This only happens with some photos, like maybe one out of every couple dozen. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it -- they are not all taken with the same device or in the same time period. It seems totally random which photos are affected.

2) Putting the above problem aside (I deleted those pics from iCloud entirely), some other pics display in different orders under the "Photos" and "Album" tabs. Specifically, they appear in the correct order in the "Photos" tab (years/collections/moments) but in an incorrect and seemingly random order in the "Albums" tab ("All Photos" album or a newly created album).

So if the chronological order of four photos is 1-2-3-4, they will appear in that order in one view, but might appear as 1-3-2-4 in another view. iCloud photo library does show the correct date for these photos in all views -- which makes it seem like a different problem from #1 -- but nonetheless orders them incorrectly in the "Albums" view.

I know that this is a beta service (and my mac has everything set up correctly in iPhoto for backup), but these issues are particularly annoying because there seems to be no pattern to them.

Anyone else had these issues? Suggestions? Thanks!
 

InsideTJ

macrumors regular
Mar 18, 2012
114
13
I just started playing with OS X Photos and iCloud photo library. I have about 37k photos so far, imported via the mac photos app with 'optimize storage' turned on.

First, I keep an untouched original copy of all my photos/videos on a separate hard drive. iCloud photo library will be more of a viewing convenience, organization/tagging tool, and will act as another backup. The beta status along with the 'delete and it's gone' approach make me proceed with caution.

I began playing with ICPL a couple of months ago, and was uploading via the web interface (which is what I believe you are doing). This was pretty unreliable and would fail often. With the Photos app on OS X, the uploads work great.

I did discover about 2700 photos that defaulted to 12/31/1999 as the sort date. Most of these seemed to be PNG screen captures, files saved from messages or email, or other non-iphone camera pictures. Turns out the CREATION DATE in the meta was in fact set to 12/31/1999. The MODIFICATION DATE was still at the real creation/capture date.

I wasted a few dollars on some photo re-dating apps, but ended up with the $15 FILE MULTI-TOOL 5 from the mac app store. It has a batch rule to COPY MODIFICATION DATE TO CREATION DATE. I made a smart album with all 12/31/1999 photos, exported them as originals, ran the app, then re-imported them (and deleted 21/31/1999 photos afterwards). This worked perfectly.

I know this is not your exact problem, but I thought I'd mention my experiences just in case.
 

Vejper

macrumors member
Jun 3, 2014
31
3
I have also had some issue with the wrong date being shown on photos when added to IPL but if you have the photos app on OS X then it is very easy to changes the date from that app.
 

xoAnna

macrumors member
Jul 2, 2013
62
17
Planet Earth…
I have some photos that show up with dates being 1908--XX-XX ! Obviously they weren't taken over 100 years ago. There seems to be so many of these seemingly small but personally important flaws in regards to photos and iCloud and IcLoud Photo library etc. Just know that you're not alone here, if it makes any difference. :p
 
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