Metadata: UTC should be overridden by local time with unknown zone

[mrlimacz]

I have a picture taken with an iPhone 14 around 13:30 GMT+1. Picture does not have any GPS data. Exiftool snippet below.

$ exiftool -G IMG_4921.jpg | grep -i 'Date\|Offset\|GPS'
[File]          File Modification Date/Time     : 2022:09:23 14:30:04+02:00
[File]          File Access Date/Time           : 2022:11:09 22:13:26+01:00
[File]          File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2022:11:09 22:12:58+01:00
[EXIF]          Modify Date                     : 2022:09:23 13:30:04
[EXIF]          Date/Time Original              : 2022:09:23 13:30:04
[EXIF]          Create Date                     : 2022:09:23 13:30:04
[EXIF]          Offset Time                     : +01:00
[EXIF]          Offset Time Original            : +01:00
[EXIF]          Offset Time Digitized           : +01:00
[EXIF]          GPS Version ID                  : 2.2.0.0
[EXIF]          GPS Altitude Ref                : Above Sea Level
[EXIF]          GPS Horizontal Positioning Error: 13.18486582 m
[EXIF]          Thumbnail Offset                : 2534
[ICC_Profile]   Profile Date Time               : 2022:01:01 00:00:00
[Composite]     Create Date                     : 2022:09:23 13:30:04.630+01:00
[Composite]     Date/Time Original              : 2022:09:23 13:30:04.630+01:00
[Composite]     Modify Date                     : 2022:09:23 13:30:04+01:00

When imported to Photoprism, it is displayed as taken 12:30:04 local time, but actually it is actually UTC

I would expect the timestamp to be 13:30:04 of local time. I have the same problems with other iPhone photos (taken in 2021 and 2022 with iPhone 6s and 14). Other pictures, taken with Samsung S8 are imported correctly. One thing I noticed is that iPhone pictures have Offset Time tags, but Samsung's photos don't. I sent the photo to samples email.

I am using the latest image with MariaDB.

[lastzero]

Please use "exiftool -n -g filename". Also, if you want us to test this, we require a file sample: https://photoprism.app/contact

[mrlimacz]

I already sent to photo to your email address.

$ exiftool -n -g IMG_4921.jpg | grep -i 'Date\|Offset\|GPS'
File Modification Date/Time     : 2022:09:23 14:30:04+02:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2022:11:09 22:13:26+01:00
File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2022:11:09 22:12:58+01:00
Modify Date                     : 2022:09:23 13:30:04
Date/Time Original              : 2022:09:23 13:30:04
Create Date                     : 2022:09:23 13:30:04
Offset Time                     : +01:00
Offset Time Original            : +01:00
Offset Time Digitized           : +01:00
GPS Version ID                  : 2 2 0 0
GPS Altitude Ref                : 0
GPS Horizontal Positioning Error: 13.18486582
Thumbnail Offset                : 2534
Profile Date Time               : 2022:01:01 00:00:00
Create Date                     : 2022:09:23 13:30:04.630+01:00
Date/Time Original              : 2022:09:23 13:30:04.630+01:00
Modify Date                     : 2022:09:23 13:30:04+01:00

[lastzero]

Was this file directly created as JPEG by an iPhone or did you convert it from HEIC, either manually or automatically when syncing / uploading? Never this this before and we have a lot of iPhone users...

[lastzero]

I guess the solution is to use "SubSecDateTimeOriginal" since "CreateDate" does not contain the offset directly. For whatever reason the offset is exclusively in "OffsetTime", although the other timestamps include it as expected:

  "FileModifyDate": "2022:11:09 22:51:58+01:00",
  "FileAccessDate": "2022:11:09 22:52:00+01:00",
  "FileInodeChangeDate": "2022:11:09 22:51:59+01:00",
  "ModifyDate": "2022:09:23 13:30:04",
  "DateTimeOriginal": "2022:09:23 13:30:04",
  "CreateDate": "2022:09:23 13:30:04",
  "ProfileDateTime": "2022:01:01 00:00:00",
  "SubSecCreateDate": "2022:09:23 13:30:04.630+01:00",
  "SubSecDateTimeOriginal": "2022:09:23 13:30:04.630+01:00",
  "SubSecModifyDate": "2022:09:23 13:30:04+01:00",

[mrlimacz]

It was taken as by a friend in a HEIC format, uploaded to Google Photos and shared. I downloaded it from Google Photos and it was already a JPEG. Reached out to her to get the original, but I'm still waiting.

I actually have another example from iPhone 6s, picture taken in GMT+1 at 12:54, downloaded via USB. Sending the original via email, in the same

$ exiftool -n -g IMG_3152.JPG | grep -i 'Date\|Offset\|GPS'
File Modification Date/Time     : 2022:11:10 06:14:00+01:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2022:11:10 19:33:57+01:00
File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2022:11:10 19:30:19+01:00
Modify Date                     : 2022:11:02 12:54:16
Date/Time Original              : 2022:11:02 12:54:16
Create Date                     : 2022:11:02 12:54:16
Offset Time                     : +01:00
Offset Time Original            : +01:00
Offset Time Digitized           : +01:00
Thumbnail Offset                : 2080
Create Date                     : 2022:11:02 12:54:16.698+01:00
Date/Time Original              : 2022:11:02 12:54:16.698+01:00
Modify Date                     : 2022:11:02 12:54:16+01:00

[mrlimacz]

The whole thing was bugging me quite a bit so I did some test. Turns out a complete rescan corrects the time to actual local time (with no changes made to the original). I took a look at the photo table in the database and after a re-scan taken_at_local is updated to the correct value.

After initial indexing

After a full re-scan

Exiftool output of the original after re-index

$ exiftool -g -j -args -time:all IMG_3152.JPG 
[{
  "SourceFile": "IMG_3152.JPG",
  "File:FileModifyDate": "2022:11:10 06:14:00+01:00",
  "File:FileAccessDate": "2022:11:11 22:22:50+01:00",
  "File:FileInodeChangeDate": "2022:11:11 22:22:34+01:00",
  "EXIF:ModifyDate": "2022:11:02 12:54:16",
  "EXIF:DateTimeOriginal": "2022:11:02 12:54:16",
  "EXIF:CreateDate": "2022:11:02 12:54:16",
  "EXIF:OffsetTime": "+01:00",
  "EXIF:OffsetTimeOriginal": "+01:00",
  "EXIF:OffsetTimeDigitized": "+01:00",
  "EXIF:SubSecTimeOriginal": 698,
  "EXIF:SubSecTimeDigitized": 698,
  "Composite:SubSecCreateDate": "2022:11:02 12:54:16.698+01:00",
  "Composite:SubSecDateTimeOriginal": "2022:11:02 12:54:16.698+01:00",
  "Composite:SubSecModifyDate": "2022:11:02 12:54:16+01:00"
}]

[lastzero]

Problem might be how the built-in Exif parser and data from Exiftool interfere with each other the first time.

[mrlimacz]

It would be awesome if initial indexing would read the time correctly. Indexing may be a lengthy operation when you have a lot o pictures in a single folder, so I'd like to avoid that in the future :)

[lastzero]

We will improve this. It's Sunday, please give it a bit of time :)