Photos importing with wrong folder date?

[trenzterra]

Hi all,

I am using Lightroom Classic to import my photos from my camera, and I have enabled the option to name folders based on the date the shot was taken.

However, I noticed that over the past few months (I think after 7.1 or 7.2), some of my photos have been imported one day ahead. This typically happens for photographs that I shoot after 4pm.

So for example, I have two photos. One is shot at 12pm on 23rd June and another at 5pm, 23rd June. When I import them into Lightroom, it will create two folders-- one named 2018-06-23 with the first photo, and another named 2018-06-24 with the second photo.

I have tried clearing cache and all but it still persists. Can Adobe fix this?

My timezone is GMT+8 by the way. The EXIF on the imported photos also show the date correctly.

[Jim Wilde]

It's a long standing bug that has (obviously) never been fixed, and probably never will be. It only happens if importing directly from camera, so the workaround is to import from a card reader instead.

[johnrellis]

To build on Jim's reply, see this explanation in the bug report: Lightroom: Import: Wrong folder names organizing by date around midnight when using camera USB | Pho...

It's been acknowledged by Adobe, with an internal bug report filed against it. But it's a seven-year-old bug, so they've obviously decided to make it a very low priority (i.e. not fix it before the next ice age).  You could click Me Too and Follow in the upper-right corner of the bug report, but that would be spitting into the wind at this point.

[trenzterra]

The funny thing is that I am using an SD card reader and not importing from the camera directly. And I never had this issue until two months ago...

[johnrellis]

Hmm, then it's probably a different bug. Does the bug happen if you first copy the photos to your hard drive and then import from there? Can you upload the two photos (one showing the bug, one not) to Dropbox or similar and post the sharing link here? 

[trenzterra]

I will try this later today.

If it helps, from what I have noticed, the chances of this bug happening is reduced when I wait for Lightroom to complete processing all the images (you know, the process where it starts running through each image to see if there are duplicates) before importing. But I have a 64gb card and doing so will take a couple of minutes.

Are these forums the only way to get feedback to Adobe? I rarely use Photoshop and it's annoying that I'm paying ten bucks a month and am facing issues that Adobe may never fix.

[trenzterra]

Hi,

This photo (taken with lens cap on) was taken at 3.48pm. It shows up in the correct date.

Dropbox - DSC04457.JPG

Meanwhile, this photo was taken at 4.23pm. It shows up one day ahead, 25th June.

Dropbox - DSC04458.JPG

I live in GMT+8 timezone, so I'm guessing Lightroom is somehow adding an extra eight hours to the EXIF capture time.

I am using this USB card reader: RDF5

My camera is the Sony Alpha a6500.

EDIT: I did more tests. Even if I set my camera's timezone to GMT+0 and adjust the time according the bug still happens. Sample EXIF data here (notice the offset time is +00:00): Dropbox - DSC04463.JPG

The only way to solve it is to set my computer's (Windows 10) timezone to UTC/GMT+0 and adjust the time accordingly from there. Which is not something I want to do in the long run.

[Jim Wilde]

What it would be interesting to know is, on the Import screen when you insert your card into the card reader, do you see the card listed twice, i.e. under "Devices" which would be the default selection by Lightroom, and then again under "Files"? If so, if you select the card under "Files" (you'll need to select the sub-folder that appears when you click on the card), then import from there, does the same problem occur?

If the card doesn't appear under "Files", do you have a different card reader handy that you could try (using both "Devices" first, then "Files" again)?

[trenzterra · Accepted solution]

Wow! Selecting it under "Files" seems to work just fine. Thank you so much!

Anyway, just for reference, I tried using the external card reader on my other PC and had the same bug. Realised the other PC has a built-in card reader as well. Let me see if that triggers the bug too.

[johnrellis]

If so, if you select the card under "Files" (you'll need to select the sub-folder that appears when you click on the card), then import from there, does the same problem occur?

Excellent suggestion. I forgot that there have been a number of import issues resolved this way.

I suspect that this is related to the USB-cable problem. Here's my hypothesis of the bug: When LR reads directly from a card via the "Files" section, it is going through the FAT filesystem and getting the capture date from photo's metadata, just as if it is importing from a hard drive. When it reads the card via a USB cable or the "Devices" section, I think it is using the Picture Transport Protocol (or an extension of that).  In the protocol, the capture date is transmitted separately from the photo.  Somewhere in that code path, either in LR or the OS libraries, lies confusion about time zones. 

[trenzterra]

I tried using the built-in card reader of my other PC (a laptop), with the same issues.

That PC happens to still have Lightroom 6.5 installed. I gave it a go importing the same set of photos using Lightroom 6.5, selecting the SD card under "Devices", and I do not experience this issue at all (which is as expected, since I've been using Lightroom for 2 years and I've only experienced this issue in the last few months). Seems like the old bug has now 'expanded' to include SD cards, at least in my case.

[Jim Wilde]

That's interesting, and a puzzle. I've just tried to recreate the issue, but with no success.....having set the system time-zone to GMT+8 I've imported images taken after 16.00 with no problem (SD card import from USB card reader). Tried with images from two different cameras, still no problem.

Perhaps John will be able to test as well, and I'll try to find some time to do some more tests. Did you try the copy import after first putting the images from the card onto a hard drive?

[johnrellis]

Trenzterra, which version of Windows?

Jim, which version of Mac or Windows?

If my hypothesis is right, this could be a bug in operating system support for PTP, or in LR's use of it, or some combination of both.

[Jim Wilde]

John, I used Win10 for the test, as the original bug was Windows-specific, IIRC, and the OP was using Win10 also. The only thing I didn't do, which on reflection might have been a good idea, was to reboot after changing the time-zone on the PC. I'll do that later (may be tomorrow).

[trenzterra]

Both PCs are on Windows 10. I wonder if the camera has got anything to do with it? I understand that Sony cameras create an image database file on each SD card in which it is inserted. Or can you try transfering the two JPEGs I've uploaded to Dropbox into the SD card and importing it from there?

I didn't reboot after changing time zones to GMT+0 though.

I didn't try the copy from hard disk method since, as suggested, when I copied from the SD card under "files", it works fine, so I think copying from the hard disk would be the same thing (and far more cumbersome).

In any case, I am really grateful to you guys for helping me troubleshoot this issue. Thank you!

[johnrellis]

I just tested this on Windows 10 LR 7.4 and couldn't reproduce the problem either. I imported from an SD card those two photos plus one I took in my Sony RX100 V, using the Devices section of the Import window. The camera and computer time was 6/24/18 17:30 pm PDT (6/25/18 0:30 UTC).  But the three photos got filed in the correct folder (2018/2018-06-24).

[trenzterra]

Can you try setting the computer's time zone to UTC+8? Kuala lumpur/singapore without DST. After some testing it seems the problem is with the computer's time zone, though Jim was unable to reproduce it anyhow.

[miles_wolbe]

Thanks so much. Had the same issue with Windows 10's built-in photo importer creating two folders: one with today's date and one with tomorrow's. Turned out that any photo taken after 14:00 was being imported into a folder with tomorrow's date, as the Windows time zone was set to GMT+10. Changed it to GMT+0 and manually set the correct date and time - import problem solved! Thanks again.

[flipper370]

I am importing from a compact flash card. When photos are imported into Lightroom CC they create a folder with year 2014 to put photos in. I have reformatted card and it still does the same. Not sure why this is happening. I am importing from a Card reader to my Mac Book Pro.

[Just Shoot Me]

You have posted to a 2 year old conversation. Even IF your question is related to the main topic of this old conversation you should post your question in a New thread.

You do that by clicking the "Post to Community" button in the upper right hand corner of the program forums main page.

[@santtuhakalaphotography]

I found solution to this bug.

Solution is wait!

Lightroom export timezone bug - YouTube

[igamogam]

This worked! Thanks

It's time consuming waiting for all the previews to load but it's worked both times I've imported from files on a HD.

However it doesn't seem to work when importing directly from a tethered phone or camera.

I also get a bug that set's the import date of all my files to 1st January 1970. This fix works for that too when I import the files to the HD then import to LR but doesn't work when I import directly from the device. What a palaver!

Neither of these bugs I've experienced happens when I use a card reader to import.

[johnrellis]

Neither of these bugs I've experienced happens when I use a card reader to import.

These are symptoms of the same underlying problem, most likely a bug somewhere in LR or the operating system with the Picture Transport Protocol (which isn't used when importing from a hard disk or a card reader).  Please add details of your issue to this bug report: Lightroom: Import: Wrong folder names organizing by date when using camera USB | Photoshop Family Cu... . Be sure to click Me Too and Follow in the upper-right corner, which will make it a little more likely Adobe might prioritize a fix, and you'll be notified when the bug's status changes. While this problem has been outstanding for at least seven years, in the last year Adobe has been fixing a number of long-standing bugs, so they might get to this one.

[Smilebags-lv8LGu]

Same issue here, it has only happened since the latest Lightroom update and is pushing photos after 3/4PM to the next day. I'm importing photos from a USB card reader (if that's related to the issue then someone has really messed up their job) to Windows 10. The file exif is correct so it seems like Lightroom is just incorrectly determining the file locations.

[johnrellis]

Try the workaround Jim provided above. In the Import Source panel, select the files by accessing the volume listed under Files, rather than under Devices:

This is not necessarily a LR bug -- it could be in the Windows library used to access picture devices. But Adobe has never cared to investigate the problem.