Photo Properties Q

[sargan]

I notice on many pictures that Properties do not make sense. (well to me)

On W10 if I right-click to look at properties of a digital image ..... on many of them I see that Modification date is BEFORE the Creation date ?
Logically I would expect the earliest date could be the 'Creation date'

Attach such an example ..... anybody able to explain /educate ?

 

[Bionic]

Probably a silly question, but I assume you’ve checked the time and date are correctly set on the camera?

 

[Strodav]

Good trivia question. I've never really looked at it as I tend to open the image, right click then click on file info, which gives me date the image was taken, resolution and file size. If I had to guess, properties understand the jpg file format at takes information from the header to populate properties and doesn't use the date the file was created on your computer.

 

[Braineack]

As an Easter egg, a software package I work with a lot complies all the modified dates to be 10/26/1985 9:00PM.

 

[snowbear]

Metric system, I guess. 😉

Is the file (the one you are viewing the properties of) a copy?

It's not unusual for a copied file's creation date to be date the copy was made, and the copy's modification date be set to the original file's creation date.

 

[wfooshee]

By default, when Windows copies a file, the copy is "created" on the date it was copied, not the original file's creation date. I think there is a command line switch you can use with XCOPY to keep the original data.

If you go to the Details tab, you should see the original EXIF data which should show you when it was taken, and by what camera, what lens, the camera's setting, etc. Some of that may not be there for cell phone cameras.