LR not exporting exif data

[garyp87003598]

I'm exporting original jpg's from Lightroom but for some reason the capture date is not being exported. I am exporting originals and as such, the only option is for all metadata to be exported as well, so it's not as though the export dialog is set to only export a limited subset of metadata.

I'm totally stuck troubleshooting this issue. All metadata has been saved to files.

[johnrellis]

First, verify that the photo actually has an EXIF capture date. Select the photo and in the Metadata panel on the right, choose the EXIF tagset and verify that the Date Time Original field is present:

[garyp87003598]

OK, thanks, I'm not in front of that computer right now, but I recall seeing reference to "Capture Date" not "Date Time Original" in the metadata panel.

Will have a closer look when I am back in front of that computer.

[garyp87003598]

OK, I've had a closer look at this and am definitely not getting the correct capture date.

Screenshot 1 shows the EXIF data in Lightroom with a capture date of 3 July 2007.

Screenshot 2 shows the export settings, with Original filetype and Metadata settings greyed out.

Screenshot shows the data available in Photos app on OS X showing date as export date, not the capture date.

[richardplondon]

Is there a reason why you are exporting "Original"?

If you choose "JPG" then a new file will be made which incorporates the metadata seen in LR - apart from any metadata that you decide should be prevented from inclusion - and also which includes picture data which natively reflects your LR edits.

"Original" is a duplicate of the initially imported file (which does NOT natively reflect your LR edits), plus attached metadata instructions relating to those edits.

In the case of a camera proprietary Raw file, this metadata will be in a separate XMP file (which e.g. "Photos" will simply ignore). Or it may be a simple incompatibility / looking in the wrong place, which leads to this metadata not being interpreted.

So if you re-photograph a Kodachrome slide (to Raw), and then in LR assign the actual date taken, this assignment done in LR will not be present in the Raw if you export that as Original. It will be in the applied metadata that accompanies it. This metadata will then act on-the-fly as an override to this Raw, when it is brought into a new supported context, restoring the appearance and the attributes of the image including the actual date taken as previously seen in LR, ready for any further alteration.

The two fully supported contexts are: importing into a different LR Catalog, and opening into Photoshop (via ACR). So if one of those is the destination usage then "Original" may make some sense. For example: if you are handing off the detailed retouching of one or two photos, to someone else who is also using Adobe software.

But in other contexts this added metadata which accompanies the Original may or may not get seen and interpreted, depending on what sort of info it is, and on various other specifics. For example Develop adjustments are unlikely to get seen at all.

But a freshly generated Export (to e.g. JPG or TIFF) will be sure to integrate such matters as Capture Date, without any separation of original metadata vs applied metadata, in the industry standard format recognised by more or less any application (or OS utility). And the photo will always then look as you have edited it to look.

[johnrellis · Accepted solution]

Gary,

You're in capture-date hell:

- Your original photos don't contain a capture date stored in the industry-standard location, EXIF:DateTimeOriginal.  They do contain the industry-standard EXIF:DateTime, which LR shows as "Date Time", a misleadingly named field that's supposed to contain the last time a photo application modified the photo, for whatever reason.  

- There is no industry standard governing how apps should handle capture times of photos missing capture dates, and as a result, apps handle it differently.

- The Photos app appears to use the contents of EXIF:DateTime (the last time a photo app modified the photo) when EXIF:DateTimeOriginal is missing. 

- When LR exports a photo, it sets EXIF:DateTime to "now" (in accordance with the standard).  Since your photos don't contain a capture date (EXIF:DateTimeOriginal), the exported original contains EXIF:DateTime set to the time of export and no EXIF:DateTimeOriginal.  Thus, the Photos app uses "now" as its capture date.

- LR is a complete mess when it comes to photos missing capture dates. While Adobe recently fixed a couple of the more egregious bugs, there are still various inconsistencies.  And if you imported such photos with a version prior to 7.1, the catalog could be even more inconsistent, even if you've since upgraded to a later version.  One such inconsistency is that even though the Metadata > Default panel may show a "Capture Time" and "Capture Date", that won't get exported with the original photo, even though other changes you may have made to metadata fields do get exported.

To get out of hell back to purgatory and avoid these LR inconsistencies, there's a very simple workaround.  Select all photos and do Metadata > Edit Capture Time. Then click Change All.  This does not change the photos to have the same date and time, rather it has the effect of changing each photo individually to have a consistent internal capture date that's what shown in the Metadata > Default Capture Time and Date fields (and under the thumbnail in grid view, if so configured).  And in the future, apply this magic spell to all photos you import that are missing capture dates.

Of course, before doing this, be sure to make backups of both your catalog and your photos.

Once you've done this, an exported photo (as Original, as JPEG, or any other format) will contain an industry standard capture date that matches what you see in Metadata > Default and under the grid-view thumbnail.