*** Solution ****
This is a guide to help you tag the proper date in a video file.
Why is this needed??
1. You have old video files (before camera tagging the correct date into the file)
2. You converted (probably old files) and the converted tool didn’t update the video taken date.
3. You need to update many files - for single file there are plenty of ways it can be done.
Also - The assumptions are that one of the properties includes the correct date.
There are many properties in a files that most cannot be viewed by most of standard tools (finder, Photos…).
to view all current properties, you’ll need to download Exiftool
http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/#shift
I converted all my video files on a Windows PC, but this tool available for Mac and should work the same.
First, you'll need to find one of the properties that contain the correct date. In my case it was the File Modify Date.
To review the file properties, run exiftool -s <FileName>
In my case, the Modified date was the time the video was taken. it might be created date in other cases.
We can see that the dates are wrong for Media Created and Media modified (in my case, this was the date I converted the original videos to MP4).
These are the dates that Photos is using to tag the videos.
NOTE: Most likely that the "modified date" will be modified as we trying to modify the file properties. so it is important to use this date first if this going to be the source for the updates.
You probably need to view some of the files, make sure that dates are correct.
I used the following script:
exiftool "-FileModifyDate>CreateDate" *.mp4
exiftool "-CreateDate>MediaCreateDate" *.mp4
exiftool "-CreateDate>MediaModifyDate" *.mp4
exiftool "-CreateDate>FileModifyDate" *.mp4
First, I updated the created date and then, I used the created date to update all other dates.
Once completed, I validated:
Now, I uploaded all videos into Photos and all date tags was properly set!
Enjoy.
