SUMMARY If metadata date tags are found originally with timezone offset, it should also stored again with the same offset. OR it should be possible to configure this globally or per tag. Including which tags should use UTC timestamps. STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Start with a picture with timestamps like this: [XMP:XMP-photoshop:Time] Date Created : 2024:10:28 21:37:26Z [XMP:XMP-exif:Time] Date/Time Original : 2024:10:28 22:37:26+01:00 [XMP:XMP-xmp:Time] Create Date : 2024:10:28 22:37:26+01:00 [XMP:XMP-xmp:Time] Modify Date : 2024:10:28 22:37:26+01:00 [EXIF:ExifIFD:Time] Date/Time Original : 2024:10:28 22:37:26 [EXIF:ExifIFD:Time] Offset Time Original : +01:00 [EXIF:ExifIFD:Time] Create Date : 2024:10:28 22:37:26 [EXIF:ExifIFD:Time] Offset Time Digitized : +01:00 [EXIF:IFD0:Time] Modify Date : 2024:10:28 22:37:26 [EXIF:ExifIFD:Time] Offset Time : +01:00 [XMP:XMP-xmp:Time] Create Date : 2024:10:28 22:37:26+01:00 [XMP:XMP-xmp:Time] Metadata Date : 2024:10:28 22:37:26+01:00 [XMP:XMP-xmp:Time] Modify Date : 2024:10:28 22:37:26+01:00 2. Add a tag with Digikam (timestamp checkbox enabled under Metadata Behavior). Apply and sync if you have lazy sync enabled OBSERVED RESULT 3. All offsets are stripped except in the 3 offset tags and even worse, the one TS with UTC time was also updated to local timezone: [XMP:XMP-photoshop:Time] Date Created : 2024:10:28 22:37:26 [XMP:XMP-exif:Time] Date/Time Original : 2024:10:28 22:37:26 [XMP:XMP-xmp:Time] Create Date : 2024:10:28 22:37:26 [XMP:XMP-xmp:Time] Modify Date : 2024:10:28 22:37:26 [EXIF:ExifIFD:Time] Date/Time Original : 2024:10:28 22:37:26 [EXIF:ExifIFD:Time] Offset Time Original : +01:00 [EXIF:ExifIFD:Time] Create Date : 2024:10:28 22:37:26 [EXIF:ExifIFD:Time] Offset Time Digitized : +01:00 [EXIF:IFD0:Time] Modify Date : 2024:10:28 22:37:26 [EXIF:ExifIFD:Time] Offset Time : +01:00 [XMP:XMP-xmp:Time] Create Date : 2024:10:28 22:37:26 [XMP:XMP-xmp:Time] Metadata Date : 2024:10:28 22:37:26 [XMP:XMP-xmp:Time] Modify Date : 2024:10:28 22:37:26 EXPECTED RESULT Offsets and timezone should be preserved. SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Windows: 11 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
First of all, it would be wrong to simply adopt the existing time offset, because this could also be wrong if you have to correct the date. Maik
@Maik I suppose you are right. I'm more asking for configuration options, so my scripted prep of date fields (with exiftool) are not overwritten. Especially if I do not touch the date fields. When date fields are touched, it might also be interesting to default the timezone to what was registered originally, but with ability to change it. A further extension could be to use of GPS coordinates as an option to auto suggest timezones (which may require a paid service). /Chris
Additional comment. I could solve this by unchecking "Configure Digikam" -> "Metadata" -> "Behavior" -> "Write This Information to the Metadata" -> "Timestamps" However, I had a bug with that, which caused no metadata to be updated at all inside the files. It was consistently and persistently not saving metadata to some files. But when I was writing up a bug report and made a minimum reproduction, I could not find a way to reproduce the error. So I'm still working on that, but even so... I'd still like any timestamp metadata edited in Digikam to be saved in the files, I'd just like to decide which tags to update and which tags should have timezone info and which tags should be stored in UTC time.