Restored whatsapp photos via Google Drive, all photos showing the same date, why is this?

[SilverRocket88]

Ok so, i unintentionally deleted my whole whatsapp media folder so i lost all my photos, however i had a recent backup on my google drive (nice added feature of whatsapp) and restored the photos after uninstalling and reinstalling whatsapp.

The recovery worked fine, however the photos are all showing the same date!?
For example a photo that was taken in November 2014 is showing as being taken 2 days ago...

Is there anyway i can recover the date information so my photos can be in order again?

Thanks

 

[Rukbat]

The date showing is the date last modified - which would be the date you restored them. (You need an app like Linux' "touch" to change the date on the files - I don't know if there's one available.)

 

[ManiacJoe]

There are two file dates: date created and date modified.
There are two photo dates: date taken and date edited.

A file browser app will most likely show you the file dates.

Any gallery app worth keeping will give you the option of sorting by any of those dates, or at least "date taken" and "date modified".

 

[SilverRocket88]

I'm using a file browser app "ES File Explorer" and even on there it just displays the "date modified", no option to view or see date taken...
Looks like the google drive back up had a part to play in this...

Any ideas?

 

[ManiacJoe]

Yes, file browsers on your phone are going to do that.

Try a picture gallery app like Piktures:
https://forums.androidcentral.com/e.../details?id=com.diune.pictures&token=r1GVMON7

 

[SilverRocket88]

Ok so i've download that app and its looks as though that date taken tag has been modified as this is what it displays on an old photo from last year...

 

[ManiacJoe]

Yes, that image is missing lots of its data.
The first thing I would check is to see if Whatsapp is removing the data when it sending them.

 

[SilverRocket88]

Yes, that image is missing lots of its data.
The first thing I would check is to see if Whatsapp is removing the data when it sending them.

Yeah ok i'll drop them a message.

 

[SilverRocket88]

Yeah ok i'll drop them a message.

Yes, that image is missing lots of its data.
The first thing I would check is to see if Whatsapp is removing the data when it sending them.

Ok so i've contacted the Whatsapp support team and they got back to me saying this;
///
##- WhatsApp Support -##

Hi,

Thanks for your message.

This could happen for two reasons:
1. The date reflected is the date the image was sent via WhatsApp, not the date the image was taken.
2. The new date reflected is the date the backup file that contained the images was restored.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Cheers,
Hans

WhatsApp Support Team
///


So it looks like i can't do anything about this then...

 

[Rukbat]

Ask them if Whatsapp does anything to the EXIF date. That has the date taken, and shouldn't get changed. Maybe someone will write an app that changes the modified date to the EXIF date.

 

[SilverRocket88]

Ask them if Whatsapp does anything to the EXIF date. That has the date taken, and shouldn't get changed. Maybe someone will write an app that changes the modified date to the EXIF date.

Ok will do.

 

[SilverRocket88]

Ask them if Whatsapp does anything to the EXIF date. That has the date taken, and shouldn't get changed. Maybe someone will write an app that changes the modified date to the EXIF date.

Ok will do.

They haven't got back to me about this... I am presuming they had no answer regarding the EXIF date. They responded pretty fast to my other emails, but with this one, it's been a month and they haven't got back to me... haha

So for now, all these images have the incorrect date and i can't think of any of other way of fixing it. I feel like i've exhausted my options. Oh well, nevermind

 

[Rukbat]

They haven't got back to me about this... I am presuming they had no answer regarding the EXIF date.

Strange - people who know computer photography (and I know computers, but I'm not a computer photography maven) know what an EXIF date is as well as they know what a birth date is. Maybe the people answering your questions aren't ready to face the people who gave them the answer to the first question.

So for now, all these images have the incorrect date and i can't think of any of other way of fixing it.

Oh, there is - if you had the touch program in the phone (it's Linux, but it's missing a lot of Linux' programs) - you just change the phone's date to the date you think you took the picture and "touch it" (run touch, giving it the picture file's name) and the modified date will be the current camera date. Then change it back to automatic when you've done all the pictures. (And touch is such a trivial program that anyone who can write an Android app could write it. Any takers?)

 

[ManiacJoe]

So for now, all these images have the incorrect date and i can't think of any of other way of fixing it. I feel like i've exhausted my options. Oh well, nevermind

If you are up for writing some programming script, you could copy the images to your computer, use a script to rename or change the date based on the EXIF data, then copy the images back to the phone.

 

[SilverRocket88]

Oh, there is - if you had the touch program in the phone (it's Linux, but it's missing a lot of Linux' programs) - you just change the phone's date to the date you think you took the picture and "touch it" (run touch, giving it the picture file's name) and the modified date will be the current camera date. Then change it back to automatic when you've done all the pictures. (And touch is such a trivial program that anyone who can write an Android app could write it. Any takers?)

That would require so much time and effort, plus i can't remember exactly when the photos were taken so it would just be guesswork.

 

[SilverRocket88]

If you are up for writing some programming script, you could copy the images to your computer, use a script to rename or change the date based on the EXIF data, then copy the images back to the phone.

I have no idea how to write a program script so this wouldn't work.

 

[SilverRocket88]

I'm over it now anyway, there's clearly no simple way of fixing this issue.

 

[aeontrek]

I'm over it now anyway, there's clearly no simple way of fixing this issue.

I noticed the date you seek is in the file's name (or title .... see post #6 of this thread). 20140419. ..... perhaps sort by file name will do the trick for you. There is also an app that will extract the date from the name if available and fix the image exif with that date. I'm a programmer and would write a script to do it quickly for myself if I needed it; but I realize that is not an option for everyone. Note I stumbled on this thread for other reasons regarding exif data, though. Hope this helps someone.

Regards, Nik

 

[ghostanime2001]

Ok so, i unintentionally deleted my whole whatsapp media folder so i lost all my photos, however i had a recent backup on my google drive (nice added feature of whatsapp) and restored the photos after uninstalling and reinstalling whatsapp.

The recovery worked fine, however the photos are all showing the same date!?
For example a photo that was taken in November 2014 is showing as being taken 2 days ago...

Is there anyway i can recover the date information so my photos can be in order again?

Thanks

I've come across your problem many many times...if you have a rootable phone, root it so you can play around with whatsapp media files (dont change the app settings though -- just media files). Secondly, send all your pictures as documents OR zip your media files and then send it to your contacts, sending pics, videos as documents preserves the original file size, date and timestamps and as well as resolution. if you want more info, just PM me, I would love to help you with things like this

 

[mustang7757]

I've come across your problem many many times...if you have a rootable phone, root it so you can play around with whatsapp media files (dont change the app settings though -- just media files). Secondly, send all your pictures as documents OR zip your media files and then send it to your contacts, sending pics, videos as documents preserves the original file size, date and timestamps and as well as resolution. if you want more info, just PM me, I would love to help you with things like this

This an older thread and that member you quoted hasn't been active since 2016