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

I agree. Teracopy is not a solution. It is a WORKAROUND. Still, it is important that we are aware of the fact that the dates are changed in the EXIF Metadata. That is NOT cool. Shame on Google!!!

Chad (live.com#cholmes) - thank you for raising this issue! I just downloaded 250+ photos from my OneDrive account, planning to organize by month on my local drive, and had all the dates created reset to the transfer date.

I stumbled upon this thread trying to fix the dates back. I learned the hard way that when copying files, Windows (as other operation systems do as well) modifies the original "creation date" to the date of copying. For example, see more at https://www.infonautics.ch/blog/how-to-correct-wrong-file-dates/ .

If you haven't a solution yet, I found a quick workaround. If on Windows 10, go to the View tab in your file window for the photos you want to reset back. Then choose "sort by", select "additional columns", and next select "Date taken". This will at least allow you to see and sort the photos by the original date taken back to their proper folder locations.

I posted a while ago on this thread... Here is an update on what I have discovered. 

OneDrive does not change Date Taken. 

It will change Date Created and Modified, as most operating/file systems will (IMO, shouldn't do this for photos because...) 

The trickery happens when you think your photo had a Date Taken (exif tag) but it doesn't. So then OneDrive ends up using the Date Created field to sort your photos (but it just modified it!). 

Some old cameras/phones did not properly tag the photos.

My solution was to use Exiftool on Windows. It is command line based and not very user friendly and will be difficult for the average user. 

It lets you set Date Created, Modified and Taken. If your files are named using the date/time taken, you are in luck because it can figure that out and properly tag them. 

If your files are not named that way, it can rename them from one of the Date fields (if the original date is still in tact). I highly recommend trying to get everything named in the format YYYYMMDD_hhmmss. 

I had to manually organize my photos into different folders before running the commands. I came from Windows Phone and early on, they did not name files with the date, but they did have the Date Taken set properly. 

Hopefully this gives some people some ideas. Just make sure you back everything up before messing with things!

And watch out for crappy apps claiming they can fix your photos.

I beg to differ but YES, One Drive DOES strip the File Date fields, much the same way as Google Drive. I know this because I uploaded ~ 100 images files from my Note 10 to One Drive using MS photo sync. When I downloaded them, the result was EXACTLY the same as many individuals have stated here about Google Drive in this, and other blogs.  Once I have more time to spend documenting that the same anomaly occurs with Microsoft One Drive (with visual documentation as well to prove validity) I will present my results in this forum soon.

To refute that the main subject matter here is NOT Google, it IS Google. Google Photos also messes with the dates, but not nearly as much as Google Drive, and only when d/l ing files. More specifics to come. I don't like to publicly proclaim my knowledge and experience one way or the other because I don't have that kind of personality, but I do have 30+ years of upper level IT experience. During one 6 year span I worked in top secret R&D testing at Intel in Oregon, working closely with Microsoft, Novell, domestic and foreign hardware vendors. I know how to test and I know the proper methods so as to not corrupt the end results and keep the results clean. 

I posted the workaround for Google Drive only to HELP the users here. I could totally sense the frustration in their words and rightfully so. I totally agree with you that we are here trying to help and learn from each other. However I've been involved with MS for decades, and their interaction face to face are  much more personal and are totally different than what their tech support people who are assigned or support this and other blogs project. From my experience at least 75% of the time the responses to users here in most blogs to fix a problem are irrelevant and useless. Largely proven so when the user comes back after trying the suggestion presented to them, and states that their suggestion accomplished nothing. 

At any rate I commend your enthusiasm with your effort to help users in his forum. You seems to have a good attitude and a willingness to honestly help the users here and not be condescending. That is a good trait. The only thing I totally disagree with you is your admiration of Microsoft. If you had been around and for as long as I have, and had worked with them as such, you would be much more critical because they deserved it. But things are improving since Ballmar is gone.

I still do not suspect OneDrive is the culprit in this case, as it would need to change the value from within the file itself. Did you modify those photos at any point in time with a photo editor or tool?

Some time ago I downloaded a photo editing app, it ended stripping metadata upon edit. As another example, Facebook does remove the file's embedded metadata. As such it is not a good photo backup option.

You mentioned that the photos were organized in dated folders, also some dated back from 1999. If they were acquired from a scanner, most likely they do not have the Date Taken field added to them. Does the filename contain a date? Say 20180504.jpg? I am thinking of trying to restore the Date Taken with a batch command.