"Taken" date for JPG and PNG files

[Jesse Heines]

Using Windows Explorer I can open the DCIM subdirectories (100APPLE, 101APPLE, etc.) on my iPhone to see the pictures I have taken. (DCIM is under "Internal Storage.") I can then hover my mouse over a picture (JPG or PNG) file and see its "Date Taken" time stamp.

When I copy those files to my Windows 10 system, however, the "Date Taken" property seems to sometimes be deleted or changed. I tried using @filedate and @filetime to get this data, to no avail. I tried using a, c, and w as the second parameter with both of these commands. None of these gives me the "Date Taken" that I see when I hover my mouse of the picture in a DCIM subdirectory on my iPhone.

I also note that when I look at the copied photos on my Windows 10 system using File Explorer the "Date Taken" property is not there. I looked at using the Windows robocopy command, but that does not allow me to access the iPhone internal storage. (Sigh.)

Is there any way that I can ( copy files from my iPhone to my computer and reliably maintain the "Date Taken" property? And if so, how can I access that property from Take Command?

Thank you,
Jesse Heines

 

[Charles Dye]

I believe you're looking at EXIF metadata. It's stored inside the file, separately from the file system's time stamp info.

I wrote a plugin once that could access that stuff. It's been a while since I tested it -- I don't know whether it still works with current versions of Take Command. But you're welcome to try it: ImageStuff Plugin

Alternatively, google "exif command line" and I'm sure there are numerous programs out there to display and manipulate EXIF tags.

 

[Charles G]

I use Advanced Renamer. Very cool software!

 

[Jesse Heines]

Thanks guys. Yes, it's exif data I'm looking for. I found Phil Harvey's ExifTool. That gives me the data I want, but not directly in a way that I can use it in a BTM file. I also discovered that if I download the pictures from my iPhone using the built-in Windows 10 Photos app, that preserves the original "Date Taken" time stamp as the file's time stamp. That solved my problem.

Thank you for your replies. I've been a TakeCommand user since before it was TakeCommand, that is, when it was 4DOS and 4NT. I even still have a copy of an email I sent to Rex Conn that says that I've been using it since 4NT version 3.01 in 1998! But man oh man, one never knows everything about any software, eh? Thank goodness for forums like this where "I get by with a little help from my friends."

 

[AnrDaemon]

Check the ImageMagick - it may have the tools you need.