Moving files from digital camera, date taken not saving

[ZForce915]

I'm wondering if someone can help me. On Win7 I'm having an issue where when I move the files from my Canon digital camera to the hard drive the date taken on the videos are not saving. It sets them at the time I moved them to the hard drive instead.

All of the files still on the camera are correct but none of the ones on the hard drive are. The photos seem to be just fine. Help?

 

[sminlal]

What are you using to move the files, and which date are you looking at? There are three dates you could be looking at:

- the last modified date. Windows Explorer shows this date by default in the 'details' view for a file. This date should be kept unchanged when you copy a file from one place to another by dragging and dropping in Windows Explorer.

- the creation date. You can see this by right-clicking on a file and selecting "properties", or by customizing the Window Explorer "detail" view. This date should be set to the date/time that you copied the file to your hard drive.

- the date in the internal JPG EXIF tags. This shouldn't be changed by any software.

 

[ZForce915]

What are you using to move the files, and which date are you looking at? There are three dates you could be looking at:

- the last modified date. Windows Explorer shows this date by default in the 'details' view for a file. This date should be kept unchanged when you copy a file from one place to another by dragging and dropping in Windows Explorer.

- the creation date. You can see this by right-clicking on a file and selecting "properties", or by customizing the Window Explorer "detail" view. This date should be set to the date/time that you copied the file to your hard drive.

- the date in the internal JPG EXIF tags. This shouldn't be changed by any software.

I am doing drag and drop from the camera to the desktop. The created, modified and accessed dates are all the same. In the properties of the file there are no other dates (this is a video, not a picture).

 

[sminlal]

Do you have the camera plugged into a USB port and you're dragging directly from it? I wonder if you'd have the same problem if you removed the memory card from the camera and plugged it into a card reader directly attached to the PC...

 

[ZForce915]

Do you have the camera plugged into a USB port and you're dragging directly from it? I wonder if you'd have the same problem if you removed the memory card from the camera and plugged it into a card reader directly attached to the PC...

The camera is plugged into the computer via a USB cable. It is a good point you make, in the past I was using a card reader to take pictures off the camera. I was able to find a solution, I used the import feature in windows and that worked great. The only problem I have with that is one video didn't copy and it wouldn't allow me to run the import again (said no NEW pictures). So that one video has the wrong time stamp.

So the solution seems to be use the import feature or (possibly) a card reader.

Thanks for your help.

 

[bchet]

I am having the same problem. This is new since new Dell laptop and Wndows 7 (had XP before). I really prefer to select files myself and copy/paste over auto importing and letting the software forget files without me knowing. Does anyone know why .mov files are not keeping the date taken info when copied to the HD?
Thanks.

 

[Unoentremil]

I don't understand how is it possible that Windows modifies the creation date when moving or copying files in Explorer, but this is exactly how the system behaves. A Microsoft's mistake, in my opinion. Very annoying.
I have found that the only solution is not using Explorer to copy / move files if I want to keep the date stamp. I use XYplorer or Goodsync (for synchronization and backup). These tools keep the dates untouched.

 

[skyrail]

I had the same problem for many years, asking me where the hell was that damned date_taken on video files, not showing in windows explorer.
But I have processes which still need camera pictures and videos to be sorted on true date modified/created (ie: date taken set by the camera)
I made some searches, and discovered mediainfo gives you such info, but exiftools is even better and works for pictures as far as videos, with full details.

You have to understand, the date modified and created may be modified after move or copy to another volume. Only date taken is trustable.

Some tools like supercopier or far manager may keep all those dates on copy.
But sometimes, date taken differ from date modified, even on the camera.
Keep that in mind.