OneDrive changing the dates on my photos?!?!?

Anonymous
2018-05-14T02:11:34+00:00

Hello,

I recently uploaded 45,000 of our family photos to OneDrive, the dates ranging from 1999 to 2018.  They had been previously separated in folders by year and month, so decided it was time to back them up in the cloud and take advantage of Microsoft's photo features through OneDrive.  After uploading all of my photos, I was shocked to see that many of my photos were reorganized.  Randomly, photos from 2002, 2005, 2009, 2014, and 2016 were shown as brand new photos with a current date stamp.  I found that there were literally hundreds of photos that were RE-DATED to the the date that I uploaded the photos.  Somehow, OneDrive physically changed the metadata on the Date Modified and Date Taken to reflect the date that I uploaded the photos, not the date that they were originally taken.  Even worse, the uploaded picture permanently changed the date on my local pictures, so now these photos are irreversibly corrupted and I cannot organize them by date anymore.

Microsoft, this is a massively humongous bug in the OneDrive system that I found, by searching, has been questioned several times before.  Whenever I look at those posts, the commenting has been locked so that nobody can comment anymore.  Not sure why Microsoft wants this issue hushed by the community, but this problem will not just go away.  It needs to be fixed as soon as possible!!  We have thousands of photos that are unknowingly being corrupted, most people probably just haven't figured it out yet.

One potential solution to this problem would be to turn off whatever mechanism is redating photos/videos, or changing metadata.  If anyone else is having this issue, please comment below.  Microsoft, is there anything being done to fix this bug???

Thank you, and I respectfully appreciate your attention to this matter.  OneDrive is a great service and I really hope to continue using it.  This is just too big not to make top priority in resolving.

Windows for home | Other | Music, photos, and video

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-04-26T13:04:16+00:00

    IF you use the  file manager,/copy utility,  TERACOPY  which works seamlessly with Win !0 file manager,   when you transfer files (copy or move)  ...........  THE DATES WILL NOT CHANGE.

    THAT IS A COMPLETE SOLUTION

    Greg, Tamara presented a solution to solve the problem without needing anything extra. I can't speak for someone else, but it looks like she was solving the problem in the simplest way possible, without requiring any third-party tools and not asking a question. 

    The info she provided is absolutely correct and the same one others here, including me, have provided. I find this whole thread silly at this point. Pretty clear people are posting their complaints without reading the thread, because the solution has already been provided: People are looking at the WRONG FIELD. "Date Created" (or sometimes shown as "Created on" or just "Created") is the wrong field. As long as you use the "Date Taken" field, everything works fine. Depending on the tool used to copy or move a file, the Created field may reflect the date it was placed on the new drive (e.g., OneDrive) or not. It is up to the copying tool to determine that. The Date Taken field, on the other hand, ALWAYS reflects the date the picture was taken. Sort by that and everything is golden.

    This brings me back to why I started this thread months ago.  The Date Taken field does not always reflect the date on which a given photo was actually taken.  Some (but not all) pictures in OneDrive default to a Date Taken of January 1, 1970  (1/1/70).  This seems to be completely random, or at least I have not recognized any pattern as to why this may appear on one photo, but not another.  I surmise that there is an issue in OneDrive code.  Does anyone else have this issue and / or see that given date (1/1/70) associated with any of your collection?

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-04-26T10:42:59+00:00

    IF you use the  file manager,/copy utility,  TERACOPY  which works seamlessly with Win !0 file manager,   when you transfer files (copy or move)  ...........  THE DATES WILL NOT CHANGE.

    THAT IS A COMPLETE SOLUTION

    Greg, Tamara presented a solution to solve the problem without needing anything extra. I can't speak for someone else, but it looks like she was solving the problem in the simplest way possible, without requiring any third-party tools and not asking a question. 

    The info she provided is absolutely correct and the same one others here, including me, have provided. I find this whole thread silly at this point. Pretty clear people are posting their complaints without reading the thread, because the solution has already been provided: People are looking at the WRONG FIELD. "Date Created" (or sometimes shown as "Created on" or just "Created") is the wrong field. As long as you use the "Date Taken" field, everything works fine. Depending on the tool used to copy or move a file, the Created field may reflect the date it was placed on the new drive (e.g., OneDrive) or not. It is up to the copying tool to determine that. The Date Taken field, on the other hand, ALWAYS reflects the date the picture was taken. Sort by that and everything is golden.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-04-26T09:35:41+00:00

    IF you use the  file manager,/copy utility,  TERACOPY  which works seamlessly with Win !0 file manager,   when you transfer files (copy or move)  ...........  THE DATES WILL NOT CHANGE.

    THAT IS A COMPLETE SOLUTION

    Not a solution.

    You're presenting a workaround as everyone else.

    Using local computer to sort by date taken or using a third party tool is all workarounds.

    Onedrive solutions must be within the onedrive i.e. online.

    Photo-view needs option to sort by date taken at the very least!

    Best would be if both original creation and taken date remained the same... this is a basic flaw for all files imo, original create date should be original create date... otherwise that meta data is superfluos and quite frankly misguiding.

    You  have data and you have tools.   When you manipulate the data you use the right tool that gets the job done.   If you find out your pliers dont hammer very well, then get a hammer.   One Drive is a tool.  Use it for what it does well and pick the tools you need to meet your objective.  Or not.  Hit yourself in the shin for self inflicted grief or make a good choice of tools.   I told you what works 100 percent and you can insist on using a broken tool if you want.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-04-26T08:13:43+00:00

    IF you use the  file manager,/copy utility,  TERACOPY  which works seamlessly with Win !0 file manager,   when you transfer files (copy or move)  ...........  THE DATES WILL NOT CHANGE.

    THAT IS A COMPLETE SOLUTION

    Not a solution.

    You're presenting a workaround as everyone else.

    Using local computer to sort by date taken or using a third party tool is all workarounds.

    Onedrive solutions must be within the onedrive i.e. online.

    Photo-view needs option to sort by date taken at the very least!

    Best would be if both original creation and taken date remained the same... this is a basic flaw for all files imo, original create date should be original create date... otherwise that meta data is superfluos and quite frankly misguiding.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-04-26T03:50:37+00:00

    IF you use the  file manager,/copy utility,  TERACOPY  which works seamlessly with Win !0 file manager,   when you transfer files (copy or move)  ...........  THE DATES WILL NOT CHANGE.

    THAT IS A COMPLETE SOLUTION

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    1 person found this answer helpful.
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