Why are my portrait picture showing a date of 1969?

[Doug1029]

1969 date on camera pics (portrait only)

Hi,

The EXIM date/ time stamp seems to be incorrectly set by my Camera app depending on the phone position when taking the image!

I uploaded images to my PC and sorted by descending date. Some appeared to be missing. Then I sorted by the descending image name, which encodes the date/ time stamp, and they were all there. Very odd - images taken in portrait mode (phone upright) on or after Oct. 24th are dated 31 December 1969, midnight Universal Time. Earlier portrait pics (the most recent of which is dated Oct. 4th) show the correct date. All landscape pics have the correct date and time when taken.

The "Details" info shown by the standard Gallery app on the phone also shows the incorrect date/ time stamps for these portrait pics, but File Manager gives file dates that make sense (all Oct. 24th or later).

My first, kinda wild supposition was that a Motorola Camera upgrade between the 4th and 24th of this month had introduced a bug in the EXIF data assignments. My current version is 3.3.20.8; I get a properly dated portrait pic after reverting to the factory version, 3.2.14.1. But I also now get the correct date after re-updating to 3.3.20.8. But I still don't understand why the picture-taking position should have determined whether the date is incorrect.

Can anyone check this on their own Moto X?

Thanks in advance,
Doug
Moto X, Android 4.4.2, Republic WIreless firmware mods

 

[akin_t]

Re: 1969 date on camera pics (portrait only)

I have no such issue on mine.

In your signature I see that you're running 4.4.2 ... Could this be the cause? Seems you've played with the firmware of your phone.

 

[delrey1900]

Re: 1969 date on camera pics (portrait only)

In your signature I see that you're running 4.4.2

Good catch.

OP, is this original X or the new '14 X? If it's the original we can get it moved to the correct sub forum.