Photos library - Timeline and Photos views sort videos incorrectly

General Discussions Plex Features
1

Hi everyone,

I have a question about adding video files to a “Photos” library. My initial observation was, for example, that if I take a picture on my phone at 5:00pm, take a video at 5:01pm, and take another photo at 9pm, the order of the items in a Plex photos library (timeline, or photos view) is always photo 1, photo 2, video 1. I’m primarily taking photos/videos on an iPhone 6 and a Galaxy S5.

After doing some digging into the actual file metadata of several video files using ExifTool from both phones, it appears that the FileModifyDate and FileCreateDate show information about the time, as well as the time zone. These fields are just the values the system uses. The QuickTime tag “CreationDate” (applicable to at least mp4 and MOV files) also has a time and a time zone.

So for a given video (mp4 or MOV), for example:
FileModifyDate, FileCreateDate (both system metadata fields), CreationDate (a QuickTime metadata field) = 2017:08:31 17:12:11-07:00
This is the correct time, and timezone (PDT) the video was taken.

QuickTime metadata fields:
TrackCreateDate, MediaCreateDate = 2017:09:01 00:12:12
TrackModifyDate, MediaModifyDate = 2017:09:01 00:13:05
The last two sets of fields are exactly 7 hrs ahead of the correct time taken.

Given these findings, it appears to me that when Plex is loading videos into a Photos library, it’s sorting by the time that’s 7 hrs ahead of when the video was actually taken. This causes some of the videos to appear as if they were taken on the following day in Timeline view and nowhere near the photos that were taken minutes before or after the video.

Can someone tell me what metadata is imported by Plex to determine how videos are sorted in the “Photos” library? (And “other videos” if you know that as well.) It seems like it’d make much more sense if Plex would use “CreationDate” instead, which would lead to correct placement of the videos near pictures that were taken close together in time.

If this could be fixed, that would be awesome and it’d make viewing my photos libraries even more enjoyable! Go Plex.

2

I should also add that in Timeline view, the same date will show up several times… right now, I have, with pictures+videos under each one, in the following order:

Aug 31, 2017 - 3 pictures
Sep 1, 2017 - 1 video (even though no videos were actually taken on this day)
Aug 30, 2017 - 1 video
Aug 29, 2017 - 20 pictures
Aug 30, 2017 - 3 videos
Aug 28, 2017 - 5 pictures
Aug 28, 2017 - 2 pictures
Aug 27, 2017 - 2 videos, 5 pictures

I’m running the latest Plex Media Server version (1.8.2.4209) on my QNAP NAS.

3

Hi there,

I am trying to upload my whole photo library from iOS (9318 pics&vids), during night was 670 files uploaded, since then - nothing. Pics are sorted so far ok, but all videos are put in one day (=today=day of upload), although file name and stamp is somewhere in 2012. Every attempt to continue sync ends up on so far biggest video file (cca 772MB) - it seems that in both cases videos are not sorted correctly and this part of plex is still suffering baby diseases… Should I start new thread or can we both get answer from some guru at once ? :smile:

4

I think this likely stems from the same problem. I am using the Photosync app to upload to my NAS.

5

Thanks - i will discuss this with the development team

6

@martyzeq said:
Hi there,

I am trying to upload my whole photo library from iOS (9318 pics&vids), during night was 670 files uploaded, since then - nothing. Pics are sorted so far ok, but all videos are put in one day (=today=day of upload), although file name and stamp is somewhere in 2012. Every attempt to continue sync ends up on so far biggest video file (cca 772MB) - it seems that in both cases videos are not sorted correctly and this part of plex is still suffering baby diseases… Should I start new thread or can we both get answer from some guru at once ? :smile:

That is a lot of pictures to upload. You may need to ensure the app is in the foreground with camera upload in settings on display to help it along. The normal background uploading which uses iOs background functionality is very slow

If your issue is to do with uploading Please do raise separate issue if you have any further problems. It has no relevance to timeline view sort order

If the issue is to do with sort order, please continue here

7

I have managed to reproduce the problem
From the 5 exif tool date/time values, only the last one is correct

Track Create Date               : 2017:09:01 11:44:51
Track Modify Date               : 2017:09:01 11:44:58

Media Create Date               : 2017:09:01 11:44:51
Media Modify Date               : 2017:09:01 11:44:58

Creation Date                   : 2017:06:19 17:58:23+01:00

Also the windows Last modified date/time was right - although does not have time zone offset
I have raised this as an issue now with the development team

8

Great, thanks so much!

9

Plex Media Server Beta Release 1.10.1.4561 has been released and it includes a fix for video uploads that were getting the wrong date

See Release Notice http://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1569828/#Comment_1569828

  • (Photos) Videos added via Camera Upload have the wrong date on iOS (#7517).

A Library Analyze action would be needed to correct the dates for already uploaded videos
See https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200392106-Library-Actions