Moments vs Photos

[Rusty]

Any eta on the release of DSM 7 and The new photos app?

From what Synology is saying on their community site, looks like we will be getting at least one more beta in a short while, and then it's anyone's guess. Before it was 3 months per beta (2 beta versions) and then the final version. Now we have beta 1 already 6+ months and another is coming. Getting DSM7 final by the end of this year is, I would say, optimistic.

 

[dlennard]

You will come across another issue common to both moments (DSM6.2x) and Photos (DSM7)

Unless your photo or video has XMP timestamp tags then the timeline view in Moments shared album, and Photos shared space, will sort by the date/time when the file was copied to the shared space, NOT the creation date. Obv this plays havoc with the timeline view, and even more so with a merged space when several users are copying files to the shared area. Synology support have confirmed that they recognise this as their application workflow and have no current plans to change it. Truly sucks - as an example my Samsung SE20 saves photos with the XMP tag but not videos. It's ok in my User album, but obv all wrong after copying to the shared space.

 

[Telos]

Nice article in Ars Technica describing self-hosted photo management solutions. Check it out.

 

[dlennard]

Nice article in Ars Technica describing self-hosted photo management solutions. Check it out.

yuh was good, but I bet that a lot of people will be disappointed that their pet favourite (such as Piwego) wasn't included.

 

[Telos]

a lot of people will be disappointed that their pet favourite (such as Piwego) wasn't included.

Piwego got "honorable mention". But if your favorite is missing from the list, it may be time to compare it with others.

 

[WST16]

Unless your photo or video has XMP timestamp tags then the timeline view in Moments shared album, and Photos shared space, will sort by the date/time when the file was copied to the shared space, NOT the creation date.

This will complicate things! Didn’t know about this as I didn’t use moments beyond a quick check but I was planing to try the new Photos.

What if the file name is the correct date (extracted from the EXIF data), would that work?

 

[dlennard]

This will complicate things! Didn’t know about this as I didn’t use moments beyond a quick check but I was planing to try the new Photos.

What if the file name is the correct date (extracted from the EXIF data), would that work?

No. It has to be an XMP tag

 

[fredbert]

If the worst comes to the worst you could check out ExifTool and see if there is suitable [cost, usability, platform] application that uses it, or run it from the command line. You should be able to manipulate filename, and file and tag dates provided you have some way of knowing the target date (from another source: file, tag, folder structure).

XMP Tags

 

[WST16]

No. It has to be an XMP tag

That’s not very convenient considering that most cameras (that I know of at least) write EXIF info!
I think I won’t waste my time trying it now then. Thank you for confirming.

-- post merged: 3. Jul 2021 --

If the worst comes to the worst you could check out ExifTool and see if there is suitable [cost, usability, platform] application that uses it, or run it from the command line. You should be able to manipulate filename, and file and tag dates provided you have some way of knowing the target date (from another source: file, tag, folder structure).

XMP Tags

I tried looking for an app that can batch-convert this by reading the EXIF and writing XMP to each photo in a given directory, but no luck so far (macOS).

 

[fredbert]

I tried looking for an app that can batch-convert this by reading the EXIF and writing XMP to each photo in a given directory, but no luck so far (macOS).

I just looked (early here so may have missed it) in GraphicConverter and it does do batch but so far I see you have to specify the date that you want to apply.

If I was going to use the command line tool in Mac then I'd try an Automator dropper application based on something like this (as I say, it's early so best test the command syntax first before going 'all guns blazing'):

Not sure if the 'Get Selected Finder Items' is needed as it'll be the same as the one you dropped on the app. Has never hurt having it.

 

[fredbert]

As I said, you should test the command before using it. I'd make a full copy of the photo library and work with that to generate the modified tagged files. First working on a small sample of files to see if it works.

My test, and I'm not saying I chose the right xmp and exif tags, seems to work* and will overwrite the original file with the updated tags files:

$ exiftool -exif:CreateDate *.JPG
======== NIKON_20210620_124328.JPG
Create Date                     : 2021:06:20 12:43:27
======== NIKON_20210620_124330.JPG
Create Date                     : 2021:06:20 12:43:27
    2 image files read
$ exiftool -xmp:CreateDate *.JPG
======== ./NIKON_20210620_124328.JPG
======== ./NIKON_20210620_124330.JPG
    2 image files read
$ exiftool -overwrite_original '-xmp:CreateDate<exif:CreateDate' *.JPG
    2 image files updated
$ exiftool -xmp:CreateDate *.JPG
======== NIKON_20210620_124328.JPG
Create Date                     : 2021:06:20 12:43:27
======== NIKON_20210620_124330.JPG
Create Date                     : 2021:06:20 12:43:27
    2 image files read

*work = adds the xmp tag. I haven't tested to see if Synology Photos/Moments does anything with it.

 

[WST16]

That’s nice. Worth exploring this option. Thanks @fredbert .