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About Changing EXIF JPEG Timestamp Information

The time and date that your digital pictures are taken is stored inside each picture file in a "meta-data" block called the EXIF meta-data.

Amongst other things, this information is used by photo management software including Apple's iPhoto and Aperture.

A Better Finder Attributes can read this type of information in many different picture file formats, but it can only change the timestamp of pictures in the JPEG file format.

More information about EXIF support in A Better Finder Attributes is available on this page.

There are a few situations where it can be desirable to change the EXIF timestamp (the time and date your pictures were taken) of existing photographs after they have been taken.

Chief of amongst these are:

  • the time and date was not set correctly on the camera
  • the pictures were taken in a different time zone
  • you have used two or more digital cameras and their clocks were not properly synchronized

As a consequence, your pictures may not sort correctly in photo management software such as iPhoto, Aperture, QPict, etc.

In these situations, A Better Finder Attributes will let you change the timestamp of your photo files (in JPEG format only) after the fact to correct the problem.

Unlike the other actions that A Better Finder Attributes performs, modifying the EXIF timestamp requires the program to modify the contents of the JPEG digital picture files.

This manipulation is fairly simple and should not usually result in any data loss, but the potential for damaging the files and thus rendering them unreadable/ unusable is real.

We do not want you to lose any data as a result of changing the EXIF timestamp. We highly recommend that you use this feature only on copies of your photo files and keep a backup of the original files for maximum safety.

You are using this feature at your own risk and discretion and we ask you to explicitly agree to these conditions of use by ticking the "I accept full responsibility for using this feature" checkbox.

A Better Finder Attributes will not perform the action unless you have ticked this checkbox.

We, of course, don't want to unduly alarm you. Keeping backups of your original files is a best practice in any event and we are (at the time of this writing) unaware of any circumstances where data loss has or is likely to occur. Nonetheless the possibility exists and we want you to be aware of it before using the feature.

A complete tutorial (with special reference to iPhoto) on how to change the EXIF dates of photos is available on our blog.