POST /asset's fileCreatedAt not respected in UI

[j-christ]

I'm working on a sync app from apple photos to immich. One feature of apple photos is that you can change the date, but this does not update the exif data in the photo, only the date displayed in the UI.

Immich's POST /asset takes a fileCreatedAt parameter, and from what I can tell, it respects that parameter as far as the metadata store, as querying the asset returns that date.

However, if I submit a file which has a different date in the exif data than the fileCreatedAt parameter, the exif data is used in preference to the fileCreatedAt date in the UI.

How are we supposed to set a the date immich should use as the file creation date if not fileCreatedAt?

I could be wrong, but https://github.com/immich-app/immich/blob/main/web/src/lib/components/asset-viewer/detail-panel.svelte appears to be where the detail panel pulls its date display from, and it appears to prefer exif data:

let dateTime = $derived(
timeZone && asset.exifInfo?.dateTimeOriginal
? fromISODateTime(asset.exifInfo.dateTimeOriginal, timeZone)
: fromISODateTimeUTC(asset.localDateTime),
);

To test this, post any photo with an exif date, and use a different fileCreatedAt date.

I could work around this by creating a temporary intermediate file where I alter the exif date, but that should not be necessary.

Any suggestions?

[danieldietzler]

fileCreatedAt is not exif metadata. As the name implies that is file system metadata that's prone to be wrong or not sent in the first place (as it's not part of the file itself). https://github.com/immich-app/immich/blob/main/server/src/services/metadata.service.ts#L37-L49 is an (ordered) list of EXIF metadata Immich looks at.

[j-christ]

The point is that I want to set a date on upload which overrides the (incorrect) exif data. Is that possible?

…

On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 3:20 AM Daniel Dietzler ***@***.***> wrote: fileCreatedAt is *not* exif metadata. As the name implies that is file system metadata that's prone to be wrong or not sent in the first place (as it's not part of the file itself). https://github.com/immich-app/immich/blob/main/server/src/services/metadata.service.ts#L37-L49 is an (ordered) list of EXIF metadata Immich looks at. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#20945 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AE2MPZWLG2A6OB2DKAXZWIT3NWX5RAVCNFSM6AAAAACD644SYWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTIMJRGQ4TSOI> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[danieldietzler]

No it's not. EXIF metadata always takes precedence, which IMO is also the right decision. You can fix your assets before uploading with exiftool