Getting away from iPhoto/Photos

[ering41]

Does anyone know if there is a way to export all my pictures out of Photos without losing the metadata, like the date taken? I know I can export the unmodified originals but I'd rather not lose all of the edits I've made over the years. According to Apple support, there may be some other piece of software I could use, but they don't know specifically what. Any ideas appreciated! Thanks.

 

[Dave Braine]

Drag and drop, or the normal Export function should do it, sort of. I've just done that and if I open the Info panel for the exported photos, all the camera information is there. The only thing missing is the date taken.

 

[ering41]

Drag and drop, or the normal Export function should do it, sort of. I've just done that and if I open the Info panel for the exported photos, all the camera information is there. The only thing missing is the date taken.

The date taken is pretty important to me. I have over 10k photos going back about 14 years. I don't want to lose that info for when I organize them.

 

[Pomeroy]

The date taken is pretty important to me. I have over 10k photos going back about 14 years. I don't want to lose that info for when I organize them.

The info panel does't show the date taken, but if you open a photo with Preview that you have dragged out of Photo's you will find the date is there along with all your metadata like the GPS data and Keywords.

 

[Badradio]

The date taken is pretty important to me. I have over 10k photos going back about 14 years. I don't want to lose that info for when I organize them.

The date taken is in the EXIF data. Just open one of your original files in Preview and you can see the EXIF data in the Inspector.

 

[Dave Braine]

This article may, or may not, help:
http://www.organizepictures.com/2016/01/move-away-from-photos

I also found this:

When you export from iPhoto or Photos to the Finder new file is created containing your Photo (and its Exif). The File date is - quite accurately - reported as the date of Export.

However, the Photo Date doesn't change.

The problem is that the Finder doesn't work with Exif.

So, your photo has the correct date, and so does the file, but they are different things. To sort on the Photo date you'll need to use a photo app.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7016186?start=0&tstart=0

So it looks like it's a Finder limitation rather than anything to do with Photos.