Hazel (date taken) is reading a date not in EXIF data

I'm not sure why the Hazel date taken is reading as 1969-12-31 when the EXIF capture date is set to a different (correct) time. Can I update some part of the metadata to force Hazel to recognize the time I desire? Thanks.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mdv4o0fro8mqui8/1969-12-31%20160000-225.jpg?dl=0

I think the EXIF data was stripped when you uploaded that file as I'm not seeing it here. It might be a shortcoming in how Hazel grabs that data. It will actually prioritize using the date it was geotagged (which for most modern cameras/phones is the same time it is taken). The reason for this is that that date is actually well specified with a timezone, something which the normal date taken does not have.

Can you email support with a copy of the file. Compress it first to maintain any metadata. I want to see whether that date is missing or actually set to 1969.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3jv6ysqggdg56xl/1969-12-31%20160000-225.jpg.zip?dl=0

That is straight off my Mac.

Actually, was able to get a clean copy by clicking "Download" instead of dragging the file out of the browser.

Looking at it, it seems that that date is actually recorded in the file:

Code: Select all: DateStamp = "1970:01:01";

Adjusted for your local timezone (if you are west of GMT) would give you the date you are seeing. What camera are you using to take/geotag these pics?

I'll need to look into whether that date is some default or something so I can treat is just as if that field didn't exist.

Sorry for the large photo, but that's what my EXIF viewer is showing me. I don't see anything about 1969 which I believe I has some UNIX significance.

Many of my photos such as this one (i.e. Instagram) are grabbed via IFTTT and put into my Dropbox. Because these lack "capture date" when created by Instagram, I have a job that sets the EXIF capture date to the file creation date. I am having Hazel use "date taken (hazel)" to rename and file along with my other legit photos that seem to have no problem. I have had to amend other legit photos' EXIF capture date and Hazel recognized the new date with no issues hence my confusion.

The date is in the geo tagging information which may not be covered by EXIF. I'll look into a way of ignoring dates with that value since it looks like it's the base UNIX date which timestamps are based off of.

Thanks for looking into that!

Just so I'm aware, what's the order of preference when you try and find a "date taken (hazel)" value? It sounds like you're looking at the GPS date, and then the file's Create Date? I was able to remove a GPS date/time from those files and Hazel sorted as expected - it is just not something I want to do for every file.

If you end up doing anything to ignore that 1970 date when would something like that go into a release?

It tries to use the GPS date because unlike other dates, it has a specified timezone. Unfortunately, other dates in the EXIF info were badly specified in the standard so there's no timezone information. Dates/times can be inaccurate as a result.

I can't say when such a fix will be in there. Most likely in the fall at this point.