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1. Re: PSE 8 - Changing Dates - Serious problem
johnrellis Dec 29, 2009 12:54 PM (in response to Peter_McC)It sounds like you are running the PSE 8 Auto-Analyzer, which will set the date-modified of every file it analyzes. I recommend that you never run it -- it will corrupt your map locations, split your video clips into "scene groups" that are hard to get rid of, modify the date/time of every file, crash frequently, make your computer very sluggish, and litter your folders with temporary files:
http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/photoshop-elements-faq.htm#_Problems_with_the
Have the dates-taken (shown under the thumbnails in the Organizer) changed as well? If so, then it would be sufficient to recover just your PSE 7 catalog fiile (catalog.pse7db) and reconvert that to PSE 8 (unless you also care about the date-created and date-modified of the media files themselves).
I find that if I don't use the new features of the PSE 8 Organizer -- auto-analyzer, face recognition, and the keyword-tags text box -- it's pretty stable, about the same as PSE 7, though full-screen view is annoyingly slower. I like the new PSE 8 Editor, so it's not worth it to me to go back to PSE 7 (though I thought about it).
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2. Re: PSE 8 - Changing Dates - Serious problem
Peter_McC Dec 29, 2009 1:04 PM (in response to johnrellis)Yes, it is probably the auto analyser that is doing it.
Some of the dates under the thumbnails are OK but some have changed. It doesn't seem consistent.
I'll switch off the auto analyser.
Thanks for this ... very helpful.
Best regards
Peter
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3. Re: PSE 8 - Changing Dates - Serious problem
Barb__O Dec 29, 2009 1:56 PM (in response to johnrellis)John,
Do you have any suggestions for a tool that changes the Windows date modified?
I did do some experimenting with the v8 analysis functions and have a few video files with the changed date modified dates as a result. I would like to "reset" these dates (as known by Windows and use on a PSE Catalog import) back to when the video file was recorded/created.
P.S. Fortunately I did not use my entire primary catalog for those experiments ...
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4. Re: PSE 8 - Changing Dates - Serious problem
Peter_McC Dec 29, 2009 2:03 PM (in response to Barb__O)Hi,
You may have sent this to the wrong person.
Unfortunately I don't know of a tool to reset the dates, though I'll probably be looking for one myself
Best regards
Peter
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5. Re: PSE 8 - Changing Dates - Serious problem
johnrellis Dec 29, 2009 2:19 PM (in response to Peter_McC)Do you have any suggestions for a tool that changes the Windows date modified?
On the rare occasions I need to do that, I use the Cygwin command-line tools (Unix utilities for Windows), specifically the "touch" command. But unless you're already experienced with Unix/Linux, the learning curve is pretty steep.
A Google search for "last modified time Windows" suggests there are a bunch of freeware/shareware utilities out there, of which I have no experience.
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6. Re: PSE 8 - Changing Dates - Serious problem
Barb__O Dec 29, 2009 3:03 PM (in response to johnrellis)John,
Thanks for your response. I don't have a Unix background, so will "ask around" to see if I can find a personal experience reference for any other tool.
Barb
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7. Re: PSE 8 - Changing Dates - Serious problem
tmallin Dec 29, 2009 6:59 PM (in response to Peter_McC)I am having a similar problem with PSE 8 changing dates I have specified for photos. I do NOT have the Auto Analyzer function turned on and am not using the tags. I am using the Adobe on-line backup/synchronization function. The problem seems to be related to the use of the on-line backup/sync. Since upgrading from 7 to 8, some hundreds, not all, my thousands of photos have been assigned new dates and times. The newly assigned date is almost always one day earlier than the date I specified if I specified a day of the month, or one month earlier than I specified if I only specified a month and year. I never specified any time of day, but times, usually 6:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m., have been assigned to these photos. I've tried changing some photos back to the original dates several times using the Adjust Date and Time function, and the photo appears to have been edited. But each time, when the back-up synchronization completes, the same incorrect dating/timing gets assigned to the photo again, erasing my corrected date and time. These incorrect dates and times show up both beneath the thumbnails and when the photo is opened in the photo properties.
In Edit > Preferences > Files, I've unchecked the boxes for "Import EXIF Caption" and "Use Last Modified Date if EXIF Caption is Not Found." Under Edit > Preferences > Backup/Synchronization > Advanced Backup/Sync Options, I do not have the "Resolve Backup/Sync Conflicts Automatically" box checked. These measures did not help or change the problem.
This sort of thing wouldn't be a problem for many users who would like PSE 8 to keep track of the date and time the photo was taken from the EXIF data. The backup seems to work fine for digital photos which have such data if you have the "Import EXIF Caption" box checked. In my case, however, the photos in this catalog are genealogical and historical and many were not taken with digital cameras, having originated from scanned documents and prints which were carefully dated by me. Now these researched dates are corrupted.
Any other ideas as to what could be causing this serious problem?
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8. Re: PSE 8 - Changing Dates - Serious problem
johnrellis Dec 29, 2009 8:38 PM (in response to tmallin)Interesting, this is another symptom of a known bug: Photoshop.com doesn't handle unknown month, day, or time fields. (This is ironic, given that Adobe has been pushing a revision to its XMP standard specifically for handling unknown date/time fields.) See this post for other issues wth Photoshop.com:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/2306550#2306550
After you first sync with Photoshop.com, you can see that the thumbnails on Photoshop.com have incorrect date/times. But for me to reproduce your bug, I need to then change the tags or captions of the thumbnails on Photoshop.com. Then when I sync again, the incorrect date/times get copied back into the PSE catalog. If I don't add a tag or caption on Photoshop.com, the incorrect date/times don't get copied back.
Are you making any changes to the tags or captions of the photos on Photoshop.com?
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9. Re: PSE 8 - Changing Dates - Serious problem
tmallin Dec 30, 2009 1:40 PM (in response to johnrellis)Thanks for the reply, John. After I wrote my post I found your comprehensive listing of resolved and unresolved problems with the PSE Organizer in 7 and 8 and saw that you had already found an unresolved issue with both 7 and 8 changing dates and times.
I have not consciously changed anything at Photoshop.com. I'm only using the on-line backup/synchronization as one form of back up. I also back up to an external hard drive and DVDs. But now that the main files are corrupted, later backups will be corrupted, too.
I did have the advanced option to "Resolve backup/sync conflicts automatically" checked by mistake for awhile and I believe the date problem occurred while I had that option selected. Now that I've de-selected that option, however, the improper dates/times keep regenerating themselves.
This program is a quite disappointing upgrade, all in all. As you note, it is a lot slower in several ways than PSE 7 was. The program size may itself account for that since it is more than three times larger than 7 was. What kind of programmer allows an automatic backup function to override dates and times which the user has specified in response to a dialog box which specifically asks you to specify dates and times? And what kind of programmer hides the selection of file types for backup under "Advanced Backup/sync Options"? Out of the box, PSE 8 has no files selected for backup. The Backup/sync icon indicates that it's operating normally even when nothing at all is being backed up because you haven't clicked on any file types under "Advanced Backup/sync Options.
I saw someone asking about other organizer programs for electronic photos and other files. One which was not mentioned, which has a basically bulletproof organizer function, is Creative Memories Memory Manager 3 for about $40. Editing features are quite limited, but functional with no glitches. Organizing is the main thing here; editing is secondary, as you'd expect from a program aimed primarily at the digital scrapbooking market. The entire program is very easy to learn and use and backups work without a hitch. You could always edit in PSE and then use another program like Memory Manager 3 to organize your files as long as you don't save the edited files as .psd files. See: http://www.creativememories.com/MainMenu/Our-products-and-services/Digital-Scrapbooking/Me mory-Manager%c2%ae The reason my wife and I moved to PSE from Memory Manager was the more sophisticated editing functions available in PSE, but by comparison PSE's Organizer is second rate, to be kind.
>>> "John R. Ellis" <forums@adobe.com> 12/29/2009 10:39 PM >>>
Interesting, this is another symptom of a known bug: Photoshop.com doesn't handle unknown month, day, or time fields. (This is ironic, given that Adobe has been pushing a revision to its XMP standard specifically for handling unknown date/time fields.) See this post for other issues wth Photoshop.com:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/2306550#2306550
After you first sync with Photoshop.com, you can see that the thumbnails on Photoshop.com have incorrect date/times. But for me to reproduce your bug, I need to then change the tags or captions of the thumbnails on Photoshop.com. Then when I sync again, the incorrect date/times get copied back into the PSE catalog. If I don't add a tag or caption on Photoshop.com, the incorrect date/times don't get copied back.
Are you making any changes to the tags or captions of the photos on Photoshop.com?
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10. Re: PSE 8 - Changing Dates - Serious problem
DonPatt Jun 19, 2010 12:56 PM (in response to johnrellis)John-
Thank you for your FAQ. I only wish I had reviewed it before installing and investing many hours in tagging and setting (and sometimes resetting) dates on my ~2400 photos. I had used unknown month and days on many of them. I have seen dates change by a decade (not just by one month or day as I'd seen mentioned earlier on this thread), but it sure sounds like the same issue. I have now changed my preferences to not run auto analyzer (and facial recognition), but am wondering if my database is corrupted beyond repair:
It appears that for those photos that I've modified, PSE is setting the 'Date Taken' (which is displayed in Windows and in PSE as the 'Date/Time Original' under 'Camera details'). Since it is modifying the actual file, it also sets 'Date Modified' to the current date/time.
If I (manually) fix the dates that have been corrupted (now that I have turned off auto analyzer, etc.), do you expect PSE will 'behave'? I have done a ton of tagging, and would hate to have to scuttle the whole catalog and start over.
BTW, is there any reasonable hope of Adobe fixing this bug anytime soon? (Does Adobe put out patches, or do we just have to wait for PSE 9 and cross our fingers?)
Somewhat unrelated: my photos are organized into folders (mostly from my pre-PSE days) and I've seen that when they are moved, PSE gets confused. Can you point me to something that recommends how best to use (or not use?) folders with PSE? Is it simply best to protect folders from manual moves & deletes, and always do this using PSE? Thanks,
Don
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11. Re: PSE 8 - Changing Dates - Serious problem
johnrellis Jun 19, 2010 4:03 PM (in response to DonPatt)Don,
I recommend setting the dates in the Organizer, replacing your uses of unknown month, day, and time. E.g. replace 1963 with 1963/1/1 12:00 am,
and replace 1963/7/5 with 1963/7/5 12:00 a. Then run the free utility psedbtool with the -writeMetadata option to ensure that the metadata in the file matches that in the catalog:
http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/
Going forward, I wouldn't worry about the date-modifed of the files getting changed (except the video files) -- most cataloging tools will modify the files' metadata and change the date-modified as a side effect.
BTW, is there any reasonable hope of Adobe fixing this bug anytime soon? (Does Adobe put out patches, or do we just have to wait for PSE 9 and cross our fingers?
Since the days of Photoshop Album 1, Adobe has rarely issued patches, and in recent years, the few patches have been for issues with syncing to Photoshop.com. Since PSE 6, Adobe hasn't fixed most bugs in the Organizer, and it hasn't fixed any of the numerous metadata bugs:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/2306550#2306550
Who knows what they'll do with PSE 9 (they never announce ahead of time), but based purely on past experience, I wouldn't hold your breath.
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12. Re: PSE 8 - Changing Dates - Serious problem
DonPatt Jun 22, 2010 6:06 PM (in response to johnrellis)John-
Thanks for the advice. After I posted my question, I read a bit more of your FAQ (including concerning Adobe's update policy/history), and had seen that you offered your free database utility. I will definitely use that (after I update my dates sans unknown months and/or days, as you advise). BTW, it does look like the Organizer has replaced most of my unknown months and days for me (as it changed the year as well ). Thanks again,
Don




