Android 7.0 problems with transfer of video to portable storage (SD card)

[201cgm]

Hello I have Android 7.0 Nougat on my 16GB phone. Today I was running out of space so I transferred my videos and pictures to the "portable storage" sd card.

Browsing my files now I see the photos taken as per their correct date they were taken on.

Browsing the videos it seems any videos I took since last transfer have been changed as if they were taken today i.e. creation date of file (today) is now the day the phone thinks the clips were shot.

I went into settings>>storage>>

I selected my SD card under 'portable storage'

On the top right menu the options are
New window
New folder
Show Internal Storage
Storage settings

Selecting 'storage settings' gives the options
Format. (not wanted)
Format as internal [not wanted as data on SD card not backed up]
Move media [only shows up if media stored on internal menu.... I.e. disappears from this menu after successfully moving media until next photo taken / stored on internal menu)

I selected this last option and successfully moved 2GB of photos and video to the SD card but as stated above the problem is that all migrated videos appear as if they were recorded today.

Is this a Nougat problem or am I doing something wrong.
Any easy way to fix recording date on the migrated videos on the SD card.

Thanks

 

[anon(238680)]

Welcome to the forums as a new member!

Is this a Nougat problem or am I doing something wrong.
Any easy way to fix recording date on the migrated videos on the SD card.

You have to remember android is not Microsoft (some would cheer at that) and PC conventions do not apply to how Nougat, or any mobile OS, works. There's been discussion on the same issue when copying files from the phone to a PC. No, you didn't do anything wrong.

I am not aware of any way to change the attributes of files in the Android world, easy or otherwise. Sorry. Also, be aware that SD cards frequently fail without warning. Be sure you have your media backed up

 

[ManiacJoe]

Media files have two sets of dates, which are not related to each other.

File dates - creation and modified dates. These are controlled by the android file system and work the same for all file types. Copying or moving a file from one storage area to another storage area will result in the dates getting changed to the time of the transfer. Android does not preserve the file dates during the transfer. Most would say this is a bad design decision by the Android developers.

Metadata dates - date captured and date edited, stored in the EXIF data of the media file. The capture date is recorded by the camera; the edit date is set by the last used picture/video editor app. Correctly written picture/video apps look at these dates. Wrongly written picture/video apps look at the file dates.

The photo and video files created by my phone use the capture date as the name of the file, thus sorting by file name is the same as sorting by capture date in all apps.

 

[201cgm]

You have to remember android is not Microsoft (some would cheer at that) and PC conventions do not apply to how Nougat, or any mobile OS, works. There's been discussion on the same issue when copying files from the phone to a PC. No, you didn't do anything wrong.

Thanks. Think I encountered similar when I [eventually] back up the sd card.

I found it strange, though, that the migration process was able to conserve the correct timestamp on photos but not for videos.

Thanks again

 

[201cgm]

Metadata dates - date captured and date edited, stored in the EXIF data of the media file. The capture date is recorded by the camera; the edit date is set by the last used picture/video editor app. Correctly written picture/video apps look at these dates. Wrongly written picture/video apps look at the file dates.

But I used Google photos app and prior to transfer the capture dates viewed correctly for photos and videos. After the transfer the same app has different date for videos but capture date for photos is correct. Is it a Google app problem or the same for other apps?

The photo and video files created by my phone use the capture date as the name of the file, thus sorting by file name is the same as sorting by capture date in all apps.

A quick check of the migrated files the shows that video names have the capture date.

Not the best solution but will be better than loosing capture date information

 

[201cgm]

I am not aware of any way to change the attributes of files in the Android world, easy or otherwise. Sorry. Also, be aware that SD cards frequently fail without warning. Be sure you have your media backed up

Thanks to the reports from PJRed2008 and ManiacJoe and a little more digging I think I cracked it!

On https://photos.google.com .....the backed up photos and videos had correct timestamp (apart from a few with multiple pictures... The ones which when you select erase ask
"Move to bin ...
All 2 Photos
Current photo only"
[e.g. Where rapid shutter captures 2 photos]

So I reckoned the correct info was there on the videos and duplicates on photos.google were not made/uploaded or were erased.

So back on my phone selecting Google photo app I selected a video (from 2 months ago) which the Google app says was from yesterday (the day I migrated media files from internal to portable storage). I selected the 'i' info button on the video and it gave the correct (capture) date of the video.

I tried rebooting the phone in case Google photos needed to update/resynchronization ....... That didn't work.

I am not aware of any way to change the attributes of files in the Android world, easy or otherwise. Sorry. Also, be aware that SD cards frequently fail without warning. Be sure you have your media backed up

But ....

Tried in Google photos app again... selected the video with incorrect creation date pressed 'i' ...
Headings :
Info
Add a description (blank field)
Calendar icon ..... With correct Storage Date
Storage Location Icon ....... With file path storage


So I changed the <<add a description >> field with the correct date and hey presto!!! Google photos now cataloguing the migrated video files on its correct capture date. (Others still incorrect).

Changing anything on the <<add a description >> field causes Google App to instantly file the video to the correct date.

I suspect the app is slowly getting through the migrated files and updating its own filing system index.... And as the video clips are biggest files those are the ones updated last.

Thanks again .

 

[anon(238680)]

Thanks again .

And thank you for being so diligent and reporting back your success That will surely help others who run into the same problem!

 

[201cgm]

Changing anything on the <<add a description >> field causes Google App to instantly file the video to the correct date.

Alas it is but a temporary fix !

I changed all the affected media files on my s.d. card (mainly video clips, repeated shutter photos, and pictures using front camera). I was pleased to see Google photos app having them now back in correct chronological order. Then .....

Today I accidentally selected eject SD card then remounted it. When I went back into it here wasn't Google cloud backing up all the photos on the phone and the sd card and now it's all back to square one.... Google photo app seeing the migrated videos (with their new description) but filing them as if the were taken on the day the files were transferred to the s.d. card.

 

[201cgm]

Phone time and the Google Cloud time are crazy! Definitely are not in synch. My phone operates on bst ( currently GMT+1) I took photos and videos yesterday 8th July (e.g. 11:30 p.m) and took photos on 9th July 00:59 and 9th July 1:02 a.m. and all of these photos are showing up as " Today". (8th July ) both on Google photo app and the cloud (photos.google.com).


It doesn't seem to be a problem with cloud photos stored in 2015 (obviously wasn't using Nougat then).

 

[201cgm]

Phone time and the Google Cloud time are crazy! Definitely are not in synch.

All photos on phone and now backed up on the Google cloud but all before and after midnight are showing up as "today" on both Google.com and my phone.

When each photo is viewed and the 'i' button is selected the correct time and capture date is visible on both google.com and my phone. (All grouped into 'Today')

Interestingly on google.com selecting the 'i' button the photos are classed as either "Yesterday" or "Today" followed by the capture time...... Whereas the same 'i' button on Google photos app on the phone displays "Saturday" or "Sunday" respectively followed by the capture time.

In the past I have experienced problems going online when a computer and router were not on same timeline.

Could time zone be Nougat problem?